Missouri State Penitentiary, Missouri, United States
5.0 (1.183 reviews) Spent Ranking #1 in Jefferson City Historic Sites
Worth the visit
The Missouri State Penitentiary (MSP) opened in 1836 along the banks of the Missouri River in Jefferson City, Missouri, the state capital. The prison housed inmates for 168 years and was the oldest continually operating prison west of the Mississippi until it was decommissioned in 2004. The prison was already 100 years old when Alcatraz began taking inmates.The Jefferson City Convention & Visitors Bureau now offers a wide variety of tours at the site, once named the "The bloodiest 47 acres in America" by Time magazine. Visitors can choose to take a History or Ghost Tour, among others, and will walk through several incredibly historic housing units, the vast upper yard of the property and the gas chamber, where 40 men and women were executed. The tour also showcases cells of infamous inmates such as Sonny Liston, and James Earl Ray, who escaped from MSP before assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. Tour Season runs March - November each year. Tour Season: March - November
Address
115 Lafayette St., Jefferson City, MO 65101
Mobile
Website
http://www.missouripentours.com
Current local date and time now
Thursday, May 09, 2024, 8:51
User Ratings
5.0 based on (1.183 reviews)
Reviews
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5Debbie A 5:00 PM Oct 9, 2022
Great Experience! Like Stepping Back in Time.
We went on the 2-Hour Ghost Tour Friday night. It was exciting & fun. Went back Saturday afternoon for the 3-Hour In-Depth History Tour. Wish we could've done that one first. It was amazing! Kathy & Naydene were our tour guides. They were pleasant, professional, & SO informative!! Though we were a large group, they kept us very well organized. Most were mesmerized, listening to Kathy tell the history of each stop we made in the institution. We were allowed ample time exploring which made the experience even better. Wish we could've went to the M.S.P. Museum but it was closed by the time our tour was over. Oh well..another reason to go back! Highly recommend booking early!
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5jbwhitehouse 5:00 PM Oct 30, 2021
Provide a prison and start a city--or so you will learn on the tour
I don’t often say this, but this site is worth going out of your way to see. Our over 2-hour tour by Kathy with her assistant Paul provided history, setting, and stories of the place, its inhabitants—inmates and guards—during its 168 year of active existence. Fascinating to hear how the penitentiary came to be, the development of Jefferson City, the riots of 1954, and even how it came to be a tour site. After seeing the location of the executions be sure to visit the nearby Missouri State Penitentiary Museum which is included in the ticket price. We took the history tour, not the ghost tour.
