{"nrhp_refnum":"00001389","name":"Spalding County Courthouse-Spalding County Jail","other_names":["Old Spalding County Courthouse"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"232 E. Broad St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Griffin","county":"Spalding County","state":"GA","lat":33.24977764700003,"lon":-84.26057611599998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2000-11-22","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Politics/Government"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story, painted-brick Italianate building at 232 East Broad Street in Griffin, Spalding County, Georgia, built in 1859-1860 as the county courthouse and converted to a jail in 1914.","why_significant":"It is one of fifteen surviving antebellum Georgia courthouses and a rare example of Italianate style in antebellum Georgia. It is the known work of builder David Demarest and architect Columbus Hughes, and it retains early 20th-century Pauley Jail Works cells. It also served as the county's only courthouse from 1860 to 1914 and its only jail from 1914 to 1984.","narrative":"Built in 1859-1860 at 232 East Broad Street in Griffin, this two-story painted-brick building served first as the Spalding County Courthouse. Columbus Hughes drew the plans and David Demarest built it for a bid of $12,000. Its Italianate character shows in the gabled roof, pedimented facades, flat brackets and metal window hoods with egg-and-dart and acanthus ornament. It is one of fifteen antebellum courthouses surviving in Georgia. Deeds, taxes, estates, marriage licenses and Superior Court sessions were handled here until a new courthouse opened in 1911. In 1914 the building was converted to a jail, losing its central tower and gaining brick porches and a two-level steel cell block from the Pauley Jail Works of St. Louis. That cell block remains on the second floor. The jail served the county until 1984, and the building has since housed county offices. It was listed for its role in local government and for its architecture.","period_of_significance":"1860-1950","architect_builder":"Hughes, Columbus; Demarest, David; Pauley Jail Works Co., St. Louis, Mo.","architectural_style":"Late Victorian/Italianate","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"Used for various county offices since the jail and sheriff's department moved out in 1984; owned by Spalding County, with hopes for rehabilitation as a museum and archives.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:43.40111-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_GA/00001389.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00001389/3304f94863-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/00001389/3304f94863-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Timkemp","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spalding_County_Courthouse-Spalding_County_Jail.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Timkemp</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:Spalding_County_Courthouse-Spalding_County_Jail.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/93209473","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spalding_County_Courthouse","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q17041110"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/georgia/spalding-county/spalding-county-courthouse-spalding-county-jail-00001389/"}