Old Baltimore County Jail Renovated Into Office Spaces

TOWSON, Md. (WJZ) --  It's a Baltimore County landmark, dating back to 1854, but now the old county jail has a brand new look.

Ron Matz has more on a major makeover in Towson.

It's Bosley Hall now, but inside visitors can tell the room was once a lock up. A two-year restoration project has just been completed on the old Baltimore County jail. The warden once lived right on the premises.

"We have about 8,000 square feet of rental space. We're about two-thirds leased right now. The remaining space is already being looked at this week. We hope by the end of this week or next week we'll be 100 percent leased. It's been a two-year project from start to finish," said Tony Azola, Azola Companies. "We walked into the building and looked around and thought how in the world could we re-purpose the whole building. The easy part was the warden's house. Originally it was built as one building--the front half was where the warden lived and the rear half was the jail cells."

There's office space now and five local businesses, including Blue Ocean Ideas, have already moved in.

"We walked in, we loved it. We loved the blending of the old and the new and the re-use of it. It's just really a great space for a creative companies like ours," said Greg Rittler, Blue Ocean Ideas.

The old cell on the ground floor will soon be a wine cellar.

"One of the things we had to save in the building was the original layout of the cells on the ground level. Trying to figure out what to do with that space to make it rentable was a challenge. What we came up with is a climate-controlled wine storage facility. So wine collectors can bring cases of wine over and we'll rent space per the case of wine," said Azola. "We have a shared conference room, everybody in the building can use it. We also have shared kitchens and bathrooms on each floor, so when tenants move in here they don't need to have their own conference room or kitchen, so it saves a lot of cost on their side."

Different kinds of cases once brought prisoners to the jail, but the old joint is now jumping, a major addition to Towson.

The building was named Bosley Hall after the family who donated the land for the jail and courthouse in 1854. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places.