#converted jail

[hometoursandotherstuff]

The 1914 county jail on the Arkansas River in Ozark, AR hasn't sold and it's been back on the market for almost 3mos. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but I happen to love the deeper beauty in decay- you'll see what I mean. 3bds, 2ba, 2,512sqft. $600k. I would buy this, it's one of my favorites.

Some of us see beauty in decay, so if you like perfect walls, etc., this home isn't for you, b/c they left it mostly as they found it.

The main living area is an open living room/kitchen.

Not sure that I would've chosen white cabinets. The kitchen is a spacious area with chef's appliances.

There's counter seating, a dining room area, and a cute table for two.

Small terrace with a view of the lake and train going by. I grew up like this, so I don't mind trains.

Original cell doors.

They've got a workroom in here.

Bd. #3 was a cell.

At the end of the hall, or should I say cell block, there's a shower room. I'm not sure about the shower floor. Is it coated? If not, I would have to wear flip flops in here.

There's some graffiti on the walls and they preserved the inmate etchings in the former cells, too.

Look at the cell door in this bedroom.

Bd. #2. The bedroom's aren't very large, b/c they're former cells.

This is a nice foyer that leads to the primary bedroom.

It's the most spacious bedroom.

There's room for a sitting area.

Shower room #2.

The large room also houses the w/d.

On this floor is a sitting room with a bar.

This is a rooftop deck.

There's a patio on the back of the house.

The 1,537.67sqft lot has a buildable space next the house plus a metal shop. It also has unobstructed views of the river and bridge.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/209-W-River-St-Ozark-AR-72949/2068714482_zpid/

[hometoursandotherstuff]

This is insane! A couple, David & Yuge Bromley of Bromley & Co., turned an 1861 jail in Castlemaine, Vic, Australia into an estate. It's completely filled with their magnificent art collection (The diverse collection, also available for sale, spans 40 years, including Egyptian artefacts, Japanese ceramics, mid-century furniture, and over 100 artists' works). It has 11bds, 2ba, and is priced at $5M. You gotta see this one-of-a-kind property.

I'm not sure if this is the same entrance.

Can you believe all this stuff?

This entrance hall with the mezzanine doesn't look like a jail.

Love these chandeliers.

It's a massive home, but it's also a museum and tourist attraction.

I wonder how much this art collection is worth. It has to be millions.

How cool is this? Individual displays in the cells.

This would be the upper tier of cells. Art is everywhere.

Why would they want to sell this place and move all of this art. It must've taken a lot of work to convert it.

This looks a little dungeon-y.

I bet it takes a lot to maintain this place.

This looks like a snack bar.

Commercial industrial kitchen.

I wonder where the living quarters are. It has 11 bedrooms.

Must be a gift shop.

They made gardens with statuary.

More art to see on the grounds.

This is a nice entrance.

Maybe this is the residence garden. I'm disappointed that they don't show the residence.

The observatory tower.

It's a massive property. I'm actually surprised that it's not more than $5M.

It's about 4.27 acres.

https://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-vic-castlemaine-144562536

[hometoursandotherstuff]

For $275K you can live in a luxury jail. The jail was built in 1972 in Celina, Ohio and it’s been converted to a home.

Do you recognize how it still looks like a jail with 2 tiers? The living and dining rooms are both part of the open, very large, main floor. 

Behind the dining room are some cells that you pass on your way to the kitchen.

They gave it a bit of a decorative light feature, but it has the original bunks, plus some wood walls and a tile floor.

Here are restaurant style booths in the bar.

Off the bar is an indoor pool.

Everything in this home is very long. Look at the size of the kitchen.

Stairs with an odd little nook underneath.

Various rooms lead off the 2nd fl. tier.

A long room on the upper tier serves as a children’s playroom.

Across the way are more dining booths, some living room furniture, a movie screen and a bed. This must be a young man’s bedroom?

The master bedroom has an office nook.

And, it also has sliding glass doors to a kitchen.

Another large bedroom.

Behind a curtain it has a bathroom and closet.

This room has sliding doors to the terrace.

Here’s a bedroom that seems to connect to another bedroom thru an open pass-thru. There’s also access to the terrace.

Looks like a tile sauna and a shower. 

And, this of course, is a nursery.

A family room.

The 2nd level terrace in front of the house. This house has kind of an awkward layout, but I think it can look a lot better with the right decor.

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/117-N-Brandon-Ave-Celina-OH-45822/224285333_zpid/

[hometoursandotherstuff]

Mariea Gosdin says she gave ghosts a place to stay when she bought a property in Greenville, GA. From 1896 until 1986, this structure served as the Meriwether County Jail. Now the section of the building that was once the jailer’s residence is a cozy two-bedroom, 1,450-square-foot home.

Gosdin paid a measly $5,000 for the property back in 2009. It’s now available for $499,000.

“I just so happened to be at a county commissioner’s meeting, and they were about to vote to tear it down, and I just went crazy,” Gosdin says of the day she heard that the property she had always coveted might be available.

Instead of bringing in the wrecking ball, the county decided to accept closed bids. Many folks looked at the property, but in the end, only Gosdin put in a bid.

Despite the paltry offer, the commissioners accepted the bid because it would have cost more than $5,000 to tear the place down.

For Gosdin, the work was only just beginning. What was once the jailer’s residence was completely separate from the jail area. And its walls are about 2 feet thick. The downstairs bathroom used to be a holding cell.

Everything had to be updated, and Gosdin estimates she spent more than $200,000 on the renovations. She said, “Everything had to be torn apart before I could put it back together.”

“It was horrible. There were like nine layers of flooring downstairs and many layers of paint on the upstairs floors, but I finally got down to the hardwood floors,” she says. In a nod to the building’s past, a cell door leads into a toilet in this bathroom.

Despite its history, the renovated home has a cozy feel, with high ceilings and lots of wood and brick.

She has an art studio in the attic. It’s her favorite room in the former jail & offers the best views—but comes with a creepy history. It’s where they hung prisoners. But, in her extensive research about the property, she says she found no evidence of people being hanged in the room.

You could see the mechanics of how it worked,” she explains. “There is a large beam up there with an iron ring screwed into it that they tied a noose to. It was directly over a wooden door, with a lever attached to it.”

Beautiful porch with pecan trees on the property. She loves the home, but wants to build a country house near her children.

The section of the structure that served as the 8,500-square-foot jail hasn’t been touched and awaits a new buyer’s ideas. It used to have at least 48 beds - there’s no power or plumbing.

“It’s peeling paint, rust, steel, and concrete. The beds are still in there that the prisoners slept on. I don’t want to touch it,” she says. “It looks just like it did when they built it, and I don’t want to mess with it.”

While the jail was in operation for nearly a century, it became notorious, and apparently some former residents still voice their complaints. Gosdin laughed when asked about the presence of ghosts.

“Everyone asks me that. I’ve had some weird stuff happen, and I have pictures with my ghost in it,” she says. “My lights go on and off sometimes, doors open and close sometimes, I hear pots and pans. I hear a room full of people talking, and when I notice it, it will abruptly stop. It’s like an auditorium full of people talking, and then it stops.”

The apparitions at least seem friendly. “If they scared me, I would leave. I talk to them,” Gosdin says. The spirits aren’t always around. “Sometimes, I’ll go months and nothing, and then I wonder if I have changed something they don’t like or if I changed something and they do like it and are just letting me know.”

https://www.realtor.com/