Edenton built its first jail in 1712, ten years after the town was founded, and replacements followed in 1741, 1788, and 1809 after an earlier jail in 1722; when the 1809 jail burned in 1824, a fifth jail was built in 1825 behind the courthouse, where it still stands. Built by ship captain Ebenezer Paine and believed to have followed a design by John Hawks, the brick jail had four first-floor cells housing four men to a cell, thick reinforced walls, second-floor space for a women's dormitory, and a metal cage around the cells for added security. In 1905, Pauley Jail Building of St. Louis installed steel cells on the first floor and, after a long wait, the jailer's house was built. Though never intended as a place of comfort, the jail provided an exercise yard, toilets, and wash basins, and Roy Thompson's account recalls that when repairs required prisoners to be moved, some preferred remaining under Edenton's loose daytime supervision and returning to their cells at night rather than leaving town. In the 1950s, the jailer received a salary plus 30 cents when a prisoner entered and again when one was released, while 3 dollars per day was allotted per prisoner for food. After 150 years of service, the jail was declared unfit for use in 1975, and historians found it to be the oldest jail still in use in North Carolina and the oldest in-use jail in the United States when it closed. Responsibility for the jail was negotiated in 2017, and in 2018 planning, fundraising, and labor made the old jail safe to share as part of Edenton's history.