Charles Street Jail
Suffolk County Jail | |
Boston, Massachusetts | |
Coordinates | 42°21′43″N 71°4′13″W / 42.36194°N 71.07028°W |
---|---|
Built | 1851 |
Architect | Gridley J. F. Bryant |
NRHP reference No. | 80000670[1] |
Added to NRHP | April 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.
History
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
Over the years, the jail housed a number of famous inmates including
In 1973, the
The former Charles Street Jail building is now owned by
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 - 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 - civil rights activist
- Shunsuke Tsurumi[6]
See also
- National Register of Historic Places listings in northern Boston, Massachusetts
References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
- ^ "Suffragists in Massachusetts - Turning Point Suffragist Memorial". 30 July 2017.
- ^ "Friedrich Steinhoff". Guðmundur Helgason. Retrieved 2012-10-05.
- ^ C7A.com Archived July 8, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Boston's Charles Street Jail Now Hosts Guests as The Liberty Hotel". Adapt + Reuse. 1 September 2020.
- )
- George M Cushing, Great Buildings of Boston a Photographic Guide, Courier Dover Publications, 1982, page 42. ISBN 0-486-24219-6.
- Massachusetts General Hospital history
Further reading
- Inmates of Charles Street Jail v. Eisenstadt, 360 F.Supp. 677 (D.Mass. 1973).
- 577 F.2d 761. Inmates of Suffolk County Jail et al., Plaintiffs, Appellees, v. Dennis J. KEARNEY et al., Defendants, Appellees, Boston City Councillors, Defendants, Appellants. No. 78-1216. United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit. Argued June 9, 1978. Decided June 15, 1978.
- McMaster, Joseph (2015). Charles Street Jail. Images of America. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9781467134132.
- White, Jonathan W. (2023). Shipwrecked: A True Civil War Story of Mutinies, Jailbreaks, Blockade-Running, and the Slave Trade. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. This book discusses the Charles Street Jail because Appleton Oaksmith was imprisoned in it and escaped from it.