The 1876 Paulding County Jail is scheduled to be razed soon, according to the county commissioners.

The jail was built in 1876 and operated continuously until a new facility opened in 2007. The building has been empty for the past five years, used only for county storage.

Plans call for it to be demolished as soon as mid-January using the county engineer’s department’s employees.

A spokesman from the commissioner’s office said that the decision to tear down the jail was mutually agreed upon by the commissioners. No vote was taken.

The project has been in the works for over a year to determine what to do with the old jail. The commissioners decided it was more cost-effective to demolish it. Also, Commissioner Tony Zartman indicated that the commissioners had been trying to sell the old jail and that no one had expressed an interest in buying it.