Home sweet jail? Georgia woman converts old county lockup to her new house, plans for a museum
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Ghost hunters tell stories of gruesome crimes. Ex-guards remember an underground dungeon. So is the lore of the old Meriwether County jail.
It's a 119-year-old relic being renovated into a home and museum. Fifty-nine-year-old Mariea Gosdin says she was the sole bidder when the Board of Commissioners listed it for sale in 2009. She paid $5,000.
The jail, southwest of Atlanta, fell into disrepair after it closed in the mid-1980s. It has a network of narrow hallways and worn cells. Its living quarters were home to the sheriff and his family.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Gosdin plans to move into those quarters this summer. She says she wants to go back to a time when people made do with what they had.
She plans to later renovate the jail portion, then open it as a museum.