Sublunar Photography

The old Vernon County Jail in Nevada, Missouri was originally constructed as the new U.S. Post Office in 1909 and now, over 100 years later, it stands out as one of the more beautifully designed structures in this part of the state. This is explained by the fact that it was designed by notable architect James Knox Taylor who, at the turn of the 20th Century, was Supervising Architect of the United States Department of the Treasury. Taylor is listed as Supervising Architect of hundreds of Federal buildings during his time. Some of these buildings include the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital (1908), The Denver Mint (1897) and a variety of other federal buildings and post offices across the country. Sharing many architectural elements and design cues of other work attributed to Taylor, this building which is located in the little middle-of-nowhere town of Nevada, Missouri, is nearly identical to the Post Office credited to him in Niagra Falls, New York as can be seen on his Wikipedia page here.

After 52 years of service, a new post office of an objectively uglier but probably more efficient design was being constructed in 1961 and by 1963 the old post office was taken over by the local Sherrif's department to serve as their new offices and county jail. In order to facilitate the new county jail, a $50,000 renovation was undertaken which seems to have included some interior demolition of the pension and postal inspection offices located on the second floor. Today, there is almost no second floor to speak of aside from a kitchen area/meeting rooms on one end and some maintenance/access areas on the opposite side with a wide open two story center section. How much of this may have been changed for construction of the jail, I can't say for certain. The middle portion is now home to a chunky and overall incongruent cellblock in the center of the floor. There is what appears to be a juvenile cell on one of the perimeter walls and a separate cellblock on the opposite side of the building. Overall, the construction of the cells appears to have been a low-budget half-assed design featuring a mess of an HVAC system strewn across the top. The only real evidence left of the grand interior design is located in the main Sherrif's office and the staircaise to the upstairs kitchen and meeting rooms. Worthy of note among the current interior details are the multiple gun ports running along the new second floor interior perimeter walls. These gun ports are accessed by a ladder to a very tight hallway with a couple of small window-sized frames inside of which are rectangular metal openings with horizontal slits that are aimed directly at the cell doors/hall below. These were designed so that guards would have a safe vantage point from which to observe and shoot, if necessary, any rioting inmates below. I haven't seen any record of riots here, however there were numerous escapes throughout the years which contributed to the justification of a new jail being built reougly 50 years following the establishment of this one.

In May of 2009, the new Vernon County jail was completed at the cost of $8,000,000. The new jail can house 86 inmates versus the comparatively small 24-person capacity of this now obsolete facility. Upon completion, local residents were invited to participate in a $25 fundraiser "lock-in" at the new jail which was presumably "fun".

Since the closure of this jail in 2009, it was left abandoned and has since changed hands several times. Currently, it appears to be owned and inhabited by someone who is working to stabilize/renovate the building.

The Jefferson Hotel was the largest and probably most well-known hotel in the Saint Louis area throughout the first half of the 20th Century. It was hurriedly constructed in the early 1900's to assist in accomodating some of the 19.7 million guests who would attend the World's Fair. Construction broke ground in March of 1903 and work at the site would see sixteen hour days in order to meet the impending deadline. Prior to officially opening for business, this hotel was chosen as the location to inaugurate the social season of the World's Fair. A formal ball was held on April 8, 1904 and was sponsored by the Daughters of the Confederacy and the Confederate Memorial Society. The ball was said to be the "most strikingly brilliant social affair ever held" in the area and guests were reported to include "representatives of every civilized country, high World's Fair officials, soldiers, consuls and multimillionaires". The hotel was able to meet the construction deadline, opening on April 29th 1904, the day before the Fair was to begin.

Among those registered at the hotel on the eve of the World's Fair included the official delegation of the U.S. Senate and House. President Theodore Roosevelt personally telegraphed the signal to commence the opening from the white house. The hotel would host several Democratic National Conventions throughout the years among other countless conventions and other events.

Despite ownership changes over the years, the hotel thrived up until some time in the 60s. In the mid 1970's, the hotel closed and was threatened with demolition. It was fortunately saved from that fate and remodeled into small apartments for "over-50" residents. It eventually moved from senior living to low income residents after which point it closed sometime around 2007.

The one time "Aristocrat of Saint Louis", "as handsome as the Waldorf-Astoria, or the handsomest hotel in America" has now been sitting vacant for the past 15 years and as a result has been in a state of rapid deterioration ever since.

Just within the past couple months, renovations have finally begun and they've even partially sealed it back up (hence finally using the hotel's real name). I'm not sure what their plans are for the ballroom but I'd be surprised if they bother trying to replicate the crumbling plaster and other features vs a complete remodel of the space, but I guess it's not impossible. After all, the Wright Arcadeseems to have been meticulously restored following its own long period of neglect.

Click here for the video.

Check out my post here from over ten years ago (!) when I referred to it as the "Ballroom Hotel" to avoid publicly identifying it.

Source: National Records of Historic Buildings Nomination form

All historic photos courtesy of the Missouri Historical Society (except for the KSHE stage photo for which I can no longer seem to locate the source. No idea who that is onstage either.).

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