Jailhouse Bed and Breakfast at Historic Washington State Park

Want to stay in a unique historic place? Historic Washington State Park has the perfect place. The Jailhouse Bed and Breakfast is a jailhouse that has been renovated with all the modern amenities. Check availability and reserve your room. 

The original jail was completed in 1873. It was a brick, one-story building with four jail cells. It housed criminals for offenses such as burglary, forgery, assault, assault with intent to kill, maiming, and seduction.

A new two-story jail was completed in 1918 with six jail cells, and replaced the old jail and is the one used today as a bed and breakfast. Each of the eight rooms has a private bathroom, WiFi, and satellite TV. A continental breakfast is served. 

Interesting Facts about the Jailhouse:

• There is a concrete pillar in the dining room and two of the private rooms on the second floor that displays names of convicts who etched their names into it.
• According to the 2007 book “Ghostly Tales from America’s Jails” edited by Joan Upton Hall, 1922 prisoner Isaac Newton Evans supposedly haunts it to this day.
• From 1910 to 1939, there were at least 27 escapees from the jail, and all but one of them were recaptured.
• The most prisoners held in the jail at one time was 17 inmates on January 19, 1923.
• When the county seat moved to Hope in 1940, the jail fell into disuse and was used as rental property divided into apartments.
• In 1982, the jail was bought and renovated by J.B. Summers and opened it as a Bed and Breakfast Inn. It continued as a privately owned Bed and Breakfast Inn until 2010. Many people remember staying at the jail during this time.
• In 2014 it was purchased by the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism to be renovated and reopened as a Bed and Breakfast Inn.