Historic Fincastle, Inc. (HFI) will sponsor the annual Historic Fincastle Fall Festival from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, September 28. In preparation for this event, there will be an article each week leading up to the festival highlighting some of the attractions. Today’s article highlights the “Old Jail Gift Shop.”
This building was constructed in 1897 during the height of seasonal vacationers from New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and other southern towns to escape the extreme heat in the South. There were two hotels in town as well as boarding houses that could house as many as 140 guests, which for a town of 675 people was “a lot of visitors.” Does the fact that a new jail was built around this same time a coincidence or not, what do you think? If you look at the old building, you can see the architectural influences of the people from the New Orleans area: wrought iron trim, two stories, arched brick detail above the windows, etc.
There are three floors and a basement inside the very substantial walls of 32 feet by 32 feet. The bottom floor, now a gift shop, is where the jailer and his family would live. Basically, the first floor has four rooms (one is now a hallway and a toilet), three exterior doors, an interior door to the stairs and 12 large windows.
The second floor would have housed the female prisoners plus the sheriff and a “booking” room. The third floor was “reserved” for the male prisoners. Between the floors, the ceilings are made of concrete so prisoners could not “dig their way to freedom.” The structure of the ceilings is curved to help support the weight of the concrete floor.
This building served as the jail until the “new jail” was built in the mid-1960s. Since that time, it has been the home of the Fincastle Library, storage for the Christmas lights for the town and the Chamber of Commerce of Botetourt County had offices on the first floor at one time.
Caroline and Donald Naysmith are the present proprietors of this property. The gift shop is now open on Fridays (11 a.m.-2 p.m.) and Saturdays (11 a.m.-4 p.m.) thanks to many volunteers who are helping the Naysmiths so they can continue work on their other restoration project in Fincastle (Aspen Hill on Main Street).
To see a video on Caroline and Donald Naysmith and the Old Jail (take a tour through the building) go to YouTube.com and search for Caroline and Donald Naysmith – Botetourt County Storytellers Series.
The Old Jail Gift Shop will be open on Saturday, September 28 for the Historic Fincastle Festival.
~ HFI
