Jail Alley

On a random Sunday afternoon walk downtown, we wandered into Jail Alley, which runs behind the buildings of Princess Anne and Caroline Streets between Hanover and George. Originally named Hay Scales Alley, I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that in colonial times, one could weigh one’s hay there. Assuming weighing hay is something people needed to do, I have no idea. And then I'll say there was a jail there. It's a wonder I didn't turn out to be a historian, with such keen insight.

It's a mixed bag down in the alley:



Parts are historic and charming, like the entrance of the Academy of Ballet, with its purple door:



Or the stairway up to St. George's:



Parts remind me of Brooklyn:



Here's what it looks like to Google Streetview, one of my new very favorite things. Check out some of downtown Fredericksburg on Streetview now. You can take a virtual walk through town.