Haunted Old Jail Museum

Home » Blog » Uncategorized » The Spirits of the Old Jail Museum

The Spirits of the Old Jail Museum

St. Augustine sits perfectly situated on the east coast of Florida as a destination gem rich with history dating back six centuries. Its plethora of buildings display the brilliance of  Spanish-renaissance-revival architecture while providing a true Florida getaway complete with numerous venues and beach life only a five-minute drive away. 

The longer the history, the more ghost stories and legends are bound to follow, and St. Augustine is teeming with them. Many of these reside within the walls of the Old Jail Museum located at 167 San Marco Avenue. It was built over a century ago with an exterior meant to match the beauty of the surrounding area. However, what happened inside was so horrific that many have come to believe this former jail is still home to inmates serving out their sentences even in the afterlife. 

Are you ready for a more personal encounter with the ghosts that linger in Florida’s most haunted city? Visit our website today and book a ghost tour with Old City Ghosts for a spine-chilling thrill to remember!

Is the Old Jail Museum Haunted? 

Ghost in jail cell
Copyright US Ghost Adventures

Jail is one of the few places on earth where you know it’s nothing but misery. This is especially true at the Old Jail Museum, where deplorable conditions were a theme of everyday life for its former prisoners. With such a negative history harbored within, many believe their spirits still linger, serving their sentence in the next life. 

History of The Old Jail Museum

The Old Jail Museum was constructed in 1891 by hotelier Henry Flagler. It was a safety precaution against those who violated the sanctity of his hotel’s moral codes. It was designed and constructed by P.J. Pauley Jail Company, the same company hired to build Alcatraz. 

The look of a jail on the property would’ve raised a lot of questions, however. Not to mention, the cold, dominating look of such a building would’ve taken away from a warm guest experience. Flagler also believed the original jail was too close for comfort, so he requested a new one be built farther away. 

A new jail was built with a simple solution. The building’s exterior was designed with a Romanesque Revival style, giving it the elegant facade of a Victorian house. It starkly contrasted the nightmare that played out on the inside.

The jail was built to house up to 72 prisoners, male and female, with a maximum security area for the most dangerous, of which there were many. There was even a death row cell for those awaiting execution. The inside of the jail compound was the last thing to be seen by eight prisoners who were hung from its gallows throughout its history. 

It’s an understatement to say conditions were hell. Baths were infrequent, toilets consisted of one bucket per cell, and diet was so bad that it was supplemented by any animals prisoners caught while performing free labor in the fields. 

The jail closed in 1953 and was transformed into a local attraction a year later. It was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1987. Today, it now serves as a museum and gives people a look into the penal system of the past. 

Hauntings Overview

Ghost in jail
Copyright US Ghost Adventures

The elegant exterior of the Old Jail Museum is just a facade for the death it harbored inside. Immense suffering took place within its walls, suffering so great that the spirits of the jail’s former inmates and others continue to remain. It’s perhaps why staff and visitors have reported numerous strange occurrences time and time again here. 

The sound of disembodied footsteps can be heard from inside the old jail, accompanied by the sound of clanking chains. They are believed to be the sound of some of the jail’s former prisoners marching in cadence. 

Barking has also been heard reverberating throughout the Old Jail. What makes it strange is that no dogs reside in the building, although they did at one point. A popular theory suggests that the dogs are the long-lost family dogs that belonged to the jail’s former sheriff over a century ago.

Cold spots have been felt throughout the jail as well, along with some rather unpleasant fragrances. The pungent smell of sewage is known to linger throughout the jail, even though no one has found any trace of it on the property. At other times, an almost nauseating sweet smell, compared to molasses boiling on a stove, has been reported. 

There have also been claims of visitors and staff being touched on the shoulder by a cold hand. Others have felt the sensation that someone is tugging at their hair or blowing on them as they walk by. 

Voices of the Damned

The Old Jail Museum was once filled with agonizing conditions that made it a living hell, even for its most vicious and dangerous criminals. Many claim to hear the tortured sounds of suffering and violence lingering through the cells and hallways. 

Wailing and moaning can be heard in the maximum security and solitary confinement areas. EVP recordings have also caught the voices of spirits in various areas of the former jail. Some of the jail’s worst prisoners might have made this place a heaven of hell for themselves as well. Sinister laughing has been reported from one of the women’s cells. This spirit’s nefarious presence has also been felt on occasion, pushing and tripping people.

Another haunting aspect of the Old Jail Museum is that the sheriff and their families lived under the same roof across from the prisoners they watched. It’s puzzling why they thought this was a good idea, especially with kids in such a close vicinity to murderers. Nonetheless, it was commonplace back then to hear the sound of children mixed in with the cacophony of agony in the jail. 

Many have claimed they still hear the sound of a little girl coming from the sheriff’s quarters. It raises the suspicion that we may not know the full extent of the tragedies that took place in this grim remnant of the past. 

Haunted St. Augustine

St. Augustine, Florida, holds a colorful tapestry of history woven with stories of pirates, conquistadors, and Native American tribes. With much of it intertwined with violence, murder, and tragedy, it’s what makes Florida’s oldest city also the most haunted.

At the heart of St. Augustine is the Old Jail Museum, a seemingly simple yet beautifully built structure made to resemble a Victorian-style residence. In actuality, it was a tomb, housing the imaginations of hell in an era of Florida’s penal system where human dignity took a backseat. For this reason, many believe the Old Jail Museum is filled with the spirits of the damned to this day. 

Come and experience why St. Augustine is the most haunted city in Florida. Book a tour with Old City Ghosts today while spots are still open! Until then, read up on our blog for more chill-ridden stories, and stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

Sources:

https://mynews13.com/fl/orlando/florida-on-a-tankful/2024/08/06/tour-one-of-the-oldest-jails-in-florida-and-listen-for-spirits-that-still-haunt-st–augustine

Book A Old City Ghosts Tour And See For Yourself

St. Augustine has survived wars, disease, and pirates to claim the title of the oldest city in the United States. Experience the terrors lurking in the shadows of this quaint Florida town – and they aren’t gators!

Old City Ghosts offers an unflinching look at St Augustine’s history and startling stories of real-life hauntings experienced by tour-goers, visitors, and locals alike. Will you be one of them? Are you brave enough to join us and unveil what makes the Old City of St Augustine one of the most haunted locations in the country?

Chat