The Old Jail
Commissioned in 1891 by industrialist Henry Flagler, who wanted the county jail moved away from his Ponce de Leon Hotel, the Old Jail was built by the Pauly Jail Building Company, the firm later tied to Alcatraz, and dressed in Romanesque Revival lines to pass for a Victorian home. For sixty-two years it held up to eighty-four inmates under harsh conditions, much of that time under the towering Sheriff Joe Perry, and eight men were hanged on its gallows before it closed in 1953.
Since becoming a museum, visitors and staff report unseen footsteps, cold spots and tugged hair near the old cells, and a recurring smell of sewage or molasses with no source. Some glimpse a former inmate in the cellblock; others say Sheriff Perry himself is never quite finished with his rounds.
📍 167 San Marco Avenue, St. Augustine, FL 32084, St. Augustine, FL · Get directions