The site of Gratiot Street Prison

Missouri · United States · School

The site of Gratiot Street Prison — Missouri · United States · School

A St Louis car park stands where the Union army held Confederate prisoners in a confiscated medical college, in the middle of the city's wealthiest.

The car park at the Ralston Purina site in St Louis, Missouri covers ground with a documented and unpleasant history.

The building that stood here was McDowell's College, a medical college owned and run by Joseph Nash McDowell. Federal authorities confiscated it in the spring of 1861. That December it was converted into a prison and renamed, though even early federal records often continued to call it McDowell's College. It became Gratiot Street Prison, and it held Confederate prisoners of war under conditions that were reported at the time.

What makes the location strange is where it sat. This was in the middle of some of the wealthiest homes in St Louis. General Fremont's headquarters at the Brant Mansion stood a single block away, and the city's elite lived on the streets immediately around a prison that was killing men through disease and overcrowding.

Nothing of the building remains. The reports collected here come from people crossing a car park in a modern industrial district, which is a strange afterlife for one of the grimmer sites of the war in the west.

FAQ

Where is The site of Gratiot Street Prison located?

The site of Gratiot Street Prison is in Missouri, United States.

More haunted places in Missouri

Accounts are drawn from local folklore and visitor reports.

Image: Farragutful / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons