Looking for a steal of a deal? Whispers knows where you can get a jail for $250,000.
Technically, it’s a former jail — the Franklin County Jail in Ozark to be precise — and hasn’t been used as a jail in nearly 50 years. Greg and Nancy McKenzie bought the 2,512-SF structure for $13,500 in 1975.
Fittingly, they bought it at auction on the steps of the Franklin County Courthouse. The county jail moved to a new location down the street.
“They sold it by single bid and that day, they moved the prisoners out of my jail to what was a new jail down the street,” Nancy McKenzie said. “I am the oldest jail in Ozark.”
Greg McKenzie, who died in 2016, converted the jail into his law office, becoming a true jailhouse lawyer.
“He said that many times himself,” Nancy McKenzie said.
The building is two stories and still has the original three cells on the second level. When the McKenzies bought the jail, they kept the jail cells as they were, even the graffiti sketched into the walls from prisoners back in the day.
The McKenzies, however, did remove one bar from each cell. “So you couldn’t get trapped,” Nancy McKenzie said, chuckling.
The jail, which was built in 1914 and looks like a squat fortress, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. McKenzie said she and her husband always talked about selling it when they stopped using it and she decided the time was right.
Interest has been high, and not just for the curiosity factor. McKenzie said one potential sale fell through, but others are interested in it as an Airbnb (“Hey, let’s spend our vacation in an old jail”) or a bar or even a private residence. It does sit on the Arkansas River so it has a great view.
Nancy McKenzie taught at Altus and Ozark high schools for 38 years and said the Roman archway entrance was a popular site for prom and wedding photos.
“It’s time to pass it on,” Nancy McKenzie said. “I’ve kept it safe all these years. It can be whatever someone else wants it to be.”
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