Old Jail Museum (Carbon County Jail)

OVERVIEW

A stone jail of 1869–70 on Broadway in Jim Thorpe (then Mauch Chunk), by the architect Edward Haviland, in use until January 1995 and since kept as the Old Jail Museum by the couple who bought it to save it. Suspected Molly Maguires — Irish miners convicted, on the coal companies' evidence, of murder — were held here in 1875–76 and seven were hanged in its yard, four on one day in June 1877.

HISTORY

The trials are among the most contested in American labour history; Pennsylvania granted Jack Kehoe, hanged in 1878, a posthumous pardon in 1979.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

On the wall of cell 17 is a handprint said to be Alexander Campbell's, hanged in 1877, pressed there as he swore his innocence; the tradition holds that it has returned through repainting and even a rebuilt wall. The museum shows it. Whether the mark is what it is said to be is not established; that it has been on that wall for generations is.

VISITING

Seasonal museum tours; cell 17 is on the route.