Old Jail Museum (Albion, Indiana)

 museum  Add category

www.noblehistoricalsociety.org/

Constructed in 1876 as a place of confinement for wrongdoers- both accused and convicted- and also as a home for Noble County sheriffs and their families, today the barred, crenellated, three-story brick and stone building one block west of the courthouse in Albion offers a unique glimpse into the county's past.

Converted from a jail to the Old Jail Museum in 1968, since that time it has been owned and operated by the Noble County Historical Society to preserve and display reminders of the history of Noble County since its creation in 1836.

From its heavily-barred cells to the stately front stairway sitting room and bedroom, the Old Jail Museum invites visitors to step back in time to a Noble County long ago.

On display are such items as children's toys, books, furniture, clothing, farm implements, medical instruments, weapons, appliances, kitchen utensils and a variety of other artifacts from long ago.

Pass through the heavy iron doors of the cell block and sense the despair and dread experienced by inmates when they clanged the door shut. However, all the locks and bars did not prevent young Marvin Kuhns, noted Noble County desperado, from escaping the jail three times in the late 19th century. Among the many exhibits are an automatic stamp dispensing machine invented in 1911 by a Noble County resident, a viola built by another Noble County native, one of the many stringed instruments he created for musicians all over the United States, and the tooth of a mastodon long buried beneath the ground in the western part of the county. The Old Jail Museum was entered on the National Register of Historic Places Dec. 27, 1982.