HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
Site of Virginia's last public execution in 1905, where Mayor Samuel McCue hanged for murdering his wife
409 E High St, Charlottesville, VA 22902
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Accessible as a stop on the US Ghost Adventures Charlottesville walking tour (~$23 per person). The jail exterior is visible from the street at no charge.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Paved sidewalks; exterior viewing only
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1876 · Virginia's Last Public Execution · National Register of Historic Places · Albemarle County Courthouse Historic District
Construction on the stone jail at 409 E High St began in September 1875, with architect G. Wallace Spooner using materials reclaimed from the previous facility. A brick annex followed in 1880 and a jailer's residence in 1886. The complex stood one block north of the Albemarle County Courthouse and functioned as the county's only penitentiary for nearly a century.
James Samuel McCue was born January 15, 1861, and rose to become a Charlottesville attorney and politician, serving as mayor from 1896 to 1900 and again beginning in 1902. On September 4, 1904, his wife Fannie McNutt Crawford McCue was killed at their Park Street home — struck on the head and shot. McCue was arrested the following day after police rejected his initial attempt to blame a stable boy. He denied guilt through trial, declaring when convicted that he was 'as innocent as any man in this courtroom.'
Hours before his scheduled execution he reportedly acknowledged sole responsibility, framing the act as the result of 'an evil power beyond his control.' The gallows were built in the jail yard. At 7:34 AM on February 10, 1905, McCue was hanged. Virginia held no further public executions, making this the last in the state's history.
The jail housed inmates until 1974, when the county opened a new facility south of Charlottesville. Since then the stone building has served as county storage. Efforts to convert it to museum use had not succeeded as of 2021. It is part of the Charlottesville and Albemarle County Courthouse Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.
Sources
US Ghost Adventures includes the Old Albemarle Jail as a regular stop on its nightly Charlottesville walking tour, citing reports of phantom footsteps in the breezeway that have no obvious source. The sounds are described as deliberate and pacing — consistent with what one might expect of a man awaiting an irreversible sentence.
McCue's execution produced an ambiguous legacy. His eleventh-hour statement, reported through witnesses, admitted responsibility while attributing the act to a force he could not resist. Some historians have questioned whether the confession was genuine or strategically worded to deflect suspicion from another party — possibly a mistress — since McCue, already condemned, had nothing material to gain from confessing. That unresolved ambiguity has fed the site's reputation.
The Charlottesville-Albemarle Historical Society has included the McCue case and the jail in its annual October Spirit Walk for years, presenting the execution as the defining event of the building's dark history. The exterior stonework, unchanged since 1876, makes the building one of the more viscerally unchanged execution sites in Virginia.
Notable Entities
US Ghost Adventures runs a nightly one-hour walking tour that includes a stop at the Old Albemarle County Jail, covering the McCue execution and reported paranormal activity. Departs from outside The Paramount Theater, 215 E Main St. Tours run nightly at 8 PM.
The 1876 stone jail building at 409 E High St, one block north of the Courthouse, is viewable from the sidewalk. The structure has been closed to the public since 1974 and serves as county storage.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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