The St. Johns County Jail In Saint Augustine was built by Henry Flagler in 1891 and served the county till about 1953. The previous jail was located downtown next to the Hotel Ponce De Leon till this one opened up. It was designed to have a Queen Anne Romanesque Revival Architecture. It is one of the very few surviving 19th century jails in this country making the National Register Of Historic places In 1987.This site was built by the  Fauly Jail Building and Manufacturing Company Of St. Louis. 

The Jail was able to house 72 inmates at a time which would equal 4 inmates per cell with open barred windows. Their was no plumbing and the inmates did do some work such as gardening on the jail property. They had male and female cells, a maximum security area, and a main cell block area. Their was also a gallows area where certain prisoners could be executed at. I heard from alot of people the gallows tends to really scare people who visit the jail. They almost feel sick or as if its a bad area. 

The first Sheriff named Perry was over 6'5 if not taller resides adjacent from the  jail with his family in the living quarters. People have claimed to have seen a ghostly man in a plaid suit resembling the sheriff in the main cell block area. So his ghost is said to haunt the jail. 

Besides ghost tours which are given here the Jail serves as a museum which has actual guns that were used in actual crimes. They say that Sheriff Perry was the most feared sheriff of the south lets just say in theory he was a redneck much like the cops are in Seminole County today lol rednecks with a gun. Anyhow I had a need to say that cause despite you got your good cops their are some bad ones so their is no doubt that the treatment of the inmates in this prison were top notch. Which leads to me to believe that this place is very haunted for this reason.

People who wander the jail often smell the stench of unwashed human bodies, feel cold spots and see a shadow of a man who could be the Sheriff. Going back to the foul odors prisoners back then were given one bucket to wash themselves and had to share that amongst the four inmates so the men were fairly kept filthy. 

Then we have a few houses surrounding the old Jail and were moved near here around 2006 from Old Town In Saint Augustine. These houses were called the Wiles Houses.  They were built by William Fishwick around 1899. Two of the houses were joined together and will be used to show others a turn of the century general store with giant seed bins, massive counters, large coffee grinders, tin signs, a tobacco store Indian, and shelves of the original store merchandise from the groceries to patented medicines. The store will also feature a late 1800,s office, a produce stand, a baker, a butcher shop, and a variety of tools and mechanical devices just like the general stories of the days past. The antiques used in this house will come from the oldest store attraction on Artillery Street which the Historic Tours Of America Owns.

Then we have the Hildreth Plantation house next to the jail which was about to be demolished and was located in Old Town St. Augustine back in 2004. This house had been moved a few times and at one time was located near Fullerwood an area near St. Augustine. The mansion was constructed in 1870 prior to 1914 two wings were detached from the main house and moved. One of those wings went to Grant Street the other Alfred Street. This structure photographed below came from Alfred Street so basically your only seeing a wing of the giant mansion. The original 1879 Greek Revival house still stands in Fullerwood a half of mile from the Old Jail. Elements such as Jig sawn balusters were added to give it a Queen Anne Victorian appearance. The Hildreth House is being restored into a museum for Old Town St. Augustine Visitors. But this house that sits at the old Jail can be visited by tourist to see the late 1800s practice of Dr. Percy Dreggors a Physician, Dentist & Undertaker who specialized in the painless removal of bullets and teeth. 

To learn more about Saint Augustine Old Town Please Refer To....Click Here: Saint Augustine Old Town The other house near the jail is probably where the Sheriff and his family use to stay then also nearby is the Old Senator Tree which is this giant 600 year old Oak one of the oldest in Saint Augustine. So lots of history all put together at this site and hence the reason we investigated. Today the Old Jail is a trolley tour business that gives from what I hear some of the best tours of the city of Saint Augustine as of current.

© By

Lord Rick-AngelOfThyNight

 

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