Don't you wish that is the size jail we need today?  So how many nights did you spend in that place?

It's cute!  I love these old pics of yesteryear.  I wonder what they had to do if it caught on fire.

Ahhhh, home sweet home, that is where I met Steve!

Dick, you need to be teachin' not insultin'.................

Schrader Inc., I guess there'd be some bad results in case of a fire.  I don't believe anyone on "Mayberry" stayed all night to let Otis out if the jail caught on fire, did they?  Good question.

Charles, I knew you grew up in a classy house.....you're just a classy fellow.....that's why you get featured so much.

That is an amazing place. I could see someone convert it into some grand!

I bet being in jail with no air was not that pleasent though...

Your Friend in Charlottesville!

Charles, thanks for looking at our jail! 

This is one of the photos taken by my wife, Paula Windsor Peacock, in 1946 as part of a Girl Scout Merit Badge on Photography. I would post a web link for all the pics but this comment box won't allow html links.

I'll forward the link to Barbara if anyone is interested in seeing the photos. My uncle Doyle worked in this jail as a jailer in the 1950s. It's interesting how he got the job.

He was familiar with the facility because he had spent a few nights there for over celebration after havinga few too many brews at the Sunrise Cafe. He worked there about 2 years and left after he was over powered and beat up during a jail break.

He has some interesting stories about the tenants of this fine instutition.

The sign to the left of the picture (right of the door) gives the visiting hours.

Yes, I would think it would be VERY hot up in those 2nd floor cells, but after all, they are "evil doers" as our president would say so don't deserve all the plush treatment they seem to get today: air conditioning, 3 squares.    I have known, though, that the jailer's wife cooked for the jailed and that she really was a good cook, and using fresh garden vegs. in the summer. Corn bread, yeast rolls.   Nothing better than an Arkansas tomato grown in Searcy soil and ripened by Searcy sun. 

Don, thanks for the info.  Paula did such a good job with that camera.  She could turn out to be the next Disfarmer if she'd gather all those photos and market them!  So the building was still there in 1946.  She may have the only photo of it.  Uncle Doyle was a scream!!

Anita, interesting!  I couldn't read the sign.  Yes, many folks have it better in jail than out on the streets.  These old stories are so interesting.

Barbara, old construction (even though it's a jail) is great, I'm sure the new jails don't look that nice. they should hang pictures on the inside so that the inmates feel good about where they're staying :-)

Peter, this looks like a Northern house, doesn't it?  Thanks for comments.

In the late 40's, after the jail was not used any more, we had a newspaper drive for the Boy Scouts. We used the old jail building to store the take.  Well, the market was slow for old newspapers at that exact time and before we could sell the scrap newspapers there came a hard rain and, with the windows all broken out by that time, the papers got soaked and created a real mess.  For the life of me, I can't remember how we ever got it cleaned out but guess we did.

I love looking at these old photographs. There are homes in St. Paul that resemble that type of brick construction. It reminds me of The Home of the Good Shepherd, which probably is long gone by now, but was a sort of a glorified reform school in St. Paul for trouble makers. I seem to recall taking the bars off the windows and leaping out a second-story window in the middle of winter. Without a coat.

Elizabeth, thanks for looking.  The kitchen remodel will be a miracle to be finished in two weeks!  But starting from scratch, which is what they are doing, maybe is not an actual remodel.  It's a new kitchen!  You were at St. Paul's for trouble makers???  Took the bars off????   WOW!