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.