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Spotsylvania County Home : Departments : Tourism
Tourism
Spotsylvania Courthouse Historic District
Spotsylvania Jail
8957 Courthouse Road
Spotsylvania, Virginia
The masonry Jail that visitors see today was built in 1855 after the 1839 Jail, positioned closer to the Courthouse, burned in 1853. Citizens, for convenience, wanted a Courthouse and Jail located close to the center of the Counry. Ten acres conveyed to Spotsylvania by tavern owner Lewis Rawlings, would allow for expansion of government and citizen facilities.
The exterior brick walls are two feet thick while interior cell walls are lined with thick oak planks. A front iron door grate allowed for air circulation in the warm weather while a stockade door could be closed when necessary. Original iron bars on the windows reportedly were removed in the early 1940s for war materials. In 2004, bars were replicated and installed along with the sign over the door admonishing 'no talking to prisoners.'
After the Chancellorsville Battle in 1863, the Courthouse green and Jail yard were holding areas for Union prisoners. The Jail ceased to be a prison in 1943 but was leased to Rural Telephones of Milford and then renovated for Counry offices. After being used for storage for many years, the Spotsylvania Preservation Foundation, Inc. (SPFI) in 1998 began the process of an adaptive reuse as a Jail Museum.
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