The feeling that incarceration was a form of death and burial led in the nineteenth century to the use of Egyptian architectural forms for prisons and jails. Iowa's only example is this small two-story jailhouse designed by John Francis Rague. Rague, who designed the Illinois and Iowa capitol buildings, normally showed a predilection for the Greek Revival. Having lived in New York, the architect most likely knew of the “Tombs” prison (1835–1838), which may have been his inspiration. Essentially Rague's building is a Greek Revival house detailed with a few convincing Egyptian details: a pair of Egyptian “bundle papyriform” columns within the recessed entrance, carved heads for the windows, and a bold and wide “gorge” cornice, a type of cornice that is deeply indented. A few of the original window lintels still reveal winged-sun disks in the form of lion's heads. The walls of the jail are of a rough limestone; in strong contrast, the frames of the doors and windows are in cast iron. Within, there are tiers of cells, each of the cells measuring only 4 feet 4 inches wide by 10 feet long.