Hang Out at the Hostel
For as low as $23 a night, you can spend the night at the hangman Arthur Ellis' workplace The Carleton County Jail - now a downtown hostel (75 Nicholas Street). Of course a storm should brew and crypt grey clouds blot out a waning sun as you climb the limestone steps to the front entrance. Once upon a time you could get a free night's stay if you were brave enough to spend the night on death row.
To get an even greater 19th century criminal justice experience, you would have had to spend time shackled, unclothed, in the darkness of The Hole - solitary confinement. Or to have met up with prison guards who would apparently act as judge, jury and executioner - wrapping a makeshift noose, tying it over a rafter and letting the body fall, hanging until dead. Then the rope would be cut and the body let drop to the floor below - look for the markings where they hit.
The building has seen significant renovation since that time: comfortable sofas in bold stripes, contemporary bunk bed with bedding in bright colors, Internet connection and even potted plants on decorative tables. The kitchen, dining room, and lounge unheard of luxuries for most who passed through there so many years ago. The lounge was apparently the holding area for women and children, while scarlet fever victims would be left to rot in the basement. Listen closely and maybe you can still hear the cries and moans of illness, hunger, torture or worse.
Death row is now a museum dedicated to early crime and punishment practices, and Arthur Ellis' name given to certain Canadian Literary Awards. That being said, the building's dark past will likely never fully disappear. Give it a try - you will never know with whom you might get to hang out. Perhaps a condemned man sitting at the foot of the bed head in his hands, or a vampire who will vanish with the promise "I will ornate your odorous flesh with famished fangs."
