1. "Fall River Jail"
Posted by Harry on Feb-18th-04 at 9:01 AM

EBay has a postcard for auction showing the "new" FR jail.  Do any of you who live in the area know where this building is and approx. when it was built?  The postcard itself was used in 1935 but the building looks like it has an earlier style.

Har, I have often wondered about this "New jail". I thought that I read somewhere that the city of Fall River was upset that they didn't have a new jail when New Bedford & Taunton did so after years of pushing the state to build one they finally did but by then it was obsolete or Fall River had no use for it! I know that soulds a little far fetched but thats what I read. For some reason I think it was in one of the Victorian Vistas that I read it. The jail was down off of Bay st. about 3 blocks from where I now live. The only pic I've ever seen was this postcard. There has to be more info somewhere on it.

The postcard caught me by surprise because I had never seen a photo or even read of a new jail of that size in Fall River.  That's quite a building.

Mark, do you know if it's still there and if so what are they using it for?

Har, this building doesn't even exist anymore. From what I read, it was built then torn down shortly there-after with-out even housing 1 prisioner!!!  I find it extrordinary that they would build a prison as grand as this one (if indeed prisons can be grand) & tear it down without using it once. I'm going to look up a little more info in it & get back to you. Some where, there has to be more to the story.  Mark

I'm sorry Mark, I think that's what you said in your first reply.  Alzheimers must be gaining on me. 

Yes, that sure does seem strange.  You would have at least thought they would have found another use for it. Must have cost the taxpayers a pretty penny to build and tear down.  But after seeing what they did with City Hall and that beautiful Post Office nothing would shock me. Is the Armory still there?

Har, to answer your last qusetion first, Yes the Armory is still there thankfully & it looks as good as the day they built it. What a great buiding that is. As far as the jail goes, It didn't take me long to find a little more info on it. I just started thumbing thru a insert that the Fall River Hearld News inserted in the Sunday paper a few weeks ago. It was titled "Post Cards from the Past". It shows some of the postcards from the Fall River Historical Society's collection. Someone had just donated 1500 old post cards to the Historical Soc. which now brings their collection up to around 4,500!  Boy, I could sift thru them for hours. So, while reading the story about the donation & scanning the post cards that they had pictured, I noticed our jail right there on the title page in the upper left corner. The description they give of the jail is as follows: " New Jail, Fall River. Constuucted as a new county jail, the building on Bay st. was never used for that purpose. It was instead used as the City Home, where the elderly poor and indigent were housed". Boy, what a poor house. I would have loved to have seen that building. I live 1 block up from Bay and about 3 blocks North of where this jail was.
Hope this info clears up the story a bit.   Mark

Thanks Mark, good info.  I'll keep a watch out for anything as well.

Speaking of the Armory I recently learned that the attached photo which had a file name of "frpd1890" was taken in front of the Armory.  I also have seen the same photo with a file name of "police-c1900" so I don't really know the actual year it was taken.

I wonder if we can spot any of the policemen involved in the Borden case.



(Message last edited Feb-20th-04  10:49 PM.)

Wow Harry...Great "police lineup" picture there!!
Now you have me wondering if that slightly tubby-looking fella down front there is Rufus Hilliard.

Just noticed the most interesting little piece of info
(to moi, the newbie, anyway) about the police department line of succession: For about 25 years there, every top cop in Fall River woulda known quite a bit about the murders at No. 92 - because they were all present at the home at some point on the 4th of August.

Rufus B Hillard - City Marshal - 1886-1909
John Fleet - City Marshal - 1909-1915
William Medley - Chief of Police - 1915-1917

(Yup, I can hear it now ... "Sheesh - newbies!!")

Doug

Well. I think it's a cool point Doug. (Of course, I'm a newbie, too)
Harry, that picture is priceless!  You can tell they're all trying to stand up straight and dignified for the interminable time the photographer would take!  Mark, that up-and-down jail building story is fascinating.  It would be great to know what possessed them!

--Lydia

Today's "newby" is tomorrow's grizzled veteran.

I would guess the 1890 date is accurate. The organization of police was generall a post Civil War event (hence their uniforms).
Could it be dated by their helmets?
Could a blow-up tell us their badge numbers?
The Chief does not resemble anyone in Porter's book, to me.

I think it's dated at the Fall River Police Department web site?

I've dug up the fact that the Armory was not completed until 1897.  At a cost of $150,000 by the way.

So the turn of the century is probably about correct.

Pages 28 and 41, Images of America: Fall River by Rob Lewis

(Message last edited Feb-26th-04  5:30 PM.)

This won’t help us much in dating that wonderful photo Harry found, but it might help to explain the ramrod-straight postures and spanking appearance of the officers in that picture.

I’ve just found a memorandum, over the signature of Marshal Hilliard on official letterhead. It reads:

Sept. 22, 1898

Capt. 2nd Division

Sir,

You will instruct all the officers of your division to
examine their dress coats and those that have them that are not in
shape for service  will proceed immediately to get new ones. Also
those officers that have not got any will get them at once.
You will order all of the officers of your division to hand you
their black helmets for examination.  You will inspect them
and all those that are not up to the requirements of the rules
and regulations you will condemn and order the owners of them
to procure new ones at once.  You will see to it that the
order is obeyed.

I want you to instruct your officers that while they are in
uniform on the streets, or in public conveyances that their
blouses and coats must be kept buttoned up, as my attention
has been called to the matter by the Board of Police.  They must
comply with the order, or take the consequences. This not only applies  to patrolmen, but superior officers as well.

Yours Respectfully,

/s/

Rufus B. Hilliard
City Marshal


Source: http://www.frpd.org/images/offical/uniforms.jpg

Great find, Doug!  OOOOHHHHH, those buttoned up coats must have been miserable in weeks when it really was 84 degrees and above!

--Lyddie

(Message last edited Feb-26th-04  11:10 PM.)

Yes, for that 25 year period after the murders you can bet poor Lizzie didn't get much sympathy from the police.

Note the unique way the curb slopes down from left to right.  I don't think I ever saw anything like that before.  Heck of a lot cheaper than raising the right side I guess.

It would be at that, Harry, for sure!

Hi Harry,
The slope of the sidewalk you see is due to the fact the Armory was built on a hill. The road in front descends but they built the Armory level (I hope!) Most of Fall River is that way, being built on a hill.

Gramma

Yes, I realize that Gramma but it's customary to level the ground before you build upon it.

Well, at least it's wheelchair accessible that way.

(Message last edited Feb-27th-04  11:46 AM.)

I thought I lived at the top of a hill (Vveerry Gradual hill...) and then I opened the blinds of the very north window of my house--a window which is 6 feet up - and can see, almost level with my gaze up and out from the doorway, the whole house and yard way- catty-corner across the street on the east side!