This story originally appeared in the November 2024 issue of Town&Gown magazine
I’ve been researching the jails in Bellefonte for several years, hoping to find which jails were earliest and where they were located. I got serious about this topic when a local told me her uncle once owned the property at 119 E. High St. and that she remembered an old prison cell inside the basement. Others have expressed similar memories or stories. After spending countless hours poring over county records, deeds, maps, newspapers and even casing the property … well, I intend to solve the Bellefonte jail mystery in the following paragraphs.
Going back to the beginning, I found several enlightening records at the Centre County Library & Historical Museum. An article of agreement dated Nov. 11, 1800, among the county commissioners describes that the first jail was contracted to be built by Hudson Williams. The dimensions of this “Prison House or common Goal” were detailed in elegant cursive handwriting.
This original “goal” (“gaol” is an old-fashioned British word for jail; our Pennsylvania trustees used the Americanized spelling “goal” instead) was two stories, 30 feet long by 25 feet wide, with a cellar below, having a two-foot, six-inch-thick foundation. According to the plans, “there shall be an apartment in the cellar for a Dungeon separated from the other part of the said cellar by a wall one foot eight inches thick. The said dungeon shall be twelve feet by nine feet in the clear and shall be covered above by hewed logs laid close together under the plank of the floor.” Of course, the dungeon would have “a proper trap door” too.
Former Governor James Beaver expanded upon these facts during his speech at the Centennial Anniversary of Bellefonte in 1895. Beaver clarified the locations of the original jails, stating: “in reference to the erection of the public buildings, they [the trustees of Centre County] found that it would be impractical to erect the jail upon the public square or ground which had been set apart for that purpose. … They did not seem to think it advisable to erect the jail upon the top of the hill as it is now [in1895] and … there was erected upon lots on the north side of High street, nearly opposite the court house, a small building thirty feet long and twenty-five feet wide in the clear with a dungeon in the cellar. … This primitive prison was succeeded by a stone building for the residence of the sheriff and for a jail for the custody of prisoners, which is well remembered by many now living and which continued to be used for such purposes until the new jail was erected on the top of the hill where it now stands.”
The court criminal docket confirms that the first jail was in use by 1801. This “primitive prison” seemed to work for the town until August of 1811, when a “grand inquest of Centre County reviewed “the publick goal” and found “it to be insufficient to detain prisoners in the same with safety, that a new goal ought to be built.” However, because this was not expected to be done immediately, they recommended improvements such as repairing “the floors thereof which are partly broke and serve the escaping of the prisoners,” and that “the second story to be partitioned of in separate rooms to separate Prisoners of different sexes and colours [sic].” They also reported that “for the health of the prisoners, the rooms ought to be kept cleaner and more airy by the keeper of the said Goal.”
By 1814, it was apparent that the county was making steps to build a new jail. In May and June that year, the county commissioners gave notices within Bellefonte’s American Patriot newspaper of an upcoming meeting for the purpose of contracting workmen to erect a new jail. Then in April of 1815, Thomas Burnside sold his lot “fronting the publick ground” to the county commissioners for $300. According to the deed, this lot was adjacent to the “prison lot on the west and known to be lot numbered 55 in the general plan of said borough.” You can clearly see that these are the lots identified on the provided images of the Centre County prison (1858 map), and the oldest available map of Bellefonte where they appear circa 1818.
Now the county owned a double lot that would need more walls. So in September of 1815, a stonemason named Henry Vandyke was contracted to build the walls for the new jail as well as an eight-by-six-foot “Necessary House” made of stone and “to be sealed off in a proper manner with two holes.” Thus, our second jail, a new jail, its walls and privy were at least under construction in 1815.
There is a gap in county records until 1830. It is then that commissioners make another contract with a Frederick Wheeland (also spelled Wheeling) to “build a new jail wall, beginning where the present wall commences at the southeast corner of the new jail, and extending up the hill fifty feet six inches in front; thence one hundred and forty feet to the alley at right angles, to commence again at the north west corner of the new jail and run parallel with the upper wall until it comes opposite the south west corner of the old jail; and thence to join the same in a proper manner at right angles. The wall to be sixteen feet high above the ground in the inside, the foundation to be dug to the rock or so deep as to ensure a safe foundation for the wall – the said walls to be three feet thick at the base and continue said thickness to the height of six feet to be gradually sloped until it reaches sixteen feet in height from the ground.”
This is where we find the old jail; the wall connects from the respective corners of the “new jail” to the corners of the “old jail”—and there is the answer for the location of Bellefonte’s original jail—the first jail—and its dungeon. This is confirmed in a practical sketch of the jail lots and their wall dimensions found in the records. The old jail was toward the back of lots 53 and 55, approximately where East Pike Street and Decatur Lane meet behind the current 119 E. High St.
For decades there have been rumors that the first jail was located near the parking lot of the YMCA. However, this conflicts with the records. Those areas were occupied by residences at the turn of the 19th century. People may have assumed old stables and carriage houses behind them were associated with the prison. Nevertheless, now we can put the rumors to rest—and better yet, acknowledge that Bellefonte’s second jail is still standing. The third jail behind the courthouse was razed and removed after a fire in 1959, but the second jail property likely goes back to about 1819, if not as early as 1815.
Finally, you may be wondering why the property and apartments in 119 E. High St. have the appearance of a late 1800s Victorian home today. A notable builder and developer named Charles McCafferty purchased the old jail in 1872, shortly after he completed the construction of the new (third) jail behind the courthouse circa 1868. McCafferty was the highest bidder when the county sold the old prison at auction in 1872. He paid $3,100 and sold it two years later for over $6,000. The old jail was upgraded with a mansard roof, an improved facade with brownstone quoins and other improvements.
The McCafferty deeds, as well as the ones that are current today, all reference this historic property as the “Old County Jail.” Indeed, it may be one of the oldest surviving county jails and sheriff’s residences in the state of Pennsylvania. This opens up other inquiries as to which prisoners were confined within these walls. However, for now, we can recognize this forgotten structure for the historic jail, and jail lot, that it always has been.T&G
Visit townandgown.com for a full list of sources. Local Historia is a passion for local history, community and preservation. Its mission is to connect you with local history through engaging content and walking tours. Local Historia is owned by public historians Matt Maris and Dustin Elder, who co-author this column. For more, visit localhistoria.com.
Sources:
County Commissioner Records (1800-1833), copies held at the Centre County Library & Historical Museum. Historic Registration Project collection in the PA Room.
Deeds and Criminal Docket records at webia.centrecountypa.gov
“Historical Address.” Democratic Watchman (Bellefonte, PA), June 14, 1895.
1818 Map of Bellefonte Borough (CCLHM)
1858 J.A.J. Cummings Map of the Borough of Bellefonte
