Historic Structure Report: The Sheriff's House

John Milner Architects, Inc.

First State National Historical Park wishes to document the history, development and condition of the New Castle Sheriff’s House and Jail complex, located on Market Street near the southeast corner of the New Castle Green. The building ceased functioning as a prison in 1901 though it continued to function as temporary lock‐up at various times for decades afterward. Subsequently used as office space, a social club and police station, the building was vacated nearly twenty years ago. Today it houses the central heating and chilling plant serving the New Castle Courthouse next door. With the establishment of the First State National Historical Park, the Sheriff’s House has been proposed as a possible Visitors’ Center and office space. The scope of work for this project is to document the evolution of the structure through archival research and physical investigations. Given that the significance of the resource is architectural, the Sheriff’s House appears to retain a high degree of historic integrity relative the 1857 construction date. The exterior restoration work has been done with sensitivity and the fabric replacement that has occurred has been in kind. Those interior alterations that have been made since the 1857 date may be removed relatively easily. The building remains, for the most part, in satisfactory condition. A roof replacement project and masonry restoration in 2010‐2012 reestablished the integrity of the exterior envelope. The appearance of the interior and the condition of the building systems are poor but salvageable. The goal of adaptive reuse should be achievable without losing significant amounts of historic fabric. Sadly, the integrity of its setting has been all but lost with the demolition of the prison and its wall.

Historic Structure Report: The Sheriff's House

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