| OCR Text |
Show THE HISTORY BLAZER NECVS OF WAH'S PAST FRO. iM THE Utah State Historical Society 300 Rio Grande Salt Lake C i t ~ LT T8 4101 ( 801) 533- 3500 FAX ( 801) 533- 3503 Old Juab County Jail Preserves Law Enforcement History Bvnn. IN 1892, THE JUAB COUNTJYAI L IS HISTORICALLY SIGNIFICANT for - its central role in county law enforcement activities. Located adjacent to the county courthouse in Nephi, the county seat, it served as the principal jail in Juab County for over 80 years. Other jails remaining in Juab County include the Nephi City Building and Jail ( c. 1920s), and two jails in the mining town of Eureka- the c. 1892 courthouse/ jail building and the detached, c. 1900 city jail; both of those were listed in the National Register in 1981 as part of the Eureka Historic District. Relatively few late 19th- and early 20thcentury jails remain in Utah. The Juab County Jail with its two- story height and intact interior is one of the largest and best preserved. Nephi was established by Mormon pioneers in the 1850s and became the county seat in 1862. There are only a handful of other towns in Juab County, most of which are small farming communities. The major exception is Eureka, a mining town that had a population of several thousand during the 19th and early 20th centuries. A significant economic boom came to Nephi with the completion of the Utah southern Railroad in 1879, which connected the town with the major population centers and industries in northern Utah. Nephi prospered as a major shipping pint for livestock and other goods in central Utah during the 1880s and 1890s, earning the nickname ' Little Chicago" during those years. The county wurthouse and jails were constructed during that period. The rerouting of the main rail lines around Nephi in 1901 ended the local boom. The first known jail in Juab County was a one- story frame building located behind the old courthouse and direcly south of the present jail. It was built shortly after the county acquired the property in 1883 for use as the center of the county government. Probate judge Charles Foote supervised the construction. In April 1888 the Pauley Jail Building and Manufacturing Company of St. Louis installed heavy iron cells in the jail at a wst of $ 1,575. That same year the large, two-story courthouse was completed, replacing an older building on the property. Four years later the county decided to build a new jail in Nephi and awarded the $ 8,9 16 contract to the Pauley Jail Building and Manufacturing Company. The iron cells in the old wooden jail were to be removed and sent to Eureka for use in its new wurthouse/ jail. The Juab County Jail built in 1892 is a two- story rectangular brick building with a sandstone foundation and a hip roof. The only alteration of note is the c. 1915 addition of a concrete, basement- level heating plant and accompanying large brick chimney attached to the north side of the jail. The only door to the building is located on the east, facing the adjacent courthouse. The solid metal door and the metal bars on all the windows are original. The interior ( more) is also intact. The four cells on the main floor and four on the second floor are qnstructed of metal bars and sheet metal. The east half of the building consists of two sections: an open area which contains the entrance and the stairway to the second floor, and a group of four jail cells, two on the main Xoor and two on the upper floor. The west half of the building is separated from the east half by a wall and locking metal doors. It consists of a single room on each floor containing two cells set in the center of the room and surrounded by a perimeter walkway. The only alteration of note on the interior is the addition of modern plumbing fixtures. The jail continued in use until March 1974 when a new Tricounty Detention Center was opened in Nephi. The Juab County Daughters of Utah Pioneers acquired the jail and two adjacent buildings in the late 1980s as part of their museum complex. An important element of local law enforcement activities, jails are usually the only buildings in a community specifically devoted to law enforcement. County courthouses and city halls, though the seats of local government, serve a variety of other purposes and are significant in a broader sense. In this instance, the Juab County Courthouse has been substantially altered, so the jail is the only well- prese~ ed building in Nephi associated with county law enforcement activities. Jails also document both the technology of jail-building and the philosphy of incarceration that was accepted at the time of . their construction. This is especially true with the Juab County Jail, which is so well preserved on both the exterior and interior. See National Register file, Pfesewation Office, Division of State History, Salt Lake City. THEH ISTORYB LAZERi s p d u db y the Utah State Historical Society & d funded in part by a gnnt from the Utah Statehood Centennial Commission. For more information about the Historical Society telephone 533- 3500. |
