I am out walking around downtown Newark (Ohio) a couple of weeks ago and I spy this huge black stone edifice.
Boy, did that bring back memories. I knew a guy who got locked up there many years ago. I stopped in to visit once. Went up the stairs to his floor, and at the landing there was a grill-like door. It was locked. Three or four feet farther in there was another door. As I recall, both doors had bars, like you would expect in a jail, but at least one of them was covered with a couple layers of different size mesh. The biggest opening would accommodate a pencil. I heard a story that a visitor had managed to smuggle some smokes into the jail by putting them inside straws and then hooking the straws together, end-to-end, by slipping the end of one straw inside the end of the next. By this method he was able to create a pole about four feet long that he was able to feed through the screen to his partner on the inside. What won't those kids think of next?
Kind of reminds me of something out of Harry Potter, except the sun is shining. I wonder what kind of stone is black, and whether the choice was intentional? Probably. Did not find anything on the net.
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As a jail, pretty nice looking. Much better than the modern universal poured-concrete-with-narrow-vertical-slit-window jails of today. This one has a lot of character.
As a building, rather formidable looking, in an early 20th century American gothic kind of way.
I used to work in that building. It is actually pink sandstone from Indiana. It has turned black due to the incredible amount of polution and crud in our air. As you can tell, it now is pretty much empty and falling into disrepair. I'd love to see somebody restore this building to it's original condition, but not likely in this 1 cow town.
Wow, someone who actually knows about this place read my blog. I'm impressed. And thanks!
Curious about the sandstone though. Who'd a thunk it?
I used to walk past that jail every day to work when I lived in Newark from 1981 to 1984.........
I had an uncle that worked and lived in the jail. There's talk from higher ups that they are looking into fixing it up. Maybe for tours. I voluneer for the Sheriff's office and love the old haunted jail.
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