Thursday, March 7, 2024

Columbia Market House to restore historic dungeons; talk planned for tonight [video]

[Dungeon photos: Columbia Spy]

Columbia Borough lays claim to a strange subterranean space, people say.

Some swear ghosts lurk there, where no natural light shines.

A borough constable once forced famous inventor Thomas Alva Edison and heavyweight bare-knuckle boxer John L. Sullivan to spend the night — albeit in different centuries. Another occupant died by suicide, historians say.

And now, volunteers with the Columbia Historical Preservation Society want to restore the dungeons below the Columbia Market House with wood floors, replicated furniture and interpretative panels that relate its storied past as a prison from the mid-1800s to about 1928. One goal, says Rick Fisher, the society member spearheading the restoration, is to create a display rich with history.

“We want to preserve them before any more damage occurs,” Fisher says of the six crumbling, windowless prison cells.

Grab a free sneak peek at the underground area and learn about its history Thursday at 6 p.m. at the market house.
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