A Recondite Question: Where Is The Tombs in the Unknown Boneyard of New York City Architecture? Manhattan, New York, New York

Prior to the second quarter of the nineteenth century, “The Tombs” was not a New York City landmark nor was it a phrase often heard with familiarity in the colloquim of the local lingo.   In fact, its possible that what you think of as “The Tombs” is actually just the most recent representation of what was once a pillar of architectural wondrous–scratch once: not once, but twice in New York City history.

Prior to 1833, the city block that is bound by Walker Street at the north, Centre Street at the east, Leonard Street at the south, and Lafayette Street at the west was merely a holding pool as it was called the ”collect pond” and connected to both the “North” and Hudson Rivers by a “swampy strip” such which ran a rivulet.  In this same early era the penal system in New York City was embodied in Brideswell Prison–a colonial era building said to be completed in 1775.  But, alas, this was insufficient.  When the notorious first building of the New York Halls of Justice and House of Detention was built in the Egyptian Revival taste between 1835-1838 by resolution of the Common Council, the center of the city’s penal system was situated over the pond swallowing the entirety of the said block.  The appropriation to build the edifice was roughly $250,000.  And, because the Egyptian Revival building was a mirror impression of a mosoleum, it was, from the beginning, called “The Tombs”.  And it is even said that the slabs of white granite used to constructed the facade were hauled all the way from Maine.  And of course only in America are we ready to throw away the purposely lugubrious edifice in just a generation or two.  Perhaps it was merely irony when the lack of maintainence and repair as well as much needed reconfiguration made the building’s interior worse than the dankest and darkest bag of bones known to man.

Unfortunately, the 1838 tomb-like building would barely survive 60 years.  During that time it had gained an impressively notorious reputation for such a short period of existence.  Built at a time when the city’s population was 300,000, the prison was suited with 143 cells for adult males, 42 cells for boys, and 80 cells in general for females, amounting to a total of 295.  Between 1838 and 1898, the city’s population increased to 1,800,000.  Other penal edifices were built, such as the Ludlow Street Jail, but The Tombs was still said to be an ineffectual abomination of a building.  Having become very unpopular, it was described as the worst kind of prison hell imaginable–no windows in cells, no light at all, low ceilings, no place for exercise, etc.  Deemed unfit by the Grand Jury in June 1895, the 1838 building stood half demolished in the Fall of 1898, while the second version of The Tombs was under construction.  The final demolition of the 1838 building would not occur until the new prison was completed.  An image taken by Henry Landis (1865-1955), a serious amateur photographer, titled The Tombs (fragment), looking south on Centre Street, is no doubt during this transitional phase of the New York Department of Corrections.

Built on the same city block, the second prison, also called “The Tombs,” was an eight-story Romanesque Revival style building designed by Withers and Dickson, architects of the Department of Corrections.

An important architectural element of the new building was the “Bridge of Sighs” which connected the new prison with the Criminal Courts Building.  This Venetian inspired feature had already made its debut in America in Henry Hobson Richardson’s Allegheny County Courthouse and Prison Complex (1883) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Another of Henry Landis’ views shows the newly connected complex of buildings related to the justice system with a particular emphasis on the bridge.  So anxious was the photographer that his view is prior to completion of the new prison, which is clear given that the high masonry wall outside the prison is not yet constructed.

The new prison was completed in mid-December 1902 and by 1904 was reported in the New York Times as being more lush than a summer resort as the  temperatures did not rise about 78 degrees even in at the hottest point of the day due to the modern pumps that allowed air to flow through the building.  While these pumps were noted at the time as being incredibly efficient and modern, The Tombs would, again, in 1941, prove insufficient enough as to meet the wrecking ball once again.  New York City is now upon its fourth version of The Tombs.

Share on Facebook