This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/AFB.2ACE/1650.1.2.1.2 Message Board Post: Hi Bill. Thank you for telling us where the Jail was in Lowell ! I knew I had read about it someplace, but couldn't remember anything about it. I know the actual building on Thorndike Street, as I used to see the real-estate ads last year for the Condos which now make up the building. I tried to find a history of the jails / prisons in Middlesex County yesterday (on-line) but was not successful. Because I used to live in the neighborhood, I knew a little about the property in Billerica where the current House of Correction sits. It was a very large farm covering both sides of Treble Cove Road. And, when the Farm was bought so that the "prison" could be built, it became "a prison farm." When I first moved to Billerica in the 1960's, you could see the prisoners "out working in the fields" on one side - and "out tending the cows" on the other side. Some of the farm-buildings still exist. In fact, my new neighbor, an 89-year-old lady, told me a very funny story about an experience she had when she first moved to Billerica in the 1940's. She and her husband came up from Medford/Arlington to buy a small farm on Nashua Road. Actually she told me 2 funny stories ! One day her girlfriend wanted to visit her, and her girlfriend "liked to wear fancy dresses" etc. Well, this lady's husband was using the family-car, so she took the buck-board to go pick up her girlfriend at the train station. On the way down Treble Cove Road back towards the house, the prisoners on the side of the road saw "the fancy lady" and started whistling, etc. Well, the girlfriend was highly indignant - and asked her friend to "hurry up" past the area. The friend (my neighbor) "cracked the whip" and said, "Giddyup" .. and the horses took off -- sending the girlfriend ...off the seat, upsidedown and doing a flip into the back of the buckboard - feet up ! The prisoners got quite a laugh ! Another day, my neighbor (also named Betty) decided to join "the Grange," and "got all gussied up" to attend her first meeting that night ! The next morning (early farmer hour) she discovered that the goat had gotten loose and was up the street in someone else's yard ! In her pajamas, thinking no one would see her, she ran up the street to get the goat back. Well, while leading the goat on a rope, the goat got mad, and "took off" .. sending Betty .. down to the street.. being dragged by the goat - on her backside ! As fate would have it, right at that moment .. the 'head of the Grange" .. came driving by .. and said, "Good morning, Mrs. _____." :o) Anyways, I believe I read someplace that the original House of Correction building was built around 1890. And, this coincides with the fact that no mention of a Jail or Prison is made in the "History of Billerica" which was published in 1883. Betty (near Lowell, MA) (I tried to encourage my neighbor, Betty, and her grown son to "write a book" ... and they don't have the motivation to do it ! They only remained in Billerica for a few years because her husband "had the farming bug" and they moved to Lisbon, NH, and owned a large farm up there ! Betty had 2 sons first ... who gave her "a H... of a time" ... on the farm .. and then they had 2 sweet daughters.) :o)