The McMinn County Jail stood on this site and came under attack during the night of August 1, 1946, when the GI party believed deputies were holding seized ballot boxes there in the event labeled the Battle of Athens. Visible damage remains on the building at the corner of White and Hornsby Streets and is believed to have resulted from shots fired at the jail's electrical transformer by GIs. McMinn County sold the property in 1953. A mural by Sam Welty, a muralist from Virginia, was completed in 2017 in time for the 71st Anniversary of the battle.