The Outstanding Old City Jail

Welcome back bloggers!

Today's blog post will be about the Old City Jail that can be found in downtown Charleston, South Carolina.

The Old City Jail

Upon arrival, the Old City Jail already has some spooky vibes. This structure was built in 1802 and closed in 1939, giving it plenty of years to collect scary stories.

Beyond the stories that go along with this haunting building, there are also many facts that equally as interesting. For example, you can see in the picture that the jail has a fourth floor. However, the fourth floor no longer exists because the earthquake of 1886 ruined it.

One of my favorite stories that I heard was about Lavinia Fisher. Lavinia Fisher was a woman that worked with her husband to murder innocent people until they were caught. While in jail, her husband was able to escape but he couldn't bare to be apart from his wife so he waited to be caught and sent back to be reunited with her. Lavinia Fisher was sentenced to death by hanging and right before she was hanged, she said "If any of you have a message for the devil, hand it to me for I will be dining with him tonight". In my opinion, that is probably one of the most memorable last words that someone could say.

Cages that prisoners were held in

Elonzo Small's wheelchair

Another interesting story is about Elonzo Small. He was the youngest person to be incarcerated at the age of 10. Elonza was wrongfully convicted of murder. His did not last very long in the jail and left behind a wheel chair that is there to this day. There is a legend that the ghost of Elonza Small still haunts the Old City Jail.

All of the inmates were sentenced an average of 40 lashes from a whip unless they were on death row. There are many markings on the wall that are thought to be the prisoners keeping count of how many more lashes they had to endure.

While we continue our tour, our tour guide mentioned that the jail would bury people in the yard right outside. He then continued to say that "the jail is one giant tombstone". This quote was a creative and interesting way of viewing the Old City Jail.

I had also noticed that a small structure outside resembled a witches hat, continuing the overall haunting and spooky feeling that the jail gives off naturally.

Witches hat structure