Chapter V

New York was indeed a city of prisons. The Bridewell was finally demolished; and much of the material used in the erection of the Tombs in 1838. After the establishment of independence a large stone prison surrounded by a high wall was erected on the west side of the island, three miles above the City Hall, called at that time Greenwich village. It was ready for the reception of convicts in August, 1796, was designed for criminals of the highest grade, and was the second State Prison in the United States. Sing-Sing prison was begun in 1825 and completed in 1831. The New York County Jail, situated at the corner of Ludlow street and Essex Market place, was opened in June, 1862, and took the place of the old Eldridge street jail. It is built in the form of an L, ninety feet on each street, forty feet deep and sixty-five high, leaving a yard of fifty feet square, surrounded by a high wall, in which prisoners are allowed to exercise. The building contains eighty-seven cells. Besides the above there are four other places of involuntary confinement on Manhattan, all of which are under the control of the Commissioners of Charities and Corrections, and in each of which a Police Court convenes every morning to examine the charges brought against persons arrested. The Halls of Justice, the principal building situated between Centre, Elm, Leonard, and Franklin streets, on the site of the old Collect Pond, was begun in 1835 and completed in 1838. It is a two-story building constructed of Maine white granite in the Egyptian order, is 253 by 200 feet and occupies the four sides of a hollow square.

Boys Hall—Tombs.

The front on Centre street is reached by a broad flight of granite steps, and the portico is supported by several massive Egyptian columns. The windows, which extend through both stories, have heavy iron-grated frames. The female department is situated in the section which extends along Leonard street, and is presided over by amiable Christian matron who has held her position with credit for more than twenty years. In the front of the are rooms for the Court of Sessions, the Police Court, etc., which have givens it its names, "Halls of Justice." In the centre of the enclosed yard, distinct from the other buildings, stands the men's prison, 142 by 45 feet, containing 148 cells. State criminals have been executed in the open court.

Female Prison 2^d Tier

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