Read time: 4 min.

I went on a mission to visit every historic courthouse in Indiana about a decade ago. Along the way, and especially toward the end, I began to notice how many old county jails survived as well. I only managed to take photos of a few of them, but I did stop in Greenfield for a look at Hancock County’s. The Second Empire structure remains impressive more than a century and a half after it was completed!

The jail I photographed was actually Hancock County’s fourth. The first, a modest one or one-and-a-half-story structure, stood near the northeast corner of Greenfield’s public square. Built in 1829 by Robert Davidson and Jacob Blackburn for the tidy sum of $104.50, it didn’t last long: its only inmate, John Hays, burned it to the ground in 1833¹.

By 1835, officials were determined to do better. They approved plans for a sturdier, single-story brick jail measuring seventeen by forty feet that featured walls a formidable twenty-six inches thick. Built just south of the courthouse, the new facility featured three rooms: one for debtors, one for women, and one for criminals². It wasn’t exactly luxurious -no jail really is- but it was built to last.

Still, Hancock County’s third jail, completed in 1852, was a step up in both size and security. The two-story, four-room building measured thirty-two by eighteen feet and was built like a fortress. Along with its doors and ceilings, the building’s six-inch floors were “thoroughly nailed with double 10-penny nails closely driven” to keep inmates from sawing or cutting their way out³! 

Unfortunately, Hancock County’s 1852 jail was already showing its age by the 1870s . Times had changed, and the community needed something bigger and more secure. Enter architect Charles H. Brown, who designed Hancock County’s fourth jail in 1871. The project didn’t come cheap: the original contract called for $32,900, but the final cost ballooned to more than $45,000 before the work was done! The result, however, was impressive: built in the Italianate style, the elegant structure served a dual purpose- its stately front housed the sheriff and his family, while the rear held the less fortunate souls sentenced to time behind bars.

In 1967, county commissioners took a first look at preliminary plans for a new Hancock County Jail. After nearly a century in service, at least six grand jury reports declared the old jail unfit for human habitation despite a remodeling project that occurred in the 1940s. Although the building was designed to accommodate up to seventeen prisoners, as many as twenty-five were crammed into the two cells and bullpen. Occasionally, inmates slept on the floor of a hallway⁵. 

The old jail began serving as the Hancock County prosecutor’s office in the 1980s. That’s what it housed when I stopped by, but it was later abandoned due to “rotting wood, harsh odors, and unsafe air quality⁶.” In 2022, businessmen Thomas Moore and Ronnie Riggs approached county commissioners to determine a plan to restore the structure. That’s important, because the old jail is one of the last Second Empire buildings in Hancock County⁷. 

It’s been a few years since I stood before the old Hancock County Jail, but it was hard not to imagine the stories its walls could tell. The building’s outlasted more than a century of progress and countless changes! Even if time hasn’t been kind to it, the jail and sheriff’s residence endure as a reminder that preservation isn’t just about saving old bricks- it’s about keeping our shared story visible. It’s easy for me to say, but here’s hoping the effort to breathe new life into this structure succeeds, so the landmark Hancock County Jail can once again stand not as a relic of confinement, but as a testament to endurance.

Sources Cited
1Binford, J. (1882).History of Hancock County, Indiana. King & Binford Publishers [Greenfield]. Book. 
2 Richman, G.J. (1916). History of Hancock County Indiana: Its People, Industries, and Institutions. William Mitchell Printing Company [Greenfield]. Book.
3 (See footnote 2. 
4 (See footnote 2). 
5 Commissioners View Plans for New Jail (1967, December 21). The Greenfield Republican. p. 2. 
6 Deer, K. (2023, April 29). County to Determine Fate of old Prosecutor’s Office. The Greenfield Daily Reporter. Pp.A1, A6.
7 (See footnote 6).