{"nrhp_refnum":"97000816","name":"Mercer County Jail","other_names":["The Slammer Restaurant","The Great Escape Bed and Breakfast"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"309 S. College Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Aledo","county":"Mercer County","state":"IL","lat":41.199323725000056,"lon":-90.74965001699996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1997-07-25","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Law","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"The Mercer County Jail is a Tudor Revival brick building at 309 South College Avenue in Aledo, Mercer County, Illinois, built in 1909 to a design by Moline architect Clair F. Drury and constructed by Harney Brothers. It combined a county jail with the sheriff's residence.","why_significant":"The building was the county's third jail, funded without a property tax increase, and it combined a correctional facility with the sheriff's family home. It retains its original cell blocks, padded cell and infirmary. The surviving text does not state the criteria, but it stresses the architect, the Tudor Revival design and the building's role in county government.","narrative":"Built in 1909 on College Avenue in Aledo, directly across from the county courthouse, this Tudor Revival building served Mercer County as both a jail and the sheriff's home. Moline architect Clair F. Drury designed it, and Harney Brothers of Aledo built it from dark red brick and cream-colored glazed terra cotta shipped by rail from Brazil, Indiana. Stewart Jail Works of Cincinnati installed the cells. The sheriff's family lived in the east half, while the west half held cell blocks for juveniles and women, an infirmary, a padded cell and a solitary confinement room. It was designed for 35 inmates and cost about $30,000, paid without raising property taxes. It replaced an 1870 stone jail that a grand jury had found unsanitary. The building later became a restaurant and bed and breakfast, and it keeps much of its original exterior, woodwork and cell fittings.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Architect Clair F. Drury (Whitsitt and Drury, Moline); builder Harney Brothers Company of Aledo; cell ironwork by Stewart Jail Works Company, Cincinnati","architectural_style":"Tudor Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Converted to The Slammer Restaurant and The Great Escape Bed and Breakfast; the former cell blocks are used for restaurant seating and the sheriff's family bedrooms serve as bed and breakfast rooms.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:37.330947-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/33/8937/28893733/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/97000816.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/97000816/dbd0316719-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/97000816/dbd0316719-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Boscophotos","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Image_County_Jail.jpeg\" rel=\"noopener\">Boscophotos</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:Image_County_Jail.jpeg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"16000328","name":"Downtown Aledo Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/illinois/downtown-aledo-historic-district-16000328/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28893733","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercer_County_Jail","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q23302815"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/mercer-county/mercer-county-jail-97000816/"}