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A cornerstone from the Old State Prison was donated to the Old Capital Heritage Center at Central State Hospital. GREENBERRY MOORE/Staff
Baldwin County is donating to a soon-to-open museum exhibit a cornerstone from a prison building that once housed hundreds of inmates, as well as the electric chair used by the state for executions.
County Manager Carlos Tobar confirmed Tuesday that county public works employees delivered the cornerstone of the Old State Prison to the Old Capital Heritage Center at the Depot on the Central State Hospital (CSH) campus that morning.
The prison was constructed in 1911 after a wooden prison building on the site burned. Approximately 160 persons sentenced to death were electrocuted there before the facility closed in 1937.
The facility was torn down in 2018 due to its unsafe condition, and the cornerstone as well as some prison bars were saved and stored until recently.
The stone’s engraving reads: “Erected by The Prison Commission of Georgia, 1911 – R.E. Davidson, Chairman, Wiley Williams, Clement A. Evans, Commissioners.”
The county’s actions are at least partially in response to assertions by a local historian, Edward Adkins, whose father was a chaplain at Old State Prison.
Adkins has accused the county of ignoring the possible disturbance of human remains when construction begins later this year on the planned water park. The former prison site is alongside Hwy. 22, immediately adjacent to Walter B. Williams Park.
Adkins addressed county commissioners at a recent meeting concerning his allegations, and Board Chairman Johnny Westmoreland wrote him a letter last week. The commissioner informed Adkins the cornerstone would be located at the Depot’s upcoming exhibit, entitled ‘Fast Fading, the History of Central State Hospital.’
“The link between jails, prisons, and the mentally ill spans centuries,” Westmoreland wrote. “Before ‘asylums’ were available, those with mental illness were often held in jails and prisons. Now that mental health institutions are no longer readily available, our mentally ill are incarcerated at alarming rates.”
The chairman went on to point out that figures provided by the American Psychological Association show that 64 percent of jail inmates, 54 percent of state prisoners, and 45 percent of federal prisoners have reported mental health concerns. Further, approximately half of the people in U.S. jails and more than a third of federal prison inmates have been diagnosed with mental illness.
Westmoreland wrote that the commissioners recognize the need to make the public aware of related issues.
“Educating the public and our community about this crisis is so important to the overall story of Central State Hospital, our local prisons, both past and present, and how they impact our community,” the letter reads. “The county will make available to the museum photos and video of the old state prison.”
Adkins was at the commissioners’ meeting this past Tuesday night and said the decision regarding the prison cornerstone was a mistake.
“If this historically inaccurate exhibit is part of the CSH museum, then maybe the electric chair should also be included,” he told the board.
Tobar did not disagree with the historian.
“I think it would be great if we can get the chair here to be displayed at The Depot,” he said after the meeting. “That should make for a great exhibit.”
The county manager said he had heard from a source that the chair is located at Reidsville State Prison but has no direct knowledge of that.
Jessica Whitehead is president of the board of trustees for the Depot and said the goal is to raise what likely will be more than $2 million to renovate the structure.
Whitehead said only one room has been finished, and she received approval to create the exhibit that will focus on the history of Central State Hospital.
The cornerstone and a set of prison bars will be among many other artifacts and sources of information in the exhibit, scheduled to open in late April or early May.
“That is what people come out here to see,” she said of CSH, adding that will be one advantage of the new exhibit. “Perhaps we’ll be able to start bringing people out here to learn about the history and also to bring in some funds for the depot.”
Whitehead also echoed Westmoreland’s sentiments regarding the treatment of mental illness.
“Asylums were created to take the mentally ill people out of jails and prisons, where they did not belong, and put them in a place that could take care of them properly,” she said. “That’s where the cornerstone comes in for the exhibit, to include that information and that part of the history of why asylums were created in the first place.”