HW 53, Dawsonville, Georgia. County/parish: Dawson.
Added to the National Register of Historic Places September 13, 1985. NRIS 85002083.
Part of County Jails of the Georgia Mountains Area TR (NRIS 64000127).
1 contributing building.Also known as:
The Dawson County Jail in Dawsonville, Georgia, also known as Old Dawson County Jail, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was built in 1881 and modified in 1931, 1974, and 1979. It was built by M.B. McGinty, a builder from Athens, Georgia.
The jail is a two-story 33 feet (10 m) by 26 feet (7.9 m) red brick, Italianate-style building with a hipped roof that used to be covered by "good heart-pine shingles laid 5 inches to the weather". The exterior walls are 13-inch (0.33 m) thick and its interior walls are 9-inch (0.23 m) thick.
It is the third building to be Dawson County's jail; the first, built in 1858, was destroyed by fire set by a prisoner in 1865 or 1866. The second jail, with wooden walls and floors, had a "criminal floor" which was noted in 1873 to be "fine", but the "debtor's floor" was "not secure".
(read more...)National Park Service documentation: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93205962