{"nrhp_refnum":"00000152","name":"Webster County Jails","other_names":["Old Jail","New Jail"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Unnamed city street at the jct. of Cass St. and Old Post Office Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Preston","county":"Webster County","state":"GA","lat":32.06669839800003,"lon":-84.53577111399994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2000-03-03","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Politics/Government"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Two historic county jails in downtown Preston, Webster County, Georgia: a one-story hand-hewn log Old Jail built c. 1856 and a two-story brick New Jail built c. 1910.","why_significant":"The jails are significant in architecture as intact examples of mid-19th-century and early-20th-century county jail construction. The Old Jail is one of only a few surviving wooden jails in Georgia. They are also significant in politics and government as the only two jails the county has ever built, and no prisoner is recorded as escaping from either.","narrative":"Two jails stand together on a one-acre parcel in downtown Preston, the seat of rural Webster County, Georgia. The Old Jail, built around 1856, is a one-story building of hand-hewn log timbers with weatherboard siding, a metal gable roof, barred windows and square nails driven into the interior surfaces for added security. It has been moved several times, always on or near the same property, and returned to its original spot in 1995. The New Jail, built about 1910, is a two-story brick building with concrete floors and one-foot-thick walls. Its steel cells and doors were made by Stewart Jail Works of Cincinnati, and it shows modest Late Victorian detail such as brick corbeling and an oculus window. Together they were listed for architecture and for their role in county government, as the only two jails Webster County has built. The Old Jail is among very few surviving wooden jails in Georgia, and the New Jail keeps its original cell blocks.","period_of_significance":"c.1856-1950","architect_builder":"Stewart Jail Works Company of Cincinnati, Ohio - Steel Cell components in the New Jail building","architectural_style":"Late Victorian: Victorian Eclectic","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"The Old Jail is used for storage, with county plans to restore it as a museum. The New Jail houses the Sheriff Department and holds prisoners temporarily.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:42.799033-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/00000152.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00000152/7fd7c1ff82-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00000152/7fd7c1ff82-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Rivers Langley; SaveRivers","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Webster_County_Jails;_Preston,_GA_(NRHP).JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Rivers Langley; SaveRivers</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Webster_County_Jails;_Preston,_GA_(NRHP).JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93209895","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webster_County_Jails","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q105805893"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/webster-county/webster-county-jails-00000152/"}