GRAPEVINE, Texas — When it comes to unexpected tourist attractions, jail museums offer a unique — and unexpected — way to look at history.
Many small-town jails have second lives as tourist attractions, often housing local historical societies or history museums.
There are purportedly dozens of jail museums across the country. From the buildings’ architectural details to the museums’ artifacts, they provide a window into crime and punishment — and how it is an integral, albeit often unhighlighted, part of history.
Some jails, like Alcatraz, are famous, while others, like the Grapevine (Texas) Calaboose, are more easily overlooked. Neither was the optimal place to spend much time, though they make great places to explore today and ponder the past.
Marvel at the architecture
What’s particularly intriguing about exploring some jail museums is their architecture. Some buildings are architectural marvels, and their details are almost stunning, as if they should have served a nobler purpose than a jail.
However, the dire inside doesn’t necessarily match the building’s grand facade.
Consider the former Turner County (Georgia) Jail, known locally as “Turner Castle.” The imposing structure featured Romanesque architecture and stood in the heart of Ashburn.
It opened in 1907 and remained in use until a new jail replaced it in 1994. After its closure as a jail, the building had a chance at redemption and a second use in the form of a museum, the now-shuttered Crime and Punishment Museum.
Unique stories from notorious residents
Jails are more than inanimate structures and a series of cells — or even the replica electric chair some museums may house today. These stories range from well-known outlaws to political prisoners to more nefarious ones with well-documented exploits.
Nowhere is that more obvious than San Francisco’s Alcatraz. Today, the former jail is a national park, and more than a million people visit it every year.
Over the years, the federal prison was home to several infamous inmates, including Al Capone, George “Machine Gun” Kelly and Robert Stroud, the ‘Bird Man’ of Alcatraz.
Preserving history, changing times
Converting former jails into museums, communities often save historic structures from demolition and help preserve stories for future generations.
Jail museums offer more than imposing walls and iron bars; they provide an unconventional yet compelling attraction. Whether we think about it daily, jails provide an inextricable connection to the past.
While they may make interesting destinations, few have lauded their amenities, even if an English gentleman left a review about his state-of-the-art “custody suite” in Perry Barr a few years ago. He was detained for 16 hours, but that was enough for him to leave a three-star rating.
No word on Al Capone’s Yelp rating of Alcatraz.