The tiny Atlanta jail cell that survived more than 100 years

Before police cars and radios, Atlanta officers needed somewhere to hold arrestees while waiting for transport. In the 1890s, the Atlanta Police Department installed lock-up boxes across the city, tiny one-man jail cells used as temporary holding spaces until horse-drawn paddy wagons arrived. Today, only one remains. Hidden in Inman Park, the historic lock-up box survived demolition, changed hands multiple times, and eventually returned to the neighborhood in the 1970s after Inman Park became a historic district. The AJC’s Najja Parker steps inside the tiny cell to explore the strange and unsettling history behind one of Atlanta’s most unusual surviving artifacts.