We visited Alcatraz in 2005, and – aside from the beautiful San Francisco Bay – that prison has nothing on Moundsville Penitentiary. Alcatraz has names, but Moundsville has numbers - nearly 100 executions, two brutal riots, many murders and (some believe) a few ghosts. It's an eerie tour worth taking - a real-eye opener for the average person who knows... more

My wife and I took our two teenge children and one of their friends to the Penitentiary. The tour was very informative and interesting. I recommend the $5 booklet sold at the gift shop which covers the history of the museum. It provides some additional information/details to the information that you get on the tour. I think that the most... more

I took a group of teens here recently, and we all were fascinated by everything. The architecture is worth a visit all by itself. It is a massive, looming structure hand built from handcut stone by the first prisoners. The sheer size is intimidating. After entering, it's rather stuffy and dank, but it's a prison not a hotel. I was... more

the drive was crazy...i thought we could make it a day trip and come back home...no!! The crazy thing was that the pen was smack dab in the middle of a town...you would never know it was there. But when you pull up you would think that you were in a back in the day castle jail movie. Up close... more

Our tour guide was great. She let the group to take their time and take pictures and look at things and we did not feel rushed. When we got to the area where you could get locked up in a cell if you wanted to know what it felt like, she kept my kids locked up a little bit longer... more

I thought we would see a dirty old prison (which we did) but what an interesting visit. This old prison has only been closed 10 years, so you can envision real prisoners, etc. A guide takes you around for about 1-1/2 hour tour and you visit the cells, and other areas, while he tells you the history of the building,... more