The Old Nelson County Jail

The old Nelson County Jail, half a block off Court Square at 111 W. Stephen Foster Ave., locked up prisoners on the same lot for 190 years, from 1797 until 1987. Its 1819 front building has limestone walls 30 inches thick, and its 1874 back jail survives almost exactly as the last inmates left it. Since 1989 it has been Jailer’s Inn, a bed and breakfast that also offers daily jail tours to non-guests. Call ahead for tour times, then give yourself half an hour to stand in a cell and imagine the winters.

Two jails, one lot

Nelson County used this site for its jail from 1797, when Bardstown was a raw county seat of fewer than 150 houses. What you see today comes in two parts.

The 1819 front jail

The building on Stephen Foster Avenue went up in 1819 with native stone walls 30 inches thick, according to the inn’s history page. Wikipedia calls the stone laurel dolomite; locals just call it limestone. Inside was an upstairs “dungeon.” John Rogers, the Baltimore builder who designed the St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral, did carpentry on the building, a small detail that ties the jail to the town’s grandest church. This is the part that became the inn, with guest rooms on two floors.

The 1874 back jail

Walk through the courtyard to the rear and the mood changes. The back jail, built in 1874 of dry-laid stone behind a tall stone wall, is “basically unchanged,” per the inn. Iron doors, stone cells, the cold of thick masonry: this is the part people remember. Even if you never plan to stay the night, the unrestored back jail is reason enough to book a tour.

A working jail into the 1980s

This was not a museum piece mothballed in the 1800s. When the complex was added to the National Register, it was still in use, described as the only early stone jail still operating in Kentucky, per the Nelson County Jail’s Wikipedia entry. It closed in 1987 as the oldest operating jail complex in the state. People who grew up in Bardstown remember it as the county lockup, not a curiosity.

The county sold it at public auction. Paul, Challen and Fran McCoy bought it and opened the bed and breakfast in 1989. C. Paul McCoy and his wife Kim have run it since 1995.

What jail life looked like

It is worth pausing on who was actually held here. For most of its life this was an ordinary county jail: people awaiting trial, people serving short sentences, and now and then a prisoner facing the gallows, as Martin Hill did. Thick stone kept people in and kept heat out, which meant cells that were cold for much of the year, damp in wet weather and close in the Kentucky summer. The 1874 back jail stayed in use for more than a century after it was built, right up to the 1987 closing, with little changed. When you stand in the back jail, notice how little light the small high windows let in; that, more than any ghost story, is what the place is about.

The ghost stories

The Travel Channel named Jailer’s Inn one of the 10 most haunted places in the United States, and the inn does not discourage the reputation. The best-known story concerns Martin Hill, who died in the jail while waiting to be hanged for murdering his wife. Kentucky Tourism’s 2023 roundup of Bardstown’s spooky places adds “Mrs. McKay,” a former jailer said to keep an eye on things. Treat these as folklore; the jail’s real history, 190 years of people held in stone rooms, is sobering enough. For the town’s full ghost circuit, see haunted Bardstown.

Touring the jail

Jailer’s Inn advertises “Tours available daily, bus groups welcomed” on its homepage but does not post times or a price online, so call (502) 348-5551 or (800) 948-5551 before you walk over. Guests get a complimentary tour. Wear shoes with grip: old stone floors are uneven.

The innkeepers are running a B&B at the same time, so a quick call saves a wasted walk. In October, when ghost season brings crowds, call a day ahead.

Sleeping in the jail

The inn’s rooms range from Victorian and Colonial to the 1819 Room with a double Jacuzzi, a Garden Room with a claw-foot tub, a Nautical Suite, a Honey Suite, a Library Room and a Family Suite. The one everyone asks about is the Jail Cell room, which keeps the bunk beds once used by prisoners alongside a full bed. A full breakfast is served, in summer in the flower-filled courtyard. Check-in is 2 to 8 p.m. and checkout is 11 a.m.; pets are not allowed; and cancellations need seven days’ notice, or 30 days for Derby, Bourbon Festival and Arts and Crafts Fair weekends, per the inn’s policies. Rates and booking details are on our Jailer’s Inn lodging page, and if the idea of an offbeat night appeals, browse unique stays around Bardstown.

Is the jail tour worth it?

For history buffs, yes. It is short and completely different from the polished house tours: nothing here was restored to look pretty. Ghost hunters will want to come at dusk in October, while anyone claustrophobic should know the back cells are small and dim. Pair it with a stroll through the Pioneer Cemetery behind it and you have a strong hour of downtown history without moving the car.

If you are deciding between the jail and the tavern for a night’s stay, the tavern is about bourbon and legends, the jail about atmosphere and a big breakfast. Both are a half-minute walk from Court Square.

Old jail versus other Bardstown history stops

Where it is and getting there

The inn sits half a block west of Court Square on Stephen Foster Avenue, next door to the Old Talbott Tavern. If you are staying downtown, walk. Otherwise, park once downtown and see this, the tavern, the cemetery and the square on foot. The inn offers off-street parking for guests.

Pair it with

Right behind the jail lies the Old Pioneer Cemetery, established in 1789, with above-ground chest tombs and John Fitch’s original grave site; our John Fitch and Pioneer Cemetery page explains. Tour the jail at 3 p.m., walk the cemetery in late-afternoon light, then have dinner and a bourbon at the Talbott next door. For the October version of the same evening, add the Halloween events and ghost walks.