Gilbert B. Avery, architect of the 1839 courthouse next door, also designed the 1870 Berrien County Jail and sheriff's residence. The brick jail looked like a conventional square structure from the outside, with a ventilator atop a glass skylight, but inside Avery arranged twenty-four triangular cells in a circular pattern, with sixteen on the first floor and eight on the second surrounding a central core where a pump and bathtub let prisoners bathe. The jailer could allow inmates to exercise in the outer walkway while still confining them within the exterior walls. After the county seat moved to St. Joseph in 1894, the jail stood vacant, fell into disrepair, and was demolished by its owners in 1916. In July 1883, eight prisoners attempted a bold escape by removing the bathtub in the central core, pumping water from the cistern below until they could climb inside, and digging a tunnel under the north wall, but the soft earth collapsed, exposing the tunnel and forcing them to emerge in broad daylight. The sheriff, county clerk, and several townspeople quickly chased and recaptured most of them, and the tunnel briefly became a tourist attraction that drew visitors from around the county, with one Niles woman even taking away a sample of earth as a souvenir.