Alabama Stories: The surprising story of the state’s first prison

In the middle of a cold January night in 1929, Harry Williams, an inmate at Alabama’s State Penitentiary, was ambushed by fellow prisoners outside the rambling, red-brick prison. Williams – a “trusty,” an inmate trusted to move freely to do errands around the prison – was headed at 2:30 a.m. to wake the cooks to make breakfast when he was bound and gagged by eight men who were determined to escape, according to The Wetumpka Herald. All but one were under the age of 21.

Using homemade daggers, the men and boys then overpowered the night warden, locked him in a cell and took his keys and four guns. They left through the front door of the building, which, heavily adorned in Victorian-era gingerbread trim and surrounded by a white picket fence, looked more like a grand manor or tranquil retirement home than a penitentiary.

Guards quickly gathered in groups led by bloodhounds to search for the escapees.

Four of the inmates were injured after trying to steal gas from a service station in Wetumpka to fill the tank of an Essex car they stole from Pennington Motor Co. The service station owner opened fire on the escapees, shattering the front window and cutting the inmates.

Fleeing from gunfire, the men arrived at the nearby Coosa River, where they stole a boat and headed downstream. The Wetumpka Herald reported on Jan. 31, 1929, that the escapees, bloodhounds on their heels, abandoned the boat and “took to the fields,” where they were soon captured.

The second group of inmates, the newspaper said, headed to the railroad to hop a train but were caught at Coosada. All the escapees were back in their cells by noon that day.

The escape was just one of the dramatic events to take place at Alabama’s first penitentiary near Wetumpka. The prison operated from 1842 until 1942. It went through numerous changes, beginning, as the state’s only penitentiary, as a prison for both men and women, and eventually housing a tuberculosis sanitarium, briefly acting as a youth detention center and finally as Alabama’s women’s facility until Julia Tutwiler Prison opened in 1942.

The first state-owned prison in Alabama was approved by the Legislature in 1839 and completed in 1841. The first inmate arrived in 1842.

A historical marker at the former site of the prison says: “The Wetumpka State Penitentiary (WSP), originally known as the Alabama State Penitentiary, was the first state prison established in Alabama. Built on the east bank of the Coosa River in Wetumpka, Alabama, it was nicknamed the ‘Walls of Alabama’ or ‘Walls.’ For much of its existence, the prison housed both men and women in separate quarters.”

Alabama Gov. Arthur P. Bagby placed the first cornerstone of the prison in March 1840. The prison cost $84,889 to build and included 208 cells.

Its appearance was unusual for a prison. The facility was so impressive that people went on outings to view the prison and sometimes picnicked there, photos show. Postcards of the main building were sold to tourists.

It is located on Alabama Highway 14 near the intersection of U.S. Highway 231 across from Elmore County Hospital. These days, a visitor to the site is hard-pressed to see its ruins – at least in summer, when kudzu gives them a lush-green blanket – and harder pressed to realize a huge facility that once operated on the barren lot. If you look closely, however, you can see there are some remnants of the original buildings, including brick supports, chimneys and utility outbuildings.

The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 8, 1973, but it is private property with much of it surrounded by a chain-link fence. Be sure to ask permission before going to the area. Check at the Elmore County Museum in Wetumpka.

According to the listing for the National Register, the original prison complex included three brick buildings surrounded on three sides by a 30-foot-high brick wall “braced with modified engaged buttresses.” The front side of the property was enclosed by the large main building which included an ornate, two-story porch with gingerbread trim. It also included a stable, barn, printers’ shop, laundry house and a brick hospital.

“During the Civil War any prisoner willing to join the Confederate Army was pardoned,” the National Register listing said. The remainder manufactured supplies for the soldiers. “In 1865 federal troops opened the doors of the penitentiary and freed all of the convicts.”

When it opened, the penitentiary was supposed to be self-sufficient without support from taxpayers but, according to the Alabama Department of Archives and History, the effort “failed decisively.”

“The prison industry of hand manufacturing of wagons and buggies, saddles and harnesses, shoes, and rope did not produce the capital necessary for self-sufficiency,” the ADAH said. “This disappointing drain on the tax coffers did not go unnoticed by the ‘home rule’ public.”

Some important dates in the prison’s history:

1850

The first female convict was admitted to the prison. She received a 10-year sentence for murder, according to the Alabama Department of Archives and History. She was not named but the ADAH said “she was kept in virtual solitary confinement in a single room of the prison’s hospital.”

1911

An article in the Oct. 10, 1911, edition of The Birmingham News said: “Work on the tuberculosis hospital at the Wetumpka State penitentiary is progressing rapidly, and the plan, conceived because of the large number of deaths among prisoners from the white plague, is receiving the general approval of the state.”

1922

The prison began housing only women, according to the Alabama Department of Archives and History. However, an article in The Wetumpka Herald said the men, or boys, who escaped in 1929, were there as part of an experiment to bring juvenile offenders to the prison for rehabilitation. “The purpose of the change … is to remove the youths from the influence of more hardened criminals such as may be found at Kilby and Speigner Prisons,” the article said. “Only a few prisoners over the 21-year age limit are yet confined to the Wetumpka Prison and these are to be weeded out as soon as possible, it was said. There are approximately 250 prisoners confined to the penitentiary and most of them are employed in the state’s factory for manufacturing underwear.”

1931

In January, a fire destroyed a portion of the Wetumpka prison. It was rebuilt and functioning again in 40 days.

1941

The name of the Wetumpka facility was changed to Julia Tutwiler Prison. That July, a beauty parlor was added for vocational education and rehabilitative purposes. Female inmates also learned to weave rugs and make drapes and bedspreads.

1942

In December, the current Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women was completed for a cost of $350,000 and had a capacity for 400 prisoners. Initially, Tutwiler was segregated. It had five cellblocks for Black prisoners and two for White prisoners, with separate dining halls.

1945

Beginning this year, the property of the old Wetumpka Prison was sold off in parcels.