The Jail

Jail? Yes, that's right, Knox College is possibly one of the only colleges in the country with a jail block on campus.

Classrooms and offices for the Center for Global Studies and Integrated International Studies department are located in the front section of the Old Jail, which previously housed the sheriff's office and living quarters of Knox County.

The cell-block itself has also been used by several classes. A senior seminar in philosophy that was studying punishment spent a night in the cell block in 1997. An interdisciplinary course, "Death and Dying," used the cellblock -- rumored to be haunted-as a focal point for a discussion of beliefs in ghosts.

The Old Jail also houses faculty offices, a seminar room, and the Underground Railroad Freedom Center, which exhibits displays on slavery and the abolitionist history of Knox College and Galesburg. Knox has been designated a "Freedom Station" by the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, which is devoted to research and education about the Underground Railroad and anti-slavery movements.