By Alessio Gallarotti; information in this article was obtained from the Haddam Historical Society website.
In 1785, Middlesex County was formed using several towns that once made up Hartford and New London counties. Now needing a county jail (and court), Haddam and Middletown were considered the prime locations. Middletown built a prison for prisoners convicted of minor crimes, and usually for temporary detainment, while Haddam built the county’s principal jail. Haddam’s court house, jail, as well as the Middlesex turnpike were built in 1802 and was accompanied by much economic and social growth.
The first jailhouse, or gaol, of Haddam was made of wood. It was located almost exactly where it is today, at the intersection of what are currently Jail Hill and Saybrook Roads (the former road was once colloquially known as “the road to the woods”). Not much is known about the first gaol. Most prisoners in Haddam were sentenced for minor crimes such as drunkenness, larceny, breach of peace, and vagrancy. At the time there were state prisons for those convicted of serious crimes (the first of which opened in Granby in 1773) though sometimes such prisoners, particularly those convicted of murder, were housed in Haddam.
In the 1830s, the state of CT passed a law requiring prisoners to be put to work based on their abilities. The Haddam County Jail then became farm-like, with prisoners tending to the crops, animals, and the like and even adding building new additions to the jailhouse. Eventually the jail became self-sufficient, and prisoners serving terms for debt could pay it off via labor at the prison. The prison culture was quite lax, and prisoners would frequently have picnics at the Connecticut river, play baseball, and escape from prison (as security efforts were minimal). In the latter event, they would commonly take a train to another town after. The jail eventually became known as “The Country Club.”
Over the years the county jail underwent quite a few renovations. The first was in 1812, a decade after the first gaol was built. This new one was a 24’ x 30’ single story wooden house with iron bars in the window openings. By 1845, the time of the second renovation, the first one was used as a store house for crops grown on the jail grounds. Samuel, Isaac, and Jonathon Arnold of the Arnold family which was a prominent family at the time in Haddam, were tasked with constructing a stone cellblock on the north side of the intersection. The renovation was done partly by the prisoners. In addition to the cell block, was built a sheriffs quarters which would become the largest civilian home in Haddam. The remaining renovations and expansions occurred in 1878, 1899, 1955, and 1964. They notably featured a women’s quarters, plumbing, and expansions to the living quarters for staff and inmate.
In 1890, the Haddam lost its courthouse though prisoners were still held in Haddam until 1969 when all county prisoners were relocated to the state prisons. A notable quote from an editorial reads “there was a certain humanity about the Haddam Jail…it may not have been a wholly pleasant for the involuntary inhabitants…there were fringe benefits working in the dairy barn, the fields, or in the gardens”. In the 1970s and 1980s the gaol was used to train prison guards using a simulated lockup. They were processed like inmates, given prison clothes, and placed in cells which would be their homes for the following several weeks. In 2007, the town of Haddam acquired the gaol and 51-acres which it stayed on. There was established an advisory committee to determine the best way to sustain and reuse this property and facility in the future. This committee still stands.
References: “A pretentious stone structure: A brief history of the Middlesex County Gaol at Haddam”. The Haddam Historical Society. (Web)
Photo by Kathy Brown.
