HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
New York's second state prison (1816) and birthplace of the Auburn System — where William Kemmler became the first person executed by electric chair on August 6, 1890
135 State Street, Auburn, NY 13021
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
The prison itself is not open to the public. The Cayuga Museum's ACF exhibit is included with general museum admission. October haunted history tours are priced by the operator — check current listings.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Exterior viewing from public street; Cayuga Museum is accessible. No interior prison access.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1816 · Site of world's first electric chair execution — William Kemmler, August 6, 1890 · Birthplace of the Auburn System of penal discipline · 1821 solitary confinement experiment that resulted in five deaths · 55 total executions by electric chair
Auburn Prison opened in 1816, making it the second state prison constructed in New York after Newgate. In the early 1820s, Auburn's administrators developed the disciplinary regime that became known as the Auburn System: prisoners worked together in absolute enforced silence during the day and were locked in individual cells at night. A 1821 Christmas experiment placed 83 men in near-total solitary confinement; five died and the experiment was abandoned, but the partial system survived and spread throughout American penology. The Auburn System's influence extended to prisons built across the eastern United States and shaped thinking about incarceration for decades.
Auburn's place in technological history was fixed on the morning of August 6, 1890, when William Kemmler — convicted of murdering his partner Tillie Ziegler with a hatchet in Buffalo — was strapped into an electric chair constructed following a proposal by a dentist named Alfred Southwick. The first current was applied for approximately 17 seconds and proved insufficient. A second application lasting longer finally killed Kemmler. Witnesses, including several physicians and reporters, described the process as grotesque; newspapers around the world covered the execution. Fifty-five more men were executed at Auburn by electric chair over the following decades, the last in 1963.
The facility has operated continuously as a maximum-security prison. The Cayuga Museum of History and Art in Auburn maintains a dedicated exhibit covering Auburn's carceral history, including materials related to the electric chair and the facility's role in the Auburn System. Exterior October haunted history tours through Auburn include the prison among their stops.
Sources
Auburn Correctional Facility's paranormal reputation is inseparable from its documented history. The October haunted history tours that include the prison exterior draw on a specific and verifiable record of institutional violence: the 1821 deaths from the Christmas solitary experiment, the 1890 execution of William Kemmler — the first in the world to use electricity — and the 55 executions that followed over 73 years.
The prison is active and its interior is not open to the public, which means the haunted-tour experience is primarily atmospheric — the massive 1816 stone walls and towers visible from State Street provide the setting, and tour guides provide the historical context. No independent paranormal investigation of the facility has been publicly documented.
The Cayuga Museum's dedicated prison exhibit provides the most substantive public engagement with the facility's dark history, contextualizing the Auburn System, the electric chair, and the social history of incarceration in upstate New York. The exhibit is the recommended starting point for visitors interested in the site's history rather than just its exterior.
Notable Entities
The Cayuga Museum of History and Art in Auburn operates a dedicated exhibit on Auburn Correctional Facility's carceral history, including materials on the electric chair and the 1890 execution of William Kemmler. The museum provides the primary public interpretive access to the prison's history.
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