Elizabeth Hall
A Walk Through History
Established in 1864, the Napanee County Museum and Archives was once Napanee’s jail.
Before the County Jail, criminals were kept in cells beneath the town hall or shipped off to more secure prisons, such as the Kingston Penitentiary. The records of this old building date back to 1865, when an 18-year-old man was charged with theft. He became the jail’s first inmate, until the charges of his crime were dropped. But theft wasn’t the only thing people did to get themselves locked behind the bars of the County Jail; assault and battery, vagrancy, drunkenness, foul language, and failure to pay taxes were some other crimes that would get a person sent to this jail. But, alongside criminals, people deemed insane, poor, or orphaned would also stay within these walls.
Designed by architect John Powers and built by John Forin from Belleville, the County Jail had 18 cells and was surrounded by three courtyards with walls reaching 15 feet in height. It was originally one of 37 jails that existed in the province but was replaced by a detention centre in 1971, serving the counties of Frontenac, Hastings, Prince Edward, and Lennox & Addington. The County Jail continued to be an acting detention centre until 1974, when Wilf Sorensen, Kingston’s Renovation Architect, oversaw the transformation of the County Jail into a County Museum and Archives in 1976.
To add to the history, and to contribute to the stereotype that museums give off haunted vibes, according to Lisa Bird, the host of Napanee’s weekly Saturday night ghost walks, the County Museum is haunted by a ghost they call The Jailer. It is said you can hear his footsteps and jingling keys as he walks through the building.
Random History Fact: the famous Greek warrior Achilles was said to be immortal, but with one spot of vulnerability: his heel. Paris, Prince of Troy during the Trojan war, shot Achilles in the heel with an arrow, killing him. That is why, the tendon connecting calf muscles to the heel, is called the Achilles Tendon.