The Old Paulding Jail
Photos then and now.
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The Old
Paulding County Jail is located at 112 S. Williams St. Paulding, Ohio,
45879. It was contracted to be built in 1874. There was no railroad
passing through the town at that time, the cost of getting the stone and
others materials was pretty great and more difficult and work had
progressed rather slowly. The building was not completed until
1876 at a cost of $25,000.
The basement is cut of limestone, above which are two stories of brick
and stone trimmings. It was
constructed on the most modern and improved plans, and it was
regarded as one of the most securest jails and most convenient sheriff's
residences in northwestern Ohio.
The sheriff and their families lived at the jail until 1977 after which
no other sheriff lived at the jail.
The jail operated and served the Village of Paulding until 2006 after
which was used as County storage until 2013.
In 2013 the jail was set for
demolition which caused public outcry within the residents causing the
County to offer the jail up for sale. The Jail was then purchased by
Jeff and Cassie Hollis of All Trades Historical Restorations LLC.
They began the restoration process of the building. During their work
they discovered an area that had been bricked over in the basement and
they started to remove this wall and found walkways and hidden cells.
They uncovered what was thought to be lost evidence of
the old unsolved murder case of Nancy
Eagleson who was murdered over 50 years ago. Their company being
based in the state of Florida made it difficult to continue maintaining
and restoring the property, so Jeff and Cassie offered the jail up for
sale in March 2015. After viewing the jail with my group members and
family, I (Shelly)purchased the jail in April 2015. It is our plan to
restore the jail and give back to the community in way of having the
jail serve as a museum featuring historical information about the
jail, past sheriffs and cases with
part of the jail serving as a paranormal research center as we have
found this jail to be very paranormally active.