Marion County Jail

Fairmont, Marion County

The Marion County Jail is another site endangered by the abandonment of historic local jails for new regional facilities. The Marion County Jail, designed in the Romanesque Revival style by Edward John Wood, AIA, and built in 1912, is architecturally significant as a part of the County Courthouse complex, which includes the courthouse, the jail, and the sheriff's residence. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995, the jail is a contributing structure to Fairmont's Historic Downtown District. In addition to the jail's architectural significance, the jail provides an important link to the history of organized labor, including the 1915 Farmington coal strike and the 1919 national coal strike, when approximately 100 strikers were incarcerated and held for two months while awaiting trial. The Marion County jail also has significant links to workers rights in the U.S. Postal Service; in 1915, twenty-five letter carriers were incarcerated after labor disputes and one committed suicide in the jail.

The Marion County Commission had announced plans and solicited bids to demolish the Jail in order to build a new storage and parking facility. Local citizens led by the Fairmont Historic Landmark Commission opposed the demolition, arguing the building's historic significance and urging that it be rehabilitated to be functional for the county. Their efforts have been successful for the moment, as the county commissioners voted in November to hold off on demolition plans, in part because the cost of demolition and building new was estimated to cost $1 million dollars more than would restoration. An adaptive reuse feasibility study is planned for the structure, supported in part by Vandalia Heritage Foundation and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.