Currituck County Old Jail
Thursday the 31st December 1767
"On motion the following Bills were ordered to be read ... A Bill to impower the justices of Currituck County to build a prison pillary and stocks in the said county on the lot were the Court House stands for the use of the said county, in the Upper House read the third time and passed. Ordered to be engrossed."
The construction date of the "Old Currituck Jail" remains uncertain. Though there was mention of a jail as early as 1767 when the general assembly passed an act "to empower the Justices of Currituck to build a new prison pillary and stocks," there is no evidence that the present jail dates from this early period.
The jail, believed to have been constructed ca. 1820, is one of the oldest extant jails in North Carolina. The small, three-bay jacobean influenced brick jail is a sturdy two-story, rectangular building laid up in common bond with brick walls thirty-two inches thick. The pedimented gable roof has parapets and a corbelled brick cornice extending along the eaves. Stone lintels surmont the windows and doors.
Remodeling done in the early 1900's enlarged the windows and replaced the original wood door with the present iron one.
Marker is on Courthouse Road (North Carolina Route 1242) near Caratoke Highway (North Carolina Route 168), on the right when traveling north.
Courtesy hmdb.org
