Charles Street Jail

Last updated
Suffolk County Jail
Suffolk County Jail Boston MA.jpg
Map of Boston and Cambridge.png
Red pog.svg
USA Massachusetts location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Location Boston, Massachusetts
Coordinates 42°21′43″N71°4′13″W / 42.36194°N 71.07028°W / 42.36194; -71.07028
Built1851
ArchitectGridley J. F. Bryant
NRHP reference No. 80000670 [1]
Added to NRHPApril 23, 1980

The Charles Street Jail (built 1851), also known as the Suffolk County Jail, is an infamous former jail (later renovated into a luxury hotel) located at 215 Charles Street, Boston, Massachusetts. It is listed in the state and national Registers of Historic Places. The Liberty Hotel, as it is now known, has retained much of its historic structure, including the famed rotunda.

Contents

History

Boston, 1852. Detail from: Henry McIntyre's "Map of the City of Boston and Immediate Neighborhood." 1852 jail Boston McIntyre map detail.png
Boston, 1852. Detail from: Henry McIntyre's "Map of the City of Boston and Immediate Neighborhood."
Aerial view of Suffolk County jail, late 20th century Charles Street Jail (Boston, MA) - aerial view.jpg
Aerial view of Suffolk County jail, late 20th century

The jail was proposed by Mayor Martin Brimmer in his 1843 inaugural address as a replacement for the Leverett Street Jail which had been built in 1822. Normally jails of this sort were county institutions, but, since Boston, then and now, dominates Suffolk County, Mayor Brimmer was a key player in the jail's planning and development.

The jail was constructed between 1848 and 1851 to plans by architect Gridley James Fox Bryant and the advice of prison reformer, Rev. Louis Dwight, who designed it according to the 1790s humanitarian scheme pioneered in England known as the Auburn Plan. The original jail was built in the form of a cross with four wings of Quincy granite extending from a central, octagonal rotunda with a 90-foot-tall (27 m) atrium. The wings allowed segregation of prisoners by sex and category of offense, and thirty arched windows, each 33 feet high, provided ventilation and natural light. The original jail contained 220 granite cells, each 8 by 10 feet (2.4 m × 3.0 m).

Over the years, the jail housed a number of famous inmates including John White Webster, James Michael Curley, Malcolm X, and Sacco and Vanzetti. Suffragists imprisoned for protests when President Woodrow Wilson visited Boston in February 1919 included Josephine Collins (Framingham), Betty Connolly (West Newton), Martha Foley (Dorchester), Frances Fowler (Brookline), Nellie Gross (Mrs. J. Irving Gross, Boston), and Rosa Heinzen Roewer (Belmont). They were imprisoned for eight (8) days. [2] Also imprisoned were World War II prisoners of war from the German submarines U-234 and U-873. The commanding officer of the latter U-boat, who died in the jail, was the brother of Operation Paperclip rocket scientist Ernst Steinhoff. [3]

In 1973, the US District Court ruled that, because of overcrowding, the jail violated the constitutional rights of the prisoners housed there. Nonetheless, the prison did not close until 1990. On Memorial Day of that year, prisoners were moved to the new Nashua Street Jail on Nashua Street.

The former Charles Street Jail building is now owned by Massachusetts General Hospital. It was redesigned by Cambridge Seven Associates [4] and Ann Beha Architects, and reopened in the summer of 2007 as a 300-room luxury hotel with a number of high-end bars and restaurants. The Liberty Hotel, as it is now known, has retained much of the building's historic structure, including the famed rotunda. A 16-story guest room addition during construction was designed to approximate the existing structure around it. [5]

Former inmates

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suffolk County, Massachusetts</span> County in Massachusetts, United States

Suffolk County is located in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 797,936, making it the fourth-most populous county in Massachusetts. The county comprises the cities of Boston, Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop. The traditional county seat is Boston, the state capital and the largest city in Massachusetts. The county government was abolished in 1999, and so Suffolk County today functions only as an administrative subdivision of state government and a set of communities grouped together for some statistical purposes. Suffolk County is located at the core of the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the greater Boston-Worcester-Providence, MA-RI-NH-CT Combined Statistical Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Bulfinch</span> American architect (1763–1844)

Charles Bulfinch was an early American architect, and has been regarded by many as the first American-born professional architect to practice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Faneuil Hall</span> United States historic place in Boston, MA (opened 1743)

Faneuil Hall is a marketplace and meeting hall located near the waterfront and today's Government Center, in Boston, Massachusetts. Opened in 1742, it was the site of several speeches by Samuel Adams, James Otis, and others encouraging independence from Great Britain. It is now part of Boston National Historical Park and a well-known stop on the Freedom Trail. It is sometimes referred to as "the Cradle of Liberty".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Debtors' prison</span> Prison for people unable to repay a debt

A debtors' prison is a prison for people who are unable to pay debt. Until the mid-19th century, debtors' prisons were a common way to deal with unpaid debt in Western Europe. Destitute people who were unable to pay a court-ordered judgment would be incarcerated in these prisons until they had worked off their debt via labour or secured outside funds to pay the balance. The product of their labour went towards both the costs of their incarceration and their accrued debt. Increasing access and lenience throughout the history of bankruptcy law have made prison terms for unaggravated indigence obsolete over most of the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts</span> Region in Massachusetts, United States

Chestnut Hill is a wealthy New England region located six miles (10 km) west of downtown Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Like all Massachusetts villages, Chestnut Hill is not an incorporated municipal entity. It is located partially in Brookline in Norfolk County; partially in the city of Boston in Suffolk County, and partially in the city of Newton in Middlesex County. Chestnut Hill's borders are defined by the 02467 ZIP Code. The name refers to several small hills that overlook the 135-acre Chestnut Hill Reservoir rather than one particular hill. Chestnut Hill is best known as the home of Boston College and as part of the Boston Marathon route.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asher Benjamin</span> American architect

Asher Benjamin was an American architect and author whose work transitioned between Federal architecture and the later Greek Revival architecture. His seven handbooks on design deeply influenced the look of cities and towns throughout New England until the Civil War. Builders also copied his plans in the Midwest and in the South.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West End, Boston</span> Neighborhood of Boston in Suffolk, Massachusetts, United States

The West End is a neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, bounded generally by Cambridge Street to the south, the Charles River to the west and northwest, North Washington Street on the north and northeast, and New Sudbury Street on the east. Beacon Hill is to the south, North Point is across the Charles River to the north, Kendall Square is across the Charles River to the west, and the North End is to the east. A late 1950s urban renewal project razed a large Italian and Jewish enclave and displaced over 20,000 people in order to redevelop much of the West End and part of the neighboring Downtown neighborhood. After that, the original West End became increasingly non-residential, including part of Government Center as well as much of Massachusetts General Hospital and several high rise office buildings. More recently, however, new residential buildings and spaces, as well as new parks, have been appearing across the West End.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Allegheny County Courthouse</span> Courthouse and jail complex in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.

The Allegheny County Courthouse in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is part of a complex designed by H. H. Richardson. The buildings are considered among the finest examples of the Romanesque Revival style for which Richardson is well known.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walnut Street Prison</span> Demolished prison in Philadelphia, PA, US

Walnut Street Prison was a city jail and penitentiary house in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 1790 to 1838. Legislation calling for establishment of the jail was passed in 1773 to relieve overcrowding in the High Street Jail; the first prisoners were admitted in 1776. It was located at Sixth and Walnut Streets, where it acquired its original name Walnut Street Jail.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cambridge Public Library</span> United States historic place

The Cambridge Public Library in Cambridge, Massachusetts consists of: a main branch, of notable aesthetic architectural value, plus a further six localized branches sited throughout the city. Having evolved from the Cambridge Athenaeum, the main library branch was built at its present site in 1888. The main library most recently underwent renovation, and a modern building addition significantly expanded the overall branch in 2009, thus greatly increasing the area of the branch, more than tripling its square footage. In fiscal year 2014, the city of Cambridge spent 1.63% ($7,064,381) of its city budget towards the library, $66 per person. The Cambridge Public Library maintains affiliation with the Minuteman Library Network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nashville Historic District (Nashua, New Hampshire)</span> Historic district in New Hampshire, United States

The Nashville Historic District in Nashua, New Hampshire is a historic district that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1984. It encompasses an area just north of downtown Nashua, roughly centered on the junction of Concord, Amherst, and Main streets. Its southern bound is the Nashua River and Railroad Square, its eastern bounds are Railroad Square, Clinton, Lock, Orange, and Concord streets, its northern bound is Mount Pleasant Street, and its western boundary is Abbott, Amherst, Concord, and Main streets between the northern and southern bounds.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel J. F. Thayer</span> American architect

Samuel Joseph Follon Thayer (1842–1893) was an American architect, notable for designing buildings such as the Providence City Hall and the Cathedral of St. George, as well as the town halls of Brookline, Stoughton, and Methuen, Massachusetts. He was part of the architecture firms, Martin & Thayer and Ropes & Thayer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William G. Preston</span> American architect

William Gibbons Preston was an American architect who practiced during the last third of the nineteenth century and in the first decade of the twentieth. Educated at Harvard University and the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he was active in Boston, New York, Rhode Island, Ohio, New Brunswick and Savannah, Georgia, where he was brought by George Johnson Baldwin to design the Chatham County courthouse. Preston stayed in Savannah for several years during which time designed the original Desoto Hotel, the Savannah Volunteer Guards Armory and 20 other distinguished public buildings and private homes. He began his professional career working for his father, the builder and architect Jonathan Preston (1801–1888), upon his return to the United States from the École in 1861, and was the sole practitioner in the office from the time his father retired c. 1875 until he took John Kahlmeyer as a partner in about 1885.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deer Island Prison</span>

The Deer Island Prison in Suffolk County, Massachusetts was located on Deer Island in Boston Harbor. Once known as the Deer Island House of Industry and later, House of Correction, it held people convicted of drunkenness, illegal possession of drugs, disorderly conduct, larceny, and other crimes subject to relatively short-term sentencing. When it closed in 1991, some 1,500 inmates were being held at Deer Island.

The Leverett Street Jail (1822–1851) in Boston, Massachusetts served as the city and county prison for some three decades in the mid-19th century. Inmates included John White Webster. Notorious for its overcrowding, the facility closed in 1851, when inmates were installed in the nearby, newly built Charles Street Jail, also in the West End.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boston Gaol (Massachusetts)</span>

The Boston Gaol (1635–1822) was a jail in the center of Boston, Massachusetts, located off Court Street, in the block bounded by School, Washington and Tremont Streets. It was rebuilt several times on the same site, before finally moving to the West End in 1822. Prisoners included Quakers, "witches," pirates, murderers, rebels, debtors, and newspaper editors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hillsborough County Registry of Deeds</span> United States historic place

The Hillsborough County Registry of Deeds is located at 19 Temple Street in Nashua, one of the county seats of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire. The two-story brick building was built in 1901 as a courthouse and county office building to a design by Boston architect Daniel H. Woodbury, and is a good example of Classical Revival architecture. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. The current courthouse is a modern building at 30 Spring Street.

Ann Beha is an American architect. She is founder and partner of Ann Beha Architects in Boston, Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Josephine Collins</span> American suffragist

Josephine Collins was a suffragist fighting for a woman's right to vote. She was the first born daughter of Irish immigrants Cornelius and Catherine (Horrigan) Collins. She had one sister and five brothers. The family lived in Framingham, Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven W. Tompkins</span> American law enforcement official

Steven W. Tompkins is an American law enforcement official who has served as the Sheriff of Suffolk County, MA since 2013.

References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  2. "Suffragists in Massachusetts - Turning Point Suffragist Memorial". 30 July 2017.
  3. "Friedrich Steinhoff". Guðmundur Helgason. Retrieved 2012-10-05.
  4. C7A.com Archived July 8, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  5. "Boston's Charles Street Jail Now Hosts Guests as The Liberty Hotel". Adapt + Reuse. 1 September 2020.
  6. Zinn, Howard (2002). You can't be neutral on a moving train : a personal history of our times. Boston. ISBN   9780807071274. OCLC   50704670.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

Further reading