The Jefferson County Jail is a historic structure in central

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Built in 1905 in the Chicago style of architecture, it was designed by D.X. Murphy & Bros. It comprises two wings: the western, built as

cell Cell most often refers to: * Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life Cell may also refer to: Locations * Monastic cell, a small room, hut, or cave in which a religious recluse lives, alternatively the small precursor of a monastery w ...

blocks, and the eastern, which originally housed offices. A system of corridors was used to separate male and female prisoners and black and white prisoners.Langsam, Walter E. ''National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Jefferson County Jail''. National Park Service, 1973-06-01. In 1983, the jail was converted into an office complex. Among its tenants are the offices of the Commonwealth's Attorney, the office of the Circuit Court Clerk, and the Jefferson County Public Law Library.Paranormal Investigators Visit Old Jail Building, Commonwealth's Attorney's Office
Office of the Commonwealth's Attorney, 2008. Accessed 2009-09-30. While prisoners are no longer held in the jail, it is still significant as a leading example of public-works architecture. Its structure has been admired by many leading architects, including the renowned Finnish-American

Eero Saarinen Eero Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1910 – September 1, 1961) was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer noted for his wide-ranging array of designs for buildings and monuments. Saarinen is best known for designing the General Motors ...

. In 1973, the jail was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

for its architectural significance.

References

Further reading