January 2025.
While visiting Newark, I deemed one final building worthy of its own post, after Louis Sullivan’s Home Building Association Bank (why I visited in the first place) and Licking County’s courthouse--the old county jail. I didn’t know any of its history when I took pictures, just that it was a cool Richardsonian Romanesque building, but it was actually designed by prominent Columbus architect Joseph W. Yost (of the firm Yost & Packard).
The Licking County Sheriff’s Residence and Jail is located at 46 S 3rd Street in downtown Newark. It is bordered by Canal Market to the north, Penn Station Park to the south, S 2nd Street to the east, and S 3rd Street to the west.
History
The Licking County Jail was built in 1889 as the county’s fourth jail. It was designed by Joseph W. Yost, a successful Columbus architect, in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. Its coloration is rather odd and appears as the inverse of a Richardsonian Romanesque building--typically, they are of lighter stone with dark voussoirs/lintels, however, it is the opposite here. The Licking County Jail uses brownstone quarried from Millersburg, OH, located about 60 miles north of Newark. Overall, the building’s construction cost $120,000.
The western mass of the building was designed to house the county sheriff and his family and jail matron, while the eastern portion holds 32 jail cells, which had an official capacity of 68 prisoners (though this was apparently exceeded at times). The first resident was sheriff Andrew Crilly.
The jail is most infamous for its role in the murder of Carl Etherington in 1910. Etherington was a detective in Ohio’s Anti-Saloon League (this was during Prohibition) who was in Newark to find illegal alcohol in speakeasies. While raiding William Howard’s saloon, Etherington shot Howard in self-defense, and he was taken to the jail. Newark residents formed a mob, which broke into the jail. Etherington was brought to Courthouse Square and the mob hanged him from a telephone pole at the corner of S Park Place and 2nd Street. After the governor intervened, 58 mob members were charged: 25 with first-degree murder, 21 with rioting, 10 with assault and battery, and 2 with perjury.
The Licking County Jail served as the county jail until 1987, when it relocated to the east side of the Licking River along Main Street. It has held various government offices since, and today it is owned by Licking County’s preservation society, who restored the building. The jail is a contributing property to the Downtown Newark Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is currently operated as a museum and haunted house.
Photos
The Licking County Jail is a pretty typical Richardsonian Romanesque building in all regards except its coloration. Looking southeast, you can see how the dense massing makes it look like a brick slammed into the ground:
The front facade is pretty regular in organization and has a central entrance, but its fenestration varies. Also note the towers.
These windows are almost certainly replacements--I doubt the central one on the second floor would have originally had such little glass.
I like Yost’s various capitals across the building. Here are the ones on the porch:
More capitals and some stained glass:
The ones on the turret’s arcaded windows are cool too.
The south facade:
Note how the more irregular residence area yields to the repetitive jail wing.
The east end is very small and bare. It faces a parking garage and probably wasn’t meant to be viewed:
The north facade was tougher to get because I couldn’t get as far away. It’s largely the same as the southern one, minus the addition of a turret:
Some more ornamental springers:
I could probably publish one of those coffee-table photography books called “The Voussoirs of Romanesque Revival Architecture” or something similar and sell a million copies.
I think the jail holds tours, though I didn’t go inside. The “haunted jail” thing is a little kitschy, but I’m glad that Newark is preserving the building and making sure it’s still used.
Sources:
Ohio Historical Marker on-site
https://ohio.org/things-to-do/destinations/licking-county-historic-jail
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