Built in 1874, the historic former Knox County Jail was renovated for Knox College in 1995 to hold seminar classrooms and faculty offices.  Located across Cherry Street from Davis Hall, it was last used by the County of Knox in 1974.  The building was a private residence until 1995, when a private trust renovated it and leased it to the College for use as offices and classrooms.

The building's historic exterior was completely rejuvenated.  All structural features were preserved, but the interior was modernized, including circuitry linking rooms to the campus fiber-optic computer network.

Classrooms and offices for the Center for Global Studies and Integrated International Studies department are located in the front section of the Jail, which previously housed the county sheriff's office and living quarters.  At the rear of the building, the three-tiered cellblock was cleaned and painted, but otherwise remains as it was more than a century ago.

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 cellblock in 1997.  An interdisciplinary course, "Death and Dying," used the cellblock—rumoured to be haunted—as a focal point for a discussion of beliefs in ghosts.

Among the artifacts stored in the building were jail records and log books dating to the 1800's—even a pile of old mug shots—all of which are now "securely" held in the Knox College Archives.