The Old Vanderburgh County Jail, commonly known as the Old Jail, is one of Downtown Evansville’s most distinctive historic buildings. Located at 208 NW Fourth Street, directly across from the Old Vanderburgh County Courthouse, the castle-like jail and sheriff’s residence has stood in the heart of the city since 1890–91.
With its stone walls, towers, turrets and underground prisoner tunnel, the Old Jail looks more like a European fortress than a county lockup — and that was largely the point.
A Castle in Downtown Evansville
Vanderburgh County officials decided to construct a new jail and sheriff’s residence in 1889. The building was designed by architect Henry Wolters, who also designed the neighboring Old Vanderburgh County Courthouse, and construction was handled by Charles Pearce & Company of Indianapolis.
Wolters modeled the building after Lichtenstein Castle in Germany. Its design includes stepped gables, projecting turrets, crenellated rooflines, pointed arches, a simulated portcullis and a large rounded tower.
The intimidating architecture was intended to give the jail the appearance of a fortress.
The jail was occupied in 1891 and became Vanderburgh County’s fourth jail.
The Underground Tunnel
One of the Old Jail’s most unusual features is hidden beneath the street.
An underground tunnel connects the jail with the Old Vanderburgh County Courthouse across Vine Street. Prisoners could be taken through the tunnel for court appearances without being marched outside through Downtown Evansville.
The tunnel still exists, although it is no longer used for its original purpose.
The Evansville Race Riot of 1903
The Old Jail also played a central role in one of the darkest events in Evansville history.
In July 1903, a large mob gathered outside the jail seeking to lynch a Black prisoner. Authorities and members of the Indiana militia attempted to defend the building, and violence erupted outside the jail.
Gunfire left numerous people wounded and 12 people dead, making the Evansville Race Riot of 1903 one of the deadliest episodes of racial violence in the city’s history.
A historical marker at the site commemorates the jail and the events surrounding the riot.
“Mad Dog” Irvin
Among the Old Jail’s most notorious prisoners was Leslie “Mad Dog” Irvin, the convicted killer whose crimes terrorized southwestern Indiana during the 1950s.
Irvin’s prosecution eventually produced the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Irvin v. Dowd in 1961. The case became an important decision involving whether extensive pretrial publicity could prevent a defendant from receiving an impartial jury and a fair trial.
The Sheriff’s Residence
The complex wasn’t only a jail.
It also contained the official residence of the Vanderburgh County sheriff and his family. One of the sheriffs who lived there was Frank McDonald Sr., who later served as mayor of Evansville.
For generations, the unusual arrangement meant that the sheriff and his family essentially lived alongside the county jail.
Closing and Restoration
The Old Jail stopped serving its original purpose in the late 1960s as Vanderburgh County moved jail operations elsewhere.
The building subsequently sat largely vacant for decades and deteriorated. During part of this period, the old jail was occasionally used as a Halloween haunted house.
Preservation efforts eventually saved the structure. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970, and extensive restoration work later converted the historic complex into commercial office space.
At least one of the old jail cells was preserved rather than converted, providing a glimpse of what the building looked like when prisoners were still housed there.
For years, the restored building became associated with the law offices of Woods & Woods.
The Old Jail Goes Up for Sale
Another chapter in the building’s history began in 2026, when the Old Vanderburgh County Jail was placed on the real estate market.
News coverage of the sale provided a rare look inside the building, including surviving cell bars, original brickwork and the remains of the underground tunnel connecting the jail to the courthouse.
More than 130 years after it opened, the Old Jail remains one of the most recognizable structures in Downtown Evansville.
Its castle-like architecture alone would make it unusual.
But the building’s history — prisoners traveling beneath the street, a sheriff and his family living alongside inmates, the violence of 1903, the imprisonment of Mad Dog Irvin, decades of abandonment and its eventual restoration — makes the Old Jail one of Evansville’s most fascinating surviving landmarks.
Address: 208 NW Fourth Street, Evansville, Indiana
Built: 1890–1891
Architect: Henry Wolters
Historic use: Vanderburgh County Jail and Sheriff’s Residence
National Register of Historic Places: Added in 1970