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
*Brown, Theodore M. ''An Introduction to Louisville Architecture''.
{{Authority control
Government buildings completed in 1905
Buildings and structures in Louisville, Kentucky
Local landmarks in Louisville, Kentucky
Government of Louisville, Kentucky
Jails on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky
County government buildings in Kentucky
National Register of Historic Places in Louisville, Kentucky
Jails in Kentucky
Chicago school architecture in Kentucky
1905 establishments in Kentucky