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- This
column by John Cosway is a mix of 50 years of media memories
and 15 years of buying and selling experiences via live and online
auctions, flea markets, antique stores and markets etc.
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- Cosway's Corner -
Jailhouse ghosts and overnight stays
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- We're in the jailhouse now - as tourists
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- By John Cosway
- As a verse of the old Johnny
Cash song goes: We're in the jailhouse now.
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- Well, you could be behind bars
at your leisure if you are an adventurous crime and punishment
buff on the trail of Ontario's historic gaols/jails.
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- Ontario's landscape is peppered
with jails, including Canada's smallest jail, haunted jails,
the country's only jail hostel and other unique jail treats.
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- Jails built in the 1800s were
built to last and while many are still standing, fewer and fewer
are being used to house prisoners.
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- Many of Canada's more famous
jailbirds - Edwin Alonzo Boyd, Bill Miner, aka
The Grey Fox, Colin Thatcher, Roger Caron, The
Black Donnellys, Brian Molony etc. - have all had
first-hand experiences with custodial accommodations.
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- Most citizens, including our
law abiding Wayback Times readers, can only imagine life behind
bars, which makes Ontario's tourist jails and their cells so
popular.
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 So
we're in the jailhouse now, Take 1: Cornwall Jail
- With Halloween creeping up on
us, let's start with the Cornwall Jail, an historic - and haunted
- jail that housed a wide variety of wayward souls for 168 years
before closing its doors in 2002.
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- The jail, replaced by new and
larger facilities in the Ottawa area, re-opened in 2005 as a
Cornwall & Seaway Valley Tourism tourist attraction. It draws
about 5,000 visitors per year, including former inmates and staff.
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- "Many, many former 'residents'
and staff have visited with their families," says Candy
Pollard, the tourism office's marketing and events coordinator.
"And I would say 75% of our visitors ask about the haunted
aspect of the jail."
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- It is "quite creepy,"
Candy told us when asked to elaborate.
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- "There are many sounds
in a building this old, so many things we can put down to old
plumbing etc. But there are sounds that are quite distinctive,
such as a trolley going down the hallway, which has been heard
by both staff and visitors.
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- "I have come in first thing
in the morning and cell doors that I know were closed the night
before when I locked up are now open. We also have orbs in many
of our photos. We also have orbs on film that move at different
speeds and obviously veer to miss hitting each other."
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- Perhaps the restless souls of
the 10 people hanged at the jail before executions in the courtyard
ended in 1954 linger. The gallows were always dismantled after
each hanging, but a replica was built last year from a photograph
to enhance jail tour photo ops.
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- The "creepy" goings
on, the hanging courtyard and the small cells in the oldest part
of the jail top the list for visitor appeal, says Candy.
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- While the former Alcatraz prison
in San Francisco is the most popular penal attraction in the
United States, the historic jail in Cornwall holds its own in
Ontario's incarceration history.
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- Candy says the Cornwall Jail,
built in 1834, housed some notorious criminals over the years,
including Roger Caron, the well-known jailhouse author
who wrote Go Boy and Bingo.
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- "His first incarceration
was here in the Cornwall Jail prior to being sent to the 'Big
House' in Kingston. We have also had one of the boxing Hilton
Brothers from the Montreal area and, for a few months, we had
a few Hell's Angels held here."
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- The Cornwall & Seaway Valley
Tourism uses the former jailer's residence, but 22 other areas
of the historic gaol/jail are open to the public, including the
ever-popular cells.
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- Self-guided tours, with a booklet,
are available from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 1 through May 24, with
last admission at 3 p.m. Guided tours are available during the
same hours from May 24 to Aug. 30. Admission is $4, children
four to 12, $2, children under four, free.
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- Check out their web site at
www.cornwalljail.com
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 We're
in the jailhouse now, Take 2: Carleton County Gaol, Ottawa
- If you want to get a real feel
of an historic jail, you can spend the night at the Carleton
County Gaol in downtown Ottawa, also known as the Hi-Ottawa Jail
Hostel. It is Canada's only retired jail being used as a hostel.
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- The Georgian style building
hasn't been used as a real jail since 1972. Within a year of
its closing, the jail was turned into a $2-a-night hostel, opening
on August 2, 1973, with a very special daytime guest, Prince
Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.
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- Guests say it too is haunted.
They have reported ghostly events within its walls, especially
on Death Row. Many of their ghostly experiences can be read on
the hostel's web site: www.carletoncountygaol.com/
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- The jail, built after the original
1842 jail/courthouse was levelled in an 1860s blaze, has a variety
of overnight accommodations, including shared cells for under
$35 per "inmate" or under $80 for your own private
cell.
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- Shy about playing the part of
a criminal for a night? You can always book "The Warden's
Quarters," a recently added private apartment suitable for
a family.
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- All guests are free to leave
at 11 a.m.
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 We're
in the jailhouse now, Take 3: Port Dalhousie Jail
- Meanwhile, an 1800s stone jail
in Port Dalhousie is a landmark for its size - 12 feet by 20
feet. The smallest standing jail in Canada was built in 1845
to accommodate drunk and disorderly sailors while in port along
the original Welland Canal.
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- The sailors were kept in two
cozy cells, each with their own fireplace. During the winter
months, they were responsible for gathering wood for their fireplace
before sleeping off nights on the town.
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- A restoration project launched
by the Port Dalhousie Quorum Inc. was completed in 1988. Today,
visitors to the historic jail at 11 Main Street can sit down
for non-alcoholic refreshments and snacks and imagine how it
was in the rowdy 1800s.
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- The jail is part of a recommended
City of St. Catharines tourism route.
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- We're in the jailhouse now,
Take 4: Historic Ontario jail notes
- Alexander Mackenzie was an apprentice stonemason and helped
build the Chatham Jail in the 1840s. In 1873, the Liberal became
Canada's second prime minister;
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- The American Civil War was being
fought when the Lindsay Jail opened in 1863. It was used as a
jail through 2003 - 140 years;
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- The Huron Historic Gaol, open
to the public May to October, is unique for its octagonal design.
It was used as a jail from 1841 to 1972;
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- Toronto's first jail, with 10
cells and made of wood, was built about 1800 on the southeast
corner of Yonge and King Streets. It was used for about 25 years;
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- The original Don Jail in Toronto,
built in 1858, stopped housing prisoners in 1977. The Don, which
is not open for tours, is best known for the hangings of cop
killer Ronald Turpin, 29, and double murderer Arthur
Lucas, 54, on Dec. 11, 1962.
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- The double hangings were the
last of 34 executions at the Don and the last in Canada before
it officially abolished capital punishment in 1976.
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- Generally, jails are good places
to avoid - unless you are a law-abiding tourist.
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