Old Jail Museum - Indiana
Montgomery County, IN
USA
Completed in 1882, the Rotary Jail of Montgomery County was designed by William H. Brown and Benjamin F. Haugh of Indianapolis, and was the first rotary jail built in the United States. The rotary cellblock consists of a two-tiered turntable housed within a stationary steel cage with one opening per story. The jailer would simply rotate the mechanism to bring a particular cell to the opening, and in this way prisoners were put into and taken out of the cells. The turntable remained in operation until 1939 when it was immobilized, and the jail was finally closed in 1973.
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