“The Spirit of the American Doughboy” statue was designed by Ernest Moore Viquesney (who was living in Americus at the time) in 1921; the impetus for the monument was the death of about 25 Berrien County men during the collision of the Otranto with the Kashmir off the Isle of Islay in 1918. This was the first of hundreds of such memorials placed in public spaces around the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. An alternate nickname for the statue is “Iron Mike”.
The old Berrien County Jail was designed by the Pauly Jail Building & Manufacturing Company of St. Louis and built by J. J. Carr & Company of Atlanta. It served the county until 1955, when a new facility was constructed. As a Bicentennial Project in 1976, members of the Berrien County Future Farmers of America renovated the old jail, which had fallen into disrepair. For many years after this restoration, however, the jail was rarely used; it has most recently served as the headquarters for the local chamber of commerce.
National Register of Historic Places
Vanishing Georgia: Photographs by Brian Brown 