A Look Inside The Historic Don Jail
Last summer I coordinated a private tour through the Historic Don Jail. It’s now under construction to be renovated into a research facility. Here is a small excerpt from the National Post’s article about the Don Jail and it’s participation in “Doors Open” 2009.
“Once a place where hangmen lurked and prisoners slept in meter-wide cells, the Don Jail, which has sat unused at Gerrard Street East and Broadview Avenue for over 30 years, is set to become a research and administration center for Bridgepoint Health’s new hospital by the end of 2013.
The jail is a snapshot in time: Painted outlines of gallows remain on the execution chamber’s wall; the impressive, expansive center rotunda is untouched. The one-by-three-metre cells look as they did when they held inmates — barely livable, barred, little bigger than a reclined body.”
Read more: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2009/05/20/a-last-look-at-the-don-jail-before-it-becomes-just-another-office-building.aspx#ixzz0tWiNaUlf
These are the stairs up to the Guards Room.
The door to the bottom of those stairs. The previous picture was taken through the square in this door.
A random ceiling
Inside the chapel room.
We were told that this room was repainted for the movie “Chicago” and that it wasn’t originally yellow. The red door on the left leads to the small area where the hangings were performed.
This small room just inside the red door was super eerie.
I loved all the old textures of the paint peeling, the fencing on the windows and the smooth pipes.
The buildings core rotunda, where the prisoners were allowed to roam withe the guards supervision.
The ceiling of the rotunda. The middle of the image has boards covering the old glass windows. This was the only light source that lit the middle of building.
The dragons were details added by the original architect. They were found on the inside of the rotunda. They symbolized the guards strength and that the rotunda was their domain. On the opposite side of the walls were the hallways for the cell blocks. The architect decorated that side with snakes to demonstrate the characteristics of the prisoners.
