1891 Flagler-Era County Jail and Museum
167 San Marco Avenue, St. Augustine, FL 32084
Age
All Ages for daytime; minimum age may apply for evening tours
Cost
$$
Daytime and evening tour pricing varies; check the Old Jail Museum and Ghosts and Gravestones for current rates.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Historic jail with stairs to upper cellblocks; ground floor accessible
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1891 · National Register of Historic Places · Built by P.J. Pauley Jail Company (Builder of Alcatraz) · Henry Flagler-Funded Construction · Site of Eight Documented Hangings · Romanesque Revival Jail Architecture
The Old St. Johns County Jail was completed in 1891 on what was then the northern edge of St. Augustine, Florida. Industrialist Henry Flagler financed its construction primarily to relocate the previous downtown jail, which sat too close to his new Ponce de Leon Hotel and offended guests with the visible presence of prisoners and executions. The architect designed the building in the Romanesque Revival style with two large yellow brick wings flanking a sheriff's residence.
The contractor was the P.J. Pauley Jail Company of St. Louis, the same firm that built Alcatraz on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. Pauley specialized in turn-of-the-century jail construction and built more than 300 facilities across the United States. The interior cell hardware, lockwork, and ironwork at St. Augustine are characteristic Pauley products.
The jail operated from 1891 until 1953, when it was replaced by a new St. Johns County Jail. Over its 62 years, eight prisoners were executed by hanging in the east yard on wooden gallows constructed specifically for each execution. Sheriff Charles Joseph Perry served at the jail in its early years and personally lived in the attached residence with his family.
Following the jail's closure, the building deteriorated for decades. Historic Tours of America acquired and restored it in the 1990s and has operated it since as the Old Jail Museum. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Sources
The Old Jail's modern interpretive program collects staff and visitor reports across more than two decades of operation as a museum and as a stop on the Ghosts and Gravestones tour. Reports concentrate in three areas of the building.
The first is the women's cellblock. Visitors describe a sense of presence, occasional cold pockets, and faint indistinct voices reading as female conversation. The second is the east yard near the gallows display, where reports include shadow movement near the reconstructed scaffolding and a heaviness of air around the marked execution locations. The third is the central wing, the sheriff's residence, where staff have described footsteps on upper floors when the building is verified empty.
The jail has been featured in Florida tourism press and in St. Augustine paranormal segments. The Ghosts and Gravestones tour, operated by Historic Tours of America, integrates documented history with the published paranormal vocabulary in its evening program. The Old Jail Museum's interpretive staff present the reports as cultural artifact and emphasize the documented prisoner history of the institution.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Tour an 1891 jail constructed for Henry Flagler by the P.J. Pauley Jail Company, the same builder responsible for Alcatraz. The jail served St. Johns County from 1891 to 1953. Interpretation covers Sheriff Charles Joseph Perry, the eight documented hangings carried out in the east yard, and the daily life of prisoners during the institution's six-decade operation.
Ghosts and Gravestones operates a 2.5-hour evening night tour of the Old Jail with restricted lighting in the cellblocks. The tour covers the documented hangings, prisoner deaths, and the visitor and staff reports collected over the institution's modern interpretive operation.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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