Spooky Sentence: The Old Cambria County Prison now a tourist attraction

EBENSBURG, Pa. (WTAJ) — One historical landmark in Cambria County now serves as a tourist attraction just in time for Halloween.

The Old Stone Jail has stood on its foundation since 1870. In the heart of downtown Ebensburg, it served as the Old Cambria County Prison until 1997, when it was completely abandoned.

David Davis wanted to be awarded the deed to the property but found himself in a battle with one Central Pennsylvania man in 2012. Due to Davis’ residency outside of the Commonwealth, the county went with the latter.

“Since I lived in North Carolina at the time and he lived here, they awarded him the contract,” Davis said. “They felt it was in their better interest to have somebody local.”

The buyer was given five years to enact repairs to the property. The county found that he took no action toward fixing the building, which resulted in them taking back the property.

“I got on the phone and I set up a meeting with the Ebensburg Borough Council and Cambria County Commissioners,” Davis added. “I made an offer to buy the place, and in that meeting, they agreed. In February of 2013, we came to an agreement and I actually finally settled the paperwork and bought the property in 2019.”

Repairs are currently underway in certain areas of the building, but that did not stop Davis from opening the doors for guided tours of the Old Stone Jail. In September of 2024, the doors were opened to start the tours of the prison.

Currently, about 70% of the building is open to be viewed. However, those who walk through the halls and cells should be warned, as the prison has been rumored to be the most haunted historical attraction on the eastern side of the United States.

“There has been so much evidence presented, not just to me, but over the history of this place,” Davis said. “A lot of things have been published. In fact, we had an investigation here on Friday [September] the 13th. We had an overnight investigator in here, and they captured a picture of a ghost.”

One of these paranormal stories involves the story of one prisoner named Michael Smith, or as legend calls him “Old Smitty”. The tale states that Old Smitty was put on death row, arraigned to be hanged.

However, the night before his execution, it was reported that Smitty vanished. He was never recaptured for his execution, which made him “The Man They Couldn’t Hang”.

“Part of the story here is that he never left,” Davis added. “He was murdered the night before his execution, and his body and spirit still resides here.”

That discovery sparked an idea in the business mind of Davis. He allows paranormal investigators from Lurking Spirits Paranormal to spend the night inside the prison walls.

There have been anecdotes from some participants that they have felt paranormal activity.

“Everything from just hair on their arms being raised for no reason, goosebumps to seeing things out of the corner of their eye and whispers in their ears,” Davis said. “We had a girl here about three weeks ago that went into a panic attack because she kept saying somebody was grabbing her hair.”

Through a tour of the facility, the different cells and the darkest crevices of the basement floor raised hairs on my skin. The lore inside the walls and the history that stands with each step you take can do that to a visitor.

Davis does plan to expand the facility with multiple different ventures. However, his biggest struggle is to keep the historical significance while modernizing the place.

“The problem is that this building was designed and built to be a prison,” Davis said. “So it’s very restrictive to be able to move around here, especially for larger crowds. As a businessman, I’ve got this balancing act that is ‘How do I preserve that historical value but still be able to commercialize it?’. And I got to make money off this building. It’s a lot of money to keep the upkeep here.”

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The history behind the bars of the Old Cambria County Prison adds to the legends of those who walked those floors over a century ago. It gives the idea that some former inmates now have an afterlife sentence inside those stone walls.

Plans are currently in development to expand the prison and tours are still offered on weekends. For more information, visit the Old Stone Jail website .

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