West Virginia State Penitentiary Tour – Moundsville, West Virginia
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a prisoner in a state penitentiary? To have to live as they live and do the work they are required to do? You can experience these feelings for a little while when you take the West Virginia State Penitentiary Tour.
The prison is situated on 11 acres and was built by the prisoners themselves. Back in 1866 the prisoners put together the prison heavy rock by rock. The prisoners that were assigned to "hard labor" worked to create their own prison. When a judge sentenced them to "hard labor" this is the type of work the judge was planning.
The West Virginia Supreme Court ruled that the prisons 5×7 foot cells were "cruel and unusual punishment" in the mid 1980s. This was ruled because there were often two or more people incarcerated into the cells. With this ruling the prison was closed in 1995.
Since the prison was there and not being used as a prison any longer it was opened as a tourist attractions (sound like Alcatraz?). Not only can you take a tour but there are occasionally mock prison riots (to train guards). If you really want an experience that will have your hair standing on end you can participate in the monthly "ghost hunt" sleepover. You will spend the night in the empty, unit buildings…if you are brave enough.
The prison is empty but it isn’t a quite place to go and meditate. The concrete and steel don’t deaden the sounds; they reverberate off the walls, ceiling, stairwells and everywhere. The building may be clean but it won’t make you want to emulate it at home, it’s ugly! Some of the prisoners tried to make it better with some framed paintings on the wall. One of the paintings is of the world’s longest single arch steel span bridge in downstate Fayetteville which was done by Danny Lehman. He may have done the painting but obviously had enemies since he was stabbed through the eye in North Hall and got his brain punctured.
Here is also a lifelike life-sized Indian family built by another "trustee". This creation made of paper-mache for an exhibit at the big Indian Burial Mound Museum which is across the street. Although the quality is very good it was rejected for display because some Christians complained about the nearly-nude Indians. The Museum’s loss was the prisons gain since it now on display in the old cafeteria.
The old cafeteria was the site of the prison’s last major riot. The governor ended the standoff by striking a deal with the prisoners. They would release 16 hostages in exchange for a new cafeteria with heating and air conditioning. This new cafeteria was the only building in the prison to have these luxuries.
You will be able to see the "protective custody" yard where the rapists, child molesters, "rats", and "snitches" would exercise. You will also go past the "old man colony" where prisoners had to be at least65 years old and in poor health to live here. Hopefully you don’t have to go to the bathroom in the open-air toilets that are there. They used to be enclosed but an inmate was beaten in it so the warden ordered the outer walls knocked down as punishment.
When you go to the Wagon Gate area of the prison, the oldest part of the prison be ready for some shocks. All of a sudden dummy will drop through an overhead trap door, swinging by its neck from a noose. There were 85 men executed by hanging at the prison which was a public spectacle until one was accidently decapitated. Beginning in 1948 and forward "Old Sparkie" was used. "Old Sparkie" was the electric chair.
Up until 1959 the prison warden was required to live at the prison. The Wheel House in the administration building was a revolving door with iron bars instead of glass which separated the Warden and his family from the inmates.
Next you will visit the North Hall. This is where the really hardened prisoners were housed. This area was a human warehouse where men would freeze in the winter and broil in the summer. It is comprised of tier after tier of tiny cells stacked up to the ceiling. There are open-air showers on the concrete floor. The prisoners were fed through slots in the cell doors called "the bean hole". The tour guide will lock you into these tiny cells so you can experience what the prisoners did, only you get out, they didn’t.
The tour will end at the small prison museum where you will see a display of confiscated hand-made weapons, replica death cell, and a hand-written letter from Charles Manson. He requested a transfer to West Virginia, which was denied.
Here, too, is "Old Sparkie," built by a prisoner in 1950, and for which he had to be moved to another prison in order to prevent his being killed. You can’t sit in it, although people always ask to. Above the chair is a glass-fronted box holding the leather bag that was dropped over the condemned prisoner’s head. It wasn’t just for privacy. "The electricity would go down through the head," a guide will explain, "and then exit the cavities of the face: the eyes, mouth, nose, and ears.
Location: 818 Jefferson Ave., Moundsville, WV
Directions: On the south side of Moundsville, at the corner of 8th St. and Jefferson Ave. Jefferson is a couple of blocks east of Hwy 2.
Hours: Apr-Nov T-Su 10-4. There’s no heat, so it’s too cold for tours in the winter.
(Call to verify) Phone: 304-845-6200
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