Like most buildings of its kind, the county prison in Ebensburg is foreboding. The section completed in 1870 is a boxy stone Gothic Revival fortress with cell blocks at the rear and a central tower on the facade. Edward Haviland, son of famous prison architect John Haviland, designed it with massing similar to that of his Blair County Prison (
BL3), but with more powerful rectilinear projections on the facade. In 1910, a long brick cell block was added to the west. The addition's resemblance to a large, barred barracks only increases the dreary mood of the building.