By Stephanie Hunt for The New York Times
Photos by Hunter Mcrae
In mid-March, as the South Carolina sun faded in the evening, tourists gathered in the shadows outside Charleston’s Old Jail. Two teenage boys ribbed each other — “Hey, did you see that? Wait, did you hear that?” They were there for a ghost tour that included the 1802 Romanesque Revival building towering over them.
This National Historic Landmark, with an 1822 addition by Robert Mills, the architect of the Washington Monument, is reputed to be stalked by the spirit of Lavinia Fisher, said to be the nation’s first female serial killer, who was hanged for her crimes in 1820.
Denmark Vesey, a Black carpenter and community leader who was convicted of plotting a slave revolt and executed in 1822, was another inmate whose memory kicks up dust. During the Civil War, the place held what now could be the restless shades of Union Army prisoners. While these spirits may not have been laid to rest, the building’s original use has: The Old Jail closed in
