The Washington County Historic Courthouse has stood on its bluff above downtown Stillwater since 1870, and for more than a century it served as the administrative and judicial center of the county. Most days, visitors wander its Italianate halls on guided and self-guided tours, learning about the lumber-era fortunes that built the St. Croix Valley. On select dates, the building's old jail becomes something else entirely: the set of a family-friendly escape room.
The premise is drawn from a real person. Ada Hubbell is described by Washington County Parks as the only known woman to have ever escaped the walls of the historic jail. According to the county's account, she pulled off her breakout in the late 1800s with the unexpected help of her lawyer, a turn of events that, in the county's words, "shocked Stillwater." Participants follow a trail of clues, secrets and deception based on her escape, trying to outwit the system and make their own exit before time runs out.
That the jail could hold a woman at all is a detail rooted in the building's long evolution. When the courthouse was completed in 1870, it was designed by Augustus Knight of St. Paul in a style that favored the Italianate, with strong Greek Revival influences. The limestone foundation and brick facade were capped with a dome, cupola and flagpole that soared above the river city as a landmark, and the complex included a small two-story jail and a sheriff's residence. Eleven chimneys jutted skyward, serving the pot-bellied stoves that heated the place.
In 1900, the original jail was replaced with a two-story jail addition at the rear of the building. The main floor of the old jail became the sheriff's office, while the second-floor cells were retained for female prisoners. That arrangement is part of why a story like Ada Hubbell's belongs to this building specifically: the courthouse jail was not a single undifferentiated cell block but a layered structure that changed with the county's needs. By 1962, the county had outgrown the building entirely. The sheriff's residence was converted into the sheriff's office, forcing the sheriff and his family to move elsewhere, the large courtroom was divided into a smaller courtroom and offices, and offices were carved out of the dank, dark basement.
There was a moment when the building nearly disappeared. During that period of overcrowding, the county considered razing the courthouse to build a new one on the site. It survived, and in 1971 the Historic Courthouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places as the oldest standing courthouse in Minnesota. It is now part of the Washington County Parks system, which runs daily guided and self-guided tours, family activities, educational programming for schools and scouts, and public events in the building. The escape room is one of those public events, and it is a notably small-scale one: admission is $20 per person, and each session is capped at five people.
That five-person limit is worth noting for anyone planning a visit. This is not a mass haunted-house-style production with crowds shuffling through in waves. It is a small-group experience staged inside an actual nineteenth-century jail, which means the puzzle-solving happens in tight quarters and the story of Ada Hubbell is delivered at close range. Families, friend groups and couples looking for something other than a standard Saturday outing are the natural audience.
The escape room is also not a one-off. Registration is handled online through Washington County Parks, where participants can search for "escape" to find the listing. The Historic Courthouse itself offers free admission and appreciates donations, and the grounds include historical markers and monuments that convey the history of the area, so an escape-room visit can easily be paired with a walk around the hill and a look at the courtroom, the Register of Deeds meeting room and the north lobby.
For a county that spent decades deciding whether to tear its oldest courthouse down, the building has settled into a second life as a place where history is not just displayed but played. Ada Hubbell's escape is remembered as a singular event in the jail's past. Visitors get to try to repeat it, one small group at a time.