The Old Scott County Jail is a historic former county jail at 125 West 2nd Street in
Waldron, Arkansas
Waldron is a city in Scott County, Arkansas, United States. Its population was 3,386 at the 2020 census. The city is the county seat of Scott County.
History
Waldron was platted in 1845 by surveyor W. P. Waldron, and named for him. A post offic ...
. It is currently home to the Scott County Historical and Genealogical Society. The building is a two-story structure, built of
fieldstone
Fieldstone is a naturally occurring type of stone, which lies at or near the surface of the Earth. Fieldstone is a nuisance for farmers seeking to expand their land under cultivation, but at some point it began to be used as a construction mate ...
covered in concrete, with a flat roof and a stone foundation. It has a single entrance, which has sidelight windows, and its windows now have decorative shutters rather than iron bars. The jail was built in 1907–08, and was used for its original purpose until the 1930s, when it was adapted (with funding from the
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...
) for use as Waldron's public library. The library occupied the building between 1938 and 1947, and it was used for a time by local Boy Scout and Girl Scout organizations. It has housed the historical society since 1987.
The building 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 ...
in 2002.
See also
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References
Jails on the National Register of Historic Places in Arkansas
Government buildings completed in 1908
Buildings and structures in Scott County, Arkansas
National Register of Historic Places in Scott County, Arkansas
1908 establishments in Arkansas
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