Photo Gallery: Old Pickens County Jail
The old jail sits at the "edge" of town, and shares land with the
Kirby-Quinton Cabin.
Marker text:
This 1906 jail was built to replace the old rock jail that
stood behind the courthouse. The rock jail had replaced the first county
jail, a two-story log building. Dr. William B. Tate urged the construction
of the jail as a grand juror and on two Citizens Committees. The architects
were J.W. Coluke and Co.; contractors were William L. Landrum and Son. The
steel work was installed by the Pauly Jail Co. of St. Louis, Mo.,
specifically by Luthor Cartwright, who while here married and, eventually
settled in Jasper. He later supervised construction of the pink marble
mansion in Tate. The work on the front of the jail was done by Lee W.
Prather, a local stone worker, using marble from the Delaware Quarry at
nearby Marble Hill. The Delaware Quarry was opened c. 1840 by pioneer marble
entrepreneur Henry Fitzsimmons.
The jail still has a gallows
(non-functioning) although no one was ever executed on this device. The most
regular residents of the jail were the sheriffs and their families, who
lived here rent free. The jail was ordered closed by a federal court order
in 1980. The well in the rear, now filled in, provided water for the
hundreds of people who came to Jasper for singing conventions.
112-6 Georgia Historic Marker 1986
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