Now for a slice of history!
So, as I mentioned in my previous post, the Don Jail will be revamped in October, to make room for the expansion of the Bridgepoint Health hospital - that was a big part of why I wanted to go there during their "free weekend" as part of the Doors Open weekend.
In this post, you will see photos, my thoughts on the matter, and history as we got it from the guides. What you will not see is griping over the lineup, since I already did that :P
On to the history...
To set the story. we have the Don Jail, originally constructed in 1864, pre-confederation, in an area of Toronto that was out of the way and far away from the actual city (or at least it was at the time of construction). The architect actually died before he saw his architectural plans all come together, but that's another story. This building was originally constructed as a reform centre, for around 250 inmates (I think the exact number was 268, but I can't recall).
As we discovered, the inmates kept here were expected to work in the fields of what is now Riverdale Park and Cabbagetown. After spending all day tending fields, the inmates would be brought back to the prison and would eat then return to their tiny cells before repeating everything the next day. Apparently, salmon was a big thing on the menu, as the Don River was still clean then, and full of salmon. (It's hard to imagine that river ever being clean, but I suppose it's because of us humans that it's in such bad shape).
At any rate, let's look at inside the building:
This is what you see when looking up from the rotunda. There are three levels, plus the basement. The first level had the big rotunda, and everyone that came in there was brought through the rotunda, but I'm not sure of the real reason for it. There were numerous rooms also on the first floor, but out volunteer guide wasn't sure what most of them were for. However, to the right of the photo (unseen in it) was the warden's quarters. The warden and his family actually lived inside the jail, and had 4 rooms on the main floor, as well as a lavish staircase that went up to their private quarters. We weren't able to step inside that area, but I don't know how I would feel about living in a prison as a free person. I can't imagine how it would be to be living there, especially before an execution was to occur.
Looking up, directly up:
As you can see, there are plenty of windows up there - this was a very bright jail, I was expecting something much darker and ominous, likely due to impressions from jail scenes in films - and in fact, that hexagon type shape is also a skylight, but was covered over when the roof was redone. The hospital will return it to the proper look once they start remodeling the inside.
Due to fire code, only 100 people were permitted in the building at any one time, but they weren't letting you see everything - a lot of areas were blocked off by big chain-link fencing, which had obviously been there for years, or at least that's what the dust suggests:
Now this is the quintessential, eerie, ominous look of a jail that one conjures when contemplating what a jail looks like. In spite of all the bright open spaces that we witnessed previously on the tour, the actual block where people were kept was obviously not as bright and spacious looking. In fact, the rooms were quite small:
(yes, this was taken by sticking my hand and camera through the above chain links... but this photo doesn't do it justice. Let's look at how big the cells really are.
The following three photos were taken on the second floor. (Because we were limited to 5 minutes on the second floor, and everyone was off doing their own thing, in order to take the last one, I had to actually close the door of the jail cell - all locks have been removed though):
Looking in.
Looking out. Note the cut out lock on the door.
With this photo, please recall that the door was closed on the cell. Imagine living there for a few months. Perhaps it wasn`t so bad in the late 1800s ... but fast forward to mid-20th century: that tiny little cell could have held up to three people. I know I would go stir-crazy in there alone. I can`t imagine adding two more people to the mix. And in the 1800s to early 1900s, the inmates worked. By the time these wings of the jail closed in the 1970s, inmates were kept in that little cell for 23 hours a day, with 60 minutes permitted outside of the cell.
Mind you, the infirmary was slightly larger than these cells. When I first peeked my head in, I laughed and said `wow, that`s tiny - more like a closet than a sick-room!" - it was smaller than my bathroom (I don't think my bathtub could even fit, if you got right down to it)!
On the other hand, if you were sentenced to death row, you were given much more space than everyone else - I could stretch my arms out and couldn't reach the second wall:
As for space, well, this is what you get when you look out:
I wasn't able to find out how many people actually were kept here on death row, but they did say that when someone was going to the gallows, the row of jail cells that a person would have to walk past were emptied of inmates, to allow them a more private death, I suppose. You might also notice the window in the above photo - on death row, the windows have 3 bars, not just 1, not just two, but THREE different types of bars, each going in a different direction. The other areas had two sets of bars on the windows.
The gallows wasn't a big room - only 3 or 4 people could fit there. The difference was that it was almost like a balcony over the 1st floor, in a dark dingy looking room, and the part you overlooked was where a body would end up after they cut them down from the rope.
I really cannot imagine living in a jail, or even working there; and to go from those tiny little rooms to our big apartment is such a difference, and I certainly wouldn't want to trade positions.
How about some interesting facts that I have no photos for?
In this post, you will see photos, my thoughts on the matter, and history as we got it from the guides. What you will not see is griping over the lineup, since I already did that :P
On to the history...
To set the story. we have the Don Jail, originally constructed in 1864, pre-confederation, in an area of Toronto that was out of the way and far away from the actual city (or at least it was at the time of construction). The architect actually died before he saw his architectural plans all come together, but that's another story. This building was originally constructed as a reform centre, for around 250 inmates (I think the exact number was 268, but I can't recall).
As we discovered, the inmates kept here were expected to work in the fields of what is now Riverdale Park and Cabbagetown. After spending all day tending fields, the inmates would be brought back to the prison and would eat then return to their tiny cells before repeating everything the next day. Apparently, salmon was a big thing on the menu, as the Don River was still clean then, and full of salmon. (It's hard to imagine that river ever being clean, but I suppose it's because of us humans that it's in such bad shape).
At any rate, let's look at inside the building:
This is what you see when looking up from the rotunda. There are three levels, plus the basement. The first level had the big rotunda, and everyone that came in there was brought through the rotunda, but I'm not sure of the real reason for it. There were numerous rooms also on the first floor, but out volunteer guide wasn't sure what most of them were for. However, to the right of the photo (unseen in it) was the warden's quarters. The warden and his family actually lived inside the jail, and had 4 rooms on the main floor, as well as a lavish staircase that went up to their private quarters. We weren't able to step inside that area, but I don't know how I would feel about living in a prison as a free person. I can't imagine how it would be to be living there, especially before an execution was to occur.
Looking up, directly up:
As you can see, there are plenty of windows up there - this was a very bright jail, I was expecting something much darker and ominous, likely due to impressions from jail scenes in films - and in fact, that hexagon type shape is also a skylight, but was covered over when the roof was redone. The hospital will return it to the proper look once they start remodeling the inside.
Due to fire code, only 100 people were permitted in the building at any one time, but they weren't letting you see everything - a lot of areas were blocked off by big chain-link fencing, which had obviously been there for years, or at least that's what the dust suggests:
Now this is the quintessential, eerie, ominous look of a jail that one conjures when contemplating what a jail looks like. In spite of all the bright open spaces that we witnessed previously on the tour, the actual block where people were kept was obviously not as bright and spacious looking. In fact, the rooms were quite small:
(yes, this was taken by sticking my hand and camera through the above chain links... but this photo doesn't do it justice. Let's look at how big the cells really are.
The following three photos were taken on the second floor. (Because we were limited to 5 minutes on the second floor, and everyone was off doing their own thing, in order to take the last one, I had to actually close the door of the jail cell - all locks have been removed though):
Looking in.
Looking out. Note the cut out lock on the door.
With this photo, please recall that the door was closed on the cell. Imagine living there for a few months. Perhaps it wasn`t so bad in the late 1800s ... but fast forward to mid-20th century: that tiny little cell could have held up to three people. I know I would go stir-crazy in there alone. I can`t imagine adding two more people to the mix. And in the 1800s to early 1900s, the inmates worked. By the time these wings of the jail closed in the 1970s, inmates were kept in that little cell for 23 hours a day, with 60 minutes permitted outside of the cell.
Mind you, the infirmary was slightly larger than these cells. When I first peeked my head in, I laughed and said `wow, that`s tiny - more like a closet than a sick-room!" - it was smaller than my bathroom (I don't think my bathtub could even fit, if you got right down to it)!
On the other hand, if you were sentenced to death row, you were given much more space than everyone else - I could stretch my arms out and couldn't reach the second wall:
As for space, well, this is what you get when you look out:
I wasn't able to find out how many people actually were kept here on death row, but they did say that when someone was going to the gallows, the row of jail cells that a person would have to walk past were emptied of inmates, to allow them a more private death, I suppose. You might also notice the window in the above photo - on death row, the windows have 3 bars, not just 1, not just two, but THREE different types of bars, each going in a different direction. The other areas had two sets of bars on the windows.
The gallows wasn't a big room - only 3 or 4 people could fit there. The difference was that it was almost like a balcony over the 1st floor, in a dark dingy looking room, and the part you overlooked was where a body would end up after they cut them down from the rope.
I really cannot imagine living in a jail, or even working there; and to go from those tiny little rooms to our big apartment is such a difference, and I certainly wouldn't want to trade positions.
How about some interesting facts that I have no photos for?
- The architect also designed St Lawrence Hall
- A gang, the Boyd gang, escaped twice - once in 1951, the other time in 1952 - the first time by the aid of a hacksaw hidden in one of the men's
- In the big rotunda room, the original flooring was a sheet of solid glass. All the light would come into the room from the roof and would go straight through the glass floor to the basement, where there aren't windows, but where the kitchens were.
- In the rotunda, the brackets that held up the walkways on floors 2 and 3 are actually iron dragons, symbolizing "guardian", so they were keeping the building safe
- In the prisoner areas, the brackets had snakes on them, symbolic of two things: rebirth (recall that this prison was created as a place for reform), as well as temptation (straight from the bible, obviously, as teh snake is what tempts humans to fall from utopia)
- The warden was actually called "Governor of the Prisoners"
- The chapel is at the north side of the building - cells were on the east and west wings, but there was supposed to be two wings that would have been on the north side as well (they were never built)
- There is a carving over the entrance to the jail - a posterboard in the rotunda suggested the following: "The main entrance is presided over by a fearsome bearded face intended to strike terror in the hearts of those entering through the massive doors. Sturdy columns on either side, with their bands of stone vermiculation, seem bound with cords, perhaps reflecting on the state of many prisoners."
- Also on posterboard, "The Rotunda is widely considered one of the most important surviving 19th century rooms in Toronto. It is a symbolic of the grandness of the 19th British Empire, to which the yong colony of Upper Canada belonged. The skylight - which will be restored by Bridgepoint as part of the atrium - let in a great deal of natural light. This was unique for a 19th century prison and indicates the Don Jail's early identity as a reform prison."
- There is a wall known as the graffiti wall, and when prisoners are released, many would carve their names into it.