How does Harper Lee use place in To Kill a Mockingbird?

In To Kill a Mockingbird, author Harper Lee often uses place to establish mood. One example of this can be seen in her descriptions of Maycomb's jail just prior to the mob scene.

At the start of Chapter 15, Atticus meets with a group of men, led by Sheriff Heck Tate, who have come to express their concern that members of the community may try to lynch Tom Robinson while he waits in the county jail for his trial. Though the group led by Sheriff Tate does not mean Atticus any harm, Jem can't help but feel concerned about Atticus's safety, and when Atticus leaves the house around 10 o'clock at night, Jem follows him into town, accompanied by Scout and Dill, to find out what Atticus is up to. Once in town, they find Atticus sitting in a chair propped against the jailhouse door; he is reading a newspaper and being illuminated by a light bulb attached to an extension cord he had brought with him.

In her narration, Scout notes what the jailhouse looks like. According to Scout, "The Maycomb jail was the most venerable and hideous of the county's buildings." By venerable, she means both impressive and outdated; by hideous, she means shockingly ugly. She continues to describe it as something an insane person might have concocted in a dream as a "miniature Gothic joke" due to its architectural design. The jailhouse is made of red brick, has steel bars in its windows, and, like all Gothic architecture, it is "complete with tiny battlements and flying buttresses."

It is particularly interesting that the jailhouse is composed of Gothic architecture since Gothic artworks, like Gothic literature, have a tendency to be gloomy and depressing because the artworks deal with subjects of violence and moral decay. Hence, the Gothic jailhouse serves as a perfect setting for the lynch mob, led by Walter Cunningham Sr., to assemble. The Gothic architecture serves to set the gloomy and frightening tone of the scene.