Update: The jail and guest house sold for $402,000 in December 2021. The 2019 auction didn’t result in a sale, and the jail was taken off the market in December 2019. The other two houses were sold in 2020.

Davie County’s original jail was built in Mocksville in 1839, three years after the county was established. Now it’s the centerpiece of an online auction of five properties all on the same downtown corner. Prospective buyers can bid on the properties separately or all of them together.

The jail is the centerpiece. It housed the county’s most armed and dangerous for 70 years and then became a residence. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. In 2001 the current owner bought it and converted it to office use.