Old Clarke County Jail
Exclusive site for High West Distillery Whiskey Tasting ticketholders only.
Please arrive 15 minutes prior to your seating time.
Historical Research and Compilation by Meghan Mundy
Photos by Matt Brewster, Marigold Solutions
Colonel Leon Henry Charbonnier designed the Old Clarke County Jail and Courthouse in 1875. A native of France with military training, Charbonnier was a distinguished professor of civil engineering and physics at the University of Georgia, where he also founded the School of Engineering. In addition to the jail and courthouse, he designed several other notable buildings in the Athens area, including Moore College.
Eaves, McGinty, & Company completed the construction of the Old Clarke County Jail and Courthouse in 1876. Architecturally significant, the building is the only surviving structure from the county government complex built between 1875 and 1876, marking the end of the Reconstruction Era.
The jail is a two-story, rectangular brick structure with stuccoed and scored exterior walls designed to mimic stone. The roof originally featured tin-covered eyebrow dormers, wavy dormers that protrude through the roof slope and contain windows. The lower floor of the jail is flush with the ground, leaving no exposed foundation. The building is equipped with five chimneys, each at varying heights and angles. The interior is framed with I-beams and features bowed ribbed iron vaults, with poured concrete flooring, both of which help to make the jail less vulnerable to fire. On the upper floor, the original walls and partitions have been removed to preserve the structural integrity of the aging building, though the original hanging trap door remains intact.
After the completion of the new Clarke County Courthouse in 1913 and the closure of the jail in the 1950s, the property was divided and sold. While the courthouse and jailer's house were demolished, the old jail remained standing and was repurposed as a warehouse. The Clarke County Jail was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 29, 1980, and designated a Historic Landmark on January 8, 1991.
In 1991, the Athens Regional Medical Center acquired the land where the Old Clarke County Jail sits and, in 1995, donated the building and a portion of the property to the Historic Cobbham Foundation.