{"nrhp_refnum":"79001697","name":"Currituck County Courthouse and Jail","other_names":["Currituck County Jail"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"SR 1242","address_restricted":false,"city":"Currituck","county":"Currituck County","state":"NC","lat":36.45014891100004,"lon":-76.01653931599998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-05-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Historic - Non-Aboriginal","Architecture","Social History"],"significance_levels":["state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A county courthouse and attached early jail in the small seat of Currituck Courthouse, on Currituck Sound in Currituck County, North Carolina. The brick courthouse was built in stages (pre-1869 core, 1897, 1952), and the two-story brick jail is dated to about 1820.","why_significant":"The jail is argued to be one of the oldest surviving jails in North Carolina, with distinctive pedimented parapet gables and a corbelled brick cornice. Together with the courthouse, it is one of the few structures reflecting the county's early development. The nomination also ties it to the state's early penal system and to the construction of substantial public buildings in small rural county seats, and suggests the site may hold information on the early port and courthouse.","narrative":"Currituck Courthouse is a tiny county seat on the sandy shore of Currituck Sound, opposite the Outer Banks, and its principal landmarks are a brick courthouse and an attached jail. The courthouse grew in three stages: a pre-1869 two-story brick core, a major 1897 enlargement with a pedimented central pavilion and new interior, and a Neo-Colonial rear wing added in 1952 that also joined it to the jail. The jail is a small two-story brick building measuring 32 by 20 feet, with walls 32 inches thick, pedimented parapet gables, corner buttresses and a corbelled cornice. Local tradition says 1767, but two architectural authorities and stylistic evidence place it around 1820. It was listed as one of the oldest surviving jails in North Carolina and as a rare survivor of the county's early built environment, in a sparsely settled county with no town of its own. The surrounding village has only a little over a dozen structures.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"St. Louis Art Metal Company of St. Louis, Missouri (1897 courthouse remodeling contract)","architectural_style":"Jacobean influenced (jail); Neo-Colonial (1952 courthouse addition)","criteria":["A","C","D"],"status_note":"Marked as occupied and in fair condition, in government use; the jail interior has been completely reworked and the courthouse was redecorated in 1965 and extended in 1952.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:58:56.738354-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/11/7176/47717611/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NC/79001697.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79001697/2095837e08-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79001697/2095837e08-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Sarah Stierch","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_Currituck_jail_-_Stierch.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Sarah Stierch</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Old_Currituck_jail_-_Stierch.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/47717611","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currituck_County_Courthouse_and_Jail","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18206326"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/north-carolina/currituck-county/currituck-county-courthouse-and-jail-79001697/"}