The limestone structure was built in 1877, and it mimicked the adjacent frame courthouse (no longer extant).

The two-story rectangular building is a Vernacular style structure with Greek Revival influence.

[2] The building also provided residential space on the lower level to the sheriff, or if he had his own house, to the jailer.

The most notable event at the jail was the lynching of local farmer John W. McKenzie in 1887, who had shot his neighbor.

This article about a property in Adams County, Iowa on the National Register of Historic Places is a stub.