Old Jail


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

It may have been built to house criminals, but today the historic former Knox County Jail—built in 1874, and now known as simply “the old jail”—houses our Center for Global Studies, the facility that brings well-known speakers to campus and helps prepare students for studying abroad. The historic building also houses faculty offices, a seminar room, and the Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

The renovated jail also is used for other academic purposes—like talking about ghosts. One psychology course used the original three-tiered cellblock as a setting for a class discussion on belief in the paranormal.