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 Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

. 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.

History

Charles Street Jail (Boston, MA) - aerial view

The jail was proposed by

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

Martin Brimmer in his 1843 inaugural address as a replacement for the

Leverett Street Jail 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, w ...

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 Louis may refer to: * Louis (coin) * Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name * Louis (surname) * Louis (singer), Serbian singer * HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy See also Derived or associated terms * Lewis (d ...

, 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 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 . Over the years, the jail housed a number of famous inmates including

John White Webster John White Webster (May 20, 1793 – August 30, 1850) was an American professor of chemistry and geology at Harvard Medical College. In 1850, he was convicted of murder in the Parkman–Webster murder case and hanged. Biography Born in Bo ...

James Michael Curley James Michael Curley (November 20, 1874 – November 12, 1958) was an American Democratic politician from Boston, Massachusetts. He served four terms as mayor of Boston. He also served a single term as governor of Massachusetts, characterized ...

, Malcolm X, and

Sacco and Vanzetti Nicola Sacco (; April 22, 1891 – August 23, 1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (; June 11, 1888 – August 23, 1927) were Italian immigrant anarchists who were controversially accused of murdering Alessandro Berardelli and Frederick Parmenter, a ...

. Suffragists imprisoned for protests when President Woodrow Wilson visited Boston in February 1919 included Josephine Collins (Framingham),

Betty Connolly Betty or Bettie is a name, a common diminutive for the names Bethany and Elizabeth. In Latin America, it is also a common diminutive for the given name Beatriz, the Spanish and Portuguese form of the Latin name Beatrix and the English name Beatric ...

(West Newton),

Martha Foley Martha Foley (March 21, 1897 – September 5, 1977) cofounded ''Story'' magazine in 1931 with her husband Whit Burnett. She achieved some celebrity by introducing notable authors through the magazine such as J. D. Salinger, Tennessee Williams and ...

(Dorchester),

Frances Fowler __NOTOC__ Frances Fowler (June 1864 – June 5, 1943) was an American painter, notable as a student of Ella Sophonisba Hergesheimer. The daughter of F.C. and Harriett (Reese) Herrick, she studied at Vanderbilt University before marrying Edwa ...

(Brookline),

Nellie Gross Nelly (born 1974) is an American rapper, singer, actor and entrepreneur. Nelly or Nellie may also refer to: Places * Nellie, Ohio, an American village * Nellie, Assam, a town in Nagaon district * Nelly Island, Antarctica * Nelly Island, Bermud ...

(Mrs. J. Irving Gross, Boston), and

Rosa Heinzen Roewer Rosa or De Rosa may refer to: People *Rosa (given name) Rosa is a female given name, especially in the Portuguese, Italian, Serbian and Spanish languages. Notable people with the name include: *''Rosa de Lima'', or Rose of Lima (1586–1617), ...

(Belmont). They were imprisoned for eight (8) days. Also imprisoned were World War II

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold priso ...

from the German submarines and . The commanding officer of the latter U-boat, who died in the jail, was the brother of

Operation Paperclip Operation Paperclip was a secret United States intelligence program in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians were taken from the former Nazi Germany to the U.S. for government employment after the end of World Wa ...

rocket scientist Ernst Steinhoff. 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 Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United Stat ...

. It was redesigned by Cambridge Seven Associates 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.

Former inmates

* Elmer "Trigger" Burke - mob hit man. Escaped from the jail following his arrest for murder. * Josephine Collins - suffragist * John J. Divivo - Hijacker/murderer. Hung himself in the jail. *

William M. Forgrave William Matthew Forgrave (January 24, 1888 – January 19, 1953) was an American minister and temperance activist who served as Superintendent of the Massachusetts Anti-Saloon League from 1924 to 1928. He later worked as a stock broker and was co ...

- temperance activist turned stock broker. Convicted of larceny. Allegedly ran a bookmaking operation in the jail during the reign of Sheriff John F. Dowd *

William Monroe Trotter William Monroe Trotter, sometimes just Monroe Trotter (April 7, 1872 – April 7, 1934), was a newspaper editor and real estate businessman based in Boston, Massachusetts. An activist for African-American civil rights, he was an early opponent of ...

- civil rights activist * Shunsuke Tsurumi

References

* George M Cushing, ''Great Buildings of Boston a Photographic Guide'', Courier Dover Publications, 1982, page 42. .
Massachusetts General Hospital history

External links

The Liberty Hotel

Cambridge Seven Associates Project Page

{{National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Defunct prisons in Massachusetts Jails on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts Government buildings in Boston West End, Boston Government buildings completed in 1851 Jails in Massachusetts National Register of Historic Places in Boston 1851 establishments in Massachusetts

History

Former inmates

See also

References

Further reading

External links