STORY & PHOTOS ALEX T. PASCHAL | FOR SMALL TOWN LIVING
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f the walls of an inauspicious little building in Compton could talk, they would have a lot of stories to tell – after all, they’ve been standing for more than a century. Now they’ve got another tale to tell, and it’s a story with a happy ending, thanks to the president of this Lee County village, who helped spearhead a project to give the little local landmark a much-needed facelift. The nip and tuck pointing began after Candy Jonsson decided to take matters into her own hands and rescue the building, which had seen better days. It was once home to village hall and jail before it was pressed into municipal service in another role, as the well building for the eastern Lee County village, whose population hovers around 300. Recently, though, the 110-year-old structure had fallen into disrepair.
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Little remains of the well building’s former life as a jail, but there are a few telltale signs of its past, like this jail door.
