Hello, A discussion has been started on when Jails were built in Middlesex County - probably in mid to late 1800's. In another posting I mentioned that my friend and I needed to drive in Cambridge and Boston a few days ago, and we noticed that the old "Charles Street Jail" was being "gutted" - thinking it would soon become Condos ! Out of curiousity, I just did a Google search and found out that the Jail is "coming down !" And, it was built in 1851 ! http://www.demolitionx.com/mon_demo3c.asp Part of the article states: The plan to build the jail was prompted in the 1840's by numerous complaints about the 1822 Leverett Street jail. The prison was built to comply with the so-called Auburn Plan for prisons developed in New York in the 1820's. This system was based on the premise that prisoners should not be kept in continuous solitary confinement. Individual cells should be for sleeping only; a prison went the argument, should provide room for communal work and exercise. The established practice at the time, known as the Pennsylvania System, as followed in the Leverett jail, was that prisons house inmates in individual cells opening into individual exercise yards. Little useful work could be induced from prisoners under this system, and the Quaker ideal of solitude inducing contrition (the basis for the system) did not work in fact. The results were poor physical and emotional health for the inmates, and a high price for the taxpayers. The "Jail" is also mentioned on this web site, which states that the land will become "a new wing" of M.G.H. http://www.bostonpreservation.org/whatsnew.html http://journalism.emerson.edu/jr610/spring03/cit/beaconhill/jail.html It seems there are many web sites which mention the "infamous" Charles Street Jail: http://www.iguanaphoto.com/portfolio.html The "Middlesex County House of Correction" in Billerica is mentioned on this web page: http://www.ehka.com/current.htm As a member of a neighborhood civic group in Billerica in the 1970's, we "toured" part of the original building of the "House of Correction." It was one SCARY and depressing and ugly .. place ... meaning the "antiquated building" - not the prisoners ! ** Oh, here we go, the original "House of Correction" (for northern Middlesex County) was built in 1929 - to house 300 prisoners ! http://www.middlesexsheriff.org/about_newbhoc.htm The top left photo on this page .. shows the buildings now. The far left of the set of buildings shows the original building which is up on a hill facing down on Treble Cove Road ! The bottom of the hill was originally "farmland" where veggies were grown, etc., and directly across the street was where the cows grazed ! (Originally, a "prison farm.") Hope this is of interest ! Betty (near Lowell, MA) P.S. I just remembered that someone was asking about the old "Lowell Jail." Someone responded that the building still sits on Thorndike Street in Lowell, and it is now "Condos." I knew I had heard of a "Lowell Jail" someplace, but couldn't remember where. But, I'm pretty sure I heard of it because of "old postcards" being sold on eBay. I just did a Google search for "Lowell Jail," and found a list of "old postcards" on this site, and the "Lowell Jail" is mentioned: http://www.middlesexsheriff.org/about_newbhoc.htm It is also mentioned here: http://library.uml.edu/clh/LIS/LIS97-98.htm Aha ! Here's an interesting web site. Along with other information about "jails" in general, there is an old photo of the "Lowell Jail." http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/Ja/Jail.html One of those "old postcards" is on eBay right now: http://cgi.ebay.com/County-Jail-Lowell-Mass-Circa-1906-Near-Mint-Cond_W0QQitemZ6245805160QQcategoryZ20215QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem