The day started out normal enough for a vacation day with an early rise. Since we left the previous night, we were less than an hour from our first stop of the day and they didn't open until 10:00AM. So there was some putzing around the hotel room before leisurely leaving and taking the slow roads up to Crawfordsville, Indiana to see the Rotary Jail there.
The rotary jail in Crawfordsville, Indiana was the first of many rotary jails built. It is estimated there were in the low double digits of them built in the US with several still standing. The rotary jail being visited is reported to be the only one that still works (ie it still rotates).
The "innovative" design was patented by William H. Brown of Indianapolis. The primary feature of the jail was that it increased safety and strict Victorian hierarchy by only allowing one inmate in or out at at time.
I really see two issues with the rotary jail. First, if there is ever a fire or any other kind of structural or natural disaster, getting inmates out to safety will be slow at best. Perhaps in the 1880's, when this first rotary jail was built, this was not seen as an important aspect; people in jail were a lesser version of human. The other main issue was that inmates may get limbs, or other body parts stuck in the rotary aspect of the jail, causing mangling (or worse). Similarly, I do wonder if an inmate bent on malfeasance could stop the jail from rotating by wedging something in place to prevent rotating. Now throw in a drunk inmate and things can really get interesting.
Despite the innovative nature, the concept of the rotary jail did not last too long and by 1939, all rotary jails were either no longer in service or modified to no longer being rotary - making them just a pie shaped jail. The Rotary Jail in Crawfordsville stayed in operation as a non-rotating jail until 1973 (seriously). Apparently, it was in dire condition by then and required extensive restoration to turn into a museum.
The tour started with the Sheriff's house. The Sheriff lived on site and his wife did most of the cooking for the inmates. The house itself is pretty typical for Edwardian/Victorian architecture. What was nice about this structure is that it was turned into a museum very shortly after it was closed as an active jail so it didn't fall into more disrepair or vandalism.
From there, we went into the jail. As expected, the jail is a cylinder shape with two stories. Each story has 8 wedges. Each pie wedge could hold two inmates for a total of 32.
In addition to the rotating part of the jail, there was also a woman's cell (could hold four), plus an infirmary which was also sometimes used for juveniles and/or a high security cell.
Throughout the tour, Dillon, our tour guide, gave lots of information and history of the rotary jail. I will say that the $5.00 admission with personal tour was very well worth it. Not only was the information great, but it also allowed the tour to move at a pace that was appropriate for us.
While the jail is restored, there is still evidence of its history. In the picture below, the deteriorated floor can be seen below where the toilet used to be. I guess inmates were not necessarily good at aiming?
There were 2 people executed by hanging at the Rotary Jail, but one required three tries. If there was ever a case for cruel and unusual, that must be it.
As the only rotary jail that still rotates, I was glad they still do rotate it as part of the tour. The effort it takes to spin the jail is considerable and didn't look like fun in the day's early heat and humidity. I was surprised at the spinning rate of the jail as I had previously pictured something with much more gear reduction.
From there, we went down into the basement of the jail to see the actual workings of it. The mechanism juts out of the wall. The brick wall supports the bars of the jail.
The jail "pie" is actually supported entirely on this large metal post. The post goes all the way up through the cylinder that is the rotary part of the jail. Surprisingly, the support also holds the waste plumbing for the cells. The incoming water for the jail was a cistern on the roof. And this means that during a drought...
While we were down there, someone else started turning the jail as part of an inspection being done. Seeing the actual mechanism working was very fascinating.
After looking around a few more minutes at the jail, we left to head to prison. Normal course would be court first, but such is vacation.
We headed out through the flat land of Indiana and Illinois. We stayed mostly to two lane roads through the day. While we saw rain in the area several times, the only time we actually hit rain was around the Indiana/Illinois border for about 45 minutes. It was moderately hard at times, but was almost refreshing in the days relenting humid heat.
We crossed the Illinois River near Hardin by a bridge, before heading south between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers to the Golden Eagle Ferry. I've crossed rivers on the motorcycle before on Ferries, but never the Mississippi. The water was up and moving so the ferry almost had to come in at a 45 degree angle. Actual docking was very gentle though.
Once in Missouri, we headed west again towards Jefferson City. There was significant traffic, but only for a short time as we got on the Interstate. We skirted a very large thunderstorm that I was glad we didn't have to ride through on the motorcycle. We did get to take advantage of the shade and cooling from the clouds. After about a half an hour on I-70, we got off to take 2-lane roads the rest of the way. I was really glad we did as the ride from that point was fantastic. We headed down to near the Missouri River and followed it along all the way to Jefferson City. The ride was hilly, curvy and with very little traffic was just plain fun. I actually felt sorry for all those people on I-70 gritting their teeth with a death grip on the steering wheel.
As we approached Jefferson City, I was struck how close to the Capital of Missouri the rural landscape remained. Jefferson City is a bit odd in that it is presumably close to the flood plain and there are no interstates running into it.
We got turned around a bit as we got into Jefferson City, but found our hotel soon enough. Dinner that night was at Hoxton's Tarvern and Grill. Other than one VERY loud patron it was nice and the food was pretty good.
Heavy rain was just moving in as we got back to the hotel to call it a night.
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