Built 1690 Designated CP March 12, 1987 Architectural style American Colonial | NRHP Reference # 71000078 Opened 1690 Added to NRHP 2 July 1971 | |
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Location Barnstable, Massachusetts Part of Old King's Highway Historic District (#87000314) Similar Cahoon Museum of American, Craigville Beach - Barnstable, Follins Pond, Wianno Club, John F Kennedy Hyannis | ||
Barnstable's Old Gaol is an historic colonial jail on 3353 Main Street/Massachusetts Route 6A in Barnstable, Massachusetts. Built c.1690, it is the oldest wooden jail in the United States of America.
The jail was built by order of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay Colony courts. It served as the Barnstable County jail until c.1820, when a new stone jail was built. The structure, which held about six prisoners, was eventually attached to a barn. In 1968 it was rediscovered, separated from the barn, and moved 100 feet onto the grounds of the Coast Guard Heritage Museum (located in the old Customshouse building) in Barnstable Village.
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971, and included in the Old King's Highway Historic District in 1987.
In 1716, the jail imprisoned Goody Hallett, the lover of pirate Samuel Bellamy, later known as the Witch of Wellfleet, as well as the two survivor's of Sam Bellamy's flagship Whydah Gally which wrecked at Wellfleet, and the seven survivors of his consort ship Mary Anne which wrecked ten miles south at Pochet Island. The jail house is considered one of the most haunted in America and is open to ghost tours at certain times of the year. It is believed to be haunted by Goody Hallett, who is said to also haunt the Whydah Pirate Museum in Provincetown, as well as Lucifer Land (also called Goody Hallett's Meadow) which is a reference to the area of land at the top of the Wellfleet cliffs.