Atlanta's One-Person Jail Cell

In Victorian-era Atlanta, Georgia, police dealt with their troublemakers one prisoner at a time.

Tucked away in Delta Park, in the Inman Park neighborhood of Atlanta, is the city’s last one-person jail cell. The structure itself looks like an old phone booth. It’s shaped like a small gazebo, with a glass window on top of the structure and a giant padlock in front. The jail was just large enough to hold one person standing up.

Atlanta police had at least four of these one-man jail cells across the city between 1890 and 1905. An arresting officer would confine their prisoner in the lock-up box while they waited for the horse-drawn patrol wagon. The “Black Maria,” as the patrol wagon was known at the time, made regular rounds around the city. When the lock-up boxes were not occupied, police used them to store their helmets, nightsticks, raincoats, and other gear.

Atlanta police stopped using the one-man jail cells around 1905. At that time, the structures were considered inhumane as secondary holding cells.

In 1935, Atlanta sold its last remaining one-man jail cell to Atlanta banker John K. Ottley, who had a collection of Americana antiques. Several years later, the lock-up moved to the Cyclorama in Grant Park where it was displayed with a plaque reading, “Many a miscreant got his first taste of Atlanta hospitality when he was lodged in this locked box to await transportation to roomier quarters.”

In 1974, the one-man jail cell returned to its original location in Inman Park as part of the restoration projects connected to the Inman Park Festival & Tour of Homes. The lockup box reinstallation was a collaboration of the Atlanta Gas Light Co., Atlanta Parks and Recreation Department, Inman Park Restoration, Inc., and the Atlanta Historical Society. Nearly five decades later, the one-man jail cell continues to be a popular stop for Atlanta historians and curious residents.