Shown is the front of the old 1895 jail building as it appeared in 1976 while undergoing renovations for new county offices.
Lore, Legends & Landmarks of Old Adams
By Stephen Kelley
Continuing from last week, stories of ghosts haunting the county jail began as early as the fall of 1896- only about a year and a half after the structure was completed and opened. This is somewhat unusual since most ghost sightings focus on areas where someone has tragically died and the apparition is supposedly that of the deceased. But this was not the case at the new county jail in late 1896-no one had yet met their untimely end here. Unfortunately, since that time, a number of prisoners attempted suicide with a few succeeding.
Even today, there are still reports that this building is haunted. Workers there report strange noises including music coming from nowhere, lights being turned on when no one is present, the elevator moving from floor to floor with no one getting on or off of it, and the other odd occurrences.
One of those prisoners who attempted suicide in the old jail but who did not succeed was Walter E. Swain, who had been incarcerated for forgery while passing through this area during the late 1890’s. At one time Swain had been a well-known journalist and had accompanied the famed explorer Admiral Robert E. Peary on one of his ill-fated expeditions in the then unexplored Arctic during 1893-95, Swain blamed his personal downfall on morphine, having acquired an addiction to that drug while on the Peary expedition.
The old jail was used as such until the new jail addition on the rear of the courthouse was completed in 1975. For eighty years the Queen Anne style brick structure on the corner of Cross and Mulberry streets witnessed, and had been a part of a great deal of local history. In addition to being temporarily utilized as the courthouse in 1910-11 as mentioned last week, it was also a center of focus for several years during Prohibition and the Great Depression era when county sheriffs such as C.H. Pettit, J.L. Treftz, Walter White and Charles Mack earned widespread reputations from their relentless efforts to locate and destroy moonshine stills and arrest those engaged in moonshining and bootlegging activities.
However, in true Appalachian tradition, one of the county sheriffs during the turmoil of Prohibition played a double roll as law enforcement officer and bootlegger. He stored moonshine in the basement of the jail and unabashedly sold it out of the courthouse right under the noses of federal revenuers. It is said that, years after the fact, other men who had held public office in the county at the time, admitted having received thousands of dollars in payoffs from moonshiners, whiskey runners and speakeasy owners throughout the county.
Upon completion of the present jail building in 1975, the fate of the 1895 jail hung in the balance. County officials debated whether or not to demolish or save the old landmark. Fortunately, the county commissioners decided to save it, rehabilitate it and use it for county office space. Today, the 104-year old structure-ghosts and all-stands as an excellent example of adaptive historic preservation.
