The architectural style of the building is castellated Gothic, and presents in the durable stone of which the building is erected those simple, yet bold, strong and massive features which convey the idea of fitness—that basis of all proportion—which affords to us an emotion of pleasure, or that feeling of satisfaction arising from the contemplation of means properly adapted to their end, and possessing those qualities of order and harmony which excite our admiration. Any attempt at mere architectural display, by elaborate ornamentation or expensive finish, would have been the work of supererogation. Propriety and fitness forbid the use of elaborate embellishment. Strength and security should be the most prominent features in the design for a prison, that it may by its austere beauty wear a suitable expression, and thus proclaim with truthfulness the purpose for which it is designed.
The total cost of gaol, warden’s residence, heating, cooking, &c., is not far from $290,000.
Art. II.—TEXAS PENITENTIARY.
In March, 1848, the Legislature of Texas, in pursuance of a provision in the State Constitution, passed an act authorizing the Governor to appoint three Commissioners to select a location, and report the details, for the erection of a Penitentiary; the action of the Commissioners to be subject to the approval of the Governor. After careful and full consideration of the comparative advantages of the several sites offered, the town of Huntsville, the county seat of Walker county, was selected, and the selection approved.
Walker county lies just under the thirty-first degree of north latitude, and between the eighteenth and nineteenth degrees of longitude west from Washington; and the Trinity river forms its north-eastern boundary. Huntsville is very nearly the geographical centre of the county, and is about one hundred and twenty miles a little west of north from Galveston; and about one hundred and sixty miles north of west from Austin, the capital of the State. The town stands upon a low gravelly ridge, bare of trees, and with deep ravines upon three sides. Some few scattered houses, as well as Austin College and the Andrew Female College, are built upon corresponding ridges, which rise on the opposite sides of these ravines. There is no extended growth of heavy timber in the immediate vicinity of the town. The approach from the east for some five or six miles, is through a sandy region covered with a dense growth of scrub oak and underbrush. Upon the west and south the country is more open, gradually merging into the rolling prairies of Grimes and Washington counties. Small streams run through the ravines and find their way into the lesser branches of the Trinity and San Jacinto rivers; but the supply of water is irregular and the ravines are often dry. The situation is a healthy one, the air pure and bracing, and the climate favorable. The town is regularly incorporated, and has from sixteen hundred to seventeen hundred inhabitants.
Upon the eastern outskirt of the town, on both sides of the main road from the lower Red River country, are the buildings and grounds of the Penitentiary. The main buildings and enclosure are upon the southern side of the road, and extend back down the slope of the ravine, with a gradual and slight descent. Upon the opposite side of the road are the storehouse and warehouse: the storehouse, which includes under the same roof the offices and residence of the Financial Agent, is sixty feet front by fifty deep, and two stories high; the warehouse is about forty feet front by fifty deep, and two stories high. The two buildings are separated from each other by an open space of some two hundred feet front; the intervening ground, together with a considerable lot in the rear extending back of the storehouse and warehouse, is mostly under cultivation as a vegetable garden for the convicts. The warehouse is used for storing the wool and cotton for the factory. In the storehouse are kept the manufactured goods for sale. The front of the Penitentiary faces north, and extends a distance of some three hundred feet directly upon the road without any intervening fence or wall. The storehouse and warehouse are immediately opposite the respective extremities of the front, the main entrance of the Penitentiary in the centre, facing the open space above mentioned. The front elevation consists of a centre building some sixty feet front and three stories high, with two wings, each one hundred and twenty feet long and two stories high. The entire front presents one uniform extent of brick wall upon the same line for the whole distance, unbroken by any recesses or openings except the large, but plain, arched gateway in the centre and the rows of windows; and unrelieved by a single projection or attempt at ornamental or architectural display. The only thing to relieve the monotonous uniformity of the front is the additional story upon the centre building. The bricks of which all the Penitentiary buildings are built are made in the neighborhood, and are coarse and of a dingy red color.
At the main entrance, the large, solid, double leafed door, which mostly stands wide open in the day time, is stationed a guard, armed with a six-shooter in his belt, and a double-barreled shot-gun, loaded with buck-shot and ready capped, in his hands. An admission fee of twenty-five cents is charged for each visitor, and the amount received goes into the general accounts of the prison, and very nearly defrays the expense of the extra guard who is kept for the express purpose of waiting on visitors through the establishment. Any one, however, who has a higher motive than mere curiosity, and desires to examine the condition and management of the Penitentiary through an interest in the subject of prisons and prison discipline, and will make himself known to the Superintendent, will always be courteously received and every facility afforded for his inquiries and observations without charge. Passing through the archway, the visitor is admitted by the guard through the large grated iron gate which closes its inner end, into the yard of the prison. In the middle of the yard is a two story log-house, used now as the shoemaker’s shop, but built originally as a place of confinement for the convicts who were employed in the erection of the Penitentiary. The entire space enclosed within the limits of the prison walls is about three hundred feet square: the enclosure upon the northern side is formed by the front or main building; the southern side of the enclosure and the portions of the eastern and western sides adjacent thereto, are shut in by substantial brick walls; while the rest of the eastern and western sides is formed by ranges of buildings connected with the main edifice. Just within the prison wall upon the southern side of the yard is the factory, a substantial building of brick, two stories high and two hundred and seventy feet long by fifty deep. Both cotton and woolen goods, chiefly of the coarser kind in demand for plantation wear, are manufactured. The establishment of the factory was authorized by the Legislature at the session of 1853 and 1854, and an appropriation made for the erection of the building, and the purchase of the necessary machinery. Carding and spinning were commenced in June, 1856, and the first loom started late in July of the same year. Steam power is used to drive the machinery, and the factory has been kept steadily in operation from the time of its commencement, the number of looms having been gradually increased as the success of the undertaking developed itself. The machinery was all made in Massachusetts.
The results of the employment of convict labor in this department of manufactures, is regarded by the Directors and officers of the Penitentiary, as a decided pecuniary success; and the Osnaburgs and woolens made here bear a high reputation throughout the State, and are undoubtedly of most excellent quality and finish.
The centre building of the front is about forty feet deep, and is occupied for the offices and residence of the Superintendent and other prison officers, except the Financial Agent. The lower story is curtailed in room by the archway passing through its entire depth, and affording access for vehicles as well as persons to the prison yard. The wings are occupied entirely for cells: these are built in three tiers one above the other from the floor (which is but slightly raised from the level of the ground) to the roof. The tiers of cells are entirely separated from the exterior walls of the building by corridors about six feet wide, which are open from the floor to the roof of the buildings; access to the cells in the second and third tiers being had from narrow galleries reached by stairways, one at the end of each wing nearest the centre building. One of the buildings upon the western side of the square is also occupied for cells arranged in similar tiers. Each cell is eight feet long by five wide, and eight feet high. The door of each is a grating of cross-barred iron, and affords the only means of ventilation and the only access for light; and as the doors are but five feet high, with the bottom edge on a level with the floor, the ventilation is necessarily imperfect. All the air is introduced from the corridors, and the windows of the corridors which open to the outer air, are small in size and not very numerous. The corridors, however, are sufficiently lighted for all ordinary purposes, except perhaps on very dark days. The interior of the cells and the walls of the corridors are kept thoroughly whitewashed. There are no water closets in the cells, but each is furnished with a movable vessel. In addition to the cot with its bedding, each cell is provided with a small table and stool, and a few have some one or two other small articles of furniture. There is no uniformity of neatness or cleanliness in the cells, the care of each being entrusted to its occupant; and beyond a certain, not very high standard, no special attention to these matters is enforced.
The buildings upon the eastern and western sides of the prison yard, afford accommodations for the cook-house or kitchen, blacksmith and wagon shops, in addition to a range of cells. The meals are all served to the prisoners in the cells—breakfast before they leave in the morning, and supper after their return at night. For dinner they are mustered from their work at the ringing of the bell at noon, marched back to their cells, and after dinner conducted again to their work. The provisions are of good quality and well cooked. The rations per day of each convict are, a pound and a half of beef, or three quarters of a pound of mess pork or bacon, and a pound and a half of corn-meal. Sometimes mutton is furnished in place of the beef, and the fresh meat is given on alternate days. To each hundred rations there are allowed six pounds of sugar, five pounds of coffee, fourteen pounds of flour, three pounds of soap, sufficient salt, vinegar and pepper for seasoning, three gallons of molasses, eight quarts of beans or peas, and vegetables whenever they can be procured. Each convict who chews tobacco has one half plug per week furnished him.