Brick, Brick, Wall and a Few Buildings Too! (Part 1)

The Capital City Needs A New Federal Penitentiary – Part 1

When President John Quincy Adams tapped Charles Bulfinch, the architect from Boston, to design the first federal penitentiary on the northern acres of Greenleaf Point, who knew the role this structure would later play in the history of the United States – specifically in regard to the Lincoln assassination.   Bulfinch, as the 3rd Architect of the Capitol, had redesigned that building, incorporating a new central dome to it. He succeeded Benjamin Henry Latrobe, who was the 2nd Architect of the Capitol, and Stephen Hallet (a.k.a. Étienne Sulpice Hallet) who was Major Pierre Charles L’Enfant‘s draftsman and the 1st Architect of the Capitol.

It Began in Boston

Bulfinch made his name and reputation in New England, specifically in Massachusetts and around Boston -designing several buildings. Among these facts was why in 1817 he was named the Architect of the Capital. In addition to the work done on the Capitol, he designed a prison in Alexandria, Va. (1826) and also designed the Federal Penitentiary (1827-28), Washington DC.

An In-depth Penitentiary Study

To get a better perspective about a penitentiary design,  Bulfinch sought out a variety of prisons both existing or those being built in New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania.  Armed with that knowledge, he then prepared a report to the President that highlighted his actions and the conclusions and recommendations for the new penitentiary that would be built for the Capital City located at the northern end of Greenleaf Point.

Results  and Recommendations for the Penitentiary

Read a copy of the report Bullfinch-report-to-congress

A Penitentiary Design

Based on his report and details in it, the new District of Columbia Penitentiary would be a four-story brick building with twenty cells on each floor or a total of one hundred sixty cells surrounded by a perimeter wall.  The front of the penitentiary would face north.  Within the courtyard would be a separate building – that’s where the kitchen, mess hall, and the shoe factory would be.

Courtesy of the DC History Center

Built in 1826 on the grounds of the Washington Arsenal, the Washington Penitentiary was the first operated by the Federal Government. Designed by Charles Bulfinch, the three-story main building could accommodate 160 prisoners. In 1862, the prison was closed, the building was transferred to the Arsenal, to be a military arms warehouse. It is best known as the site of the trial and execution of the alleged conspirators in the assassination of President Lincoln on April 14, 1865. Some of the penitentiary buildings were demolished in 1867, others in 1903; only the eastern house of the facility remains.

What the Future Held

The penitentiary was completed in 1827 and never filled to capacity and the shoe factory didn’t provide enough income to maintain the facility since the combination of types of prisoners along with the number wasn’t sufficient. Yet less than four decades later, it would be the site of what would be the incarceration, trial, and hanging of four of the Lincoln assassination conspirators including Mary Surratt – the first woman hanged by the US  federal government.

WASHINGTON DC BOUNDARY STONES

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Brick, Brick, Wall  – Part 2 –

After that fateful day – 07 JUL 1865  what happened Next?   (COMING SOON)

The Lincoln Assassination  Conspirators Hanged

Memoirs of a Lincoln Conspirator

First Woman Hanged by the Federal Government

The Lincoln Conspirators Hanged…

After weeks of listening to the testimony of hundreds of “witnesses,” the military commission’s came to a consensus and the orders were carried out. On July 7, 1865, four conspirators – Lewis Powell, David Herold, George Atzerodt, and Mary Surratt – were hanged by the neck at Federal Penitentiary at Washington Arsenal in Washington D.C.  The remaining conspirators: Dr. Samuel Mudd, Samuel Arnold, Michael O’Laughlen, and Edmund Spangler received other sentences or were later freed when President Andrew Johnson pardoned them.  John Surratt, the son of Mary Surratt who had become a fugitive and first went to Canada then to Europe then Africa was later captured and tried, but got set free on a technicality.

The Lincoln Assassination Conspirators:

Their Confinement and Execution,

as Recorded in the Letterbook of John Frederick Hartranft

Lincoln Conspirators

 Gallows Constructed in the Courtyard

While the trial was being held preparations were made for the outcome with gallows built in the courtyard of the penitentiary to carry out the sentence of the military commission. The actual assassin, John Wilkes Booth, already dead, was buried temporarily within the penitentiary grounds.

Conspirators on-Scaffold

The Lincoln conspirators hanged at the gallows…

The Lincoln conspirators were hanged at the gallows…

When they were dead, Lewis Powell, David Herold, George Atzerodt, and Mary Surratt’s bodies were then placed in coffins and buried temporarily in shallow graves near the gallows.  Within days the gallows were removed and later the entire penitentiary was also dismantled save for one part of the building that stands until today,  Grant Hall, where the trial took place. After the rest of the buildings came down,  the bricks were then used for the walls (and other projects within the fort) that now surround Fort Lesley J. McNair.

Mary Surratt:

The Life of the Alleged Lincoln Conspirator

Who Became the First Woman Executed by the U.S. Government

John Surratt’s Flight for Freedom

Considered to be the last of the conspirators, John Surratt, Mary’s son fled the United States then onto Canada and to Europe.  He thus avoided the fate of the other conspirators, who were hanged. He served briefly as a Pontifical (“Papal”) Zouave but was recognized and arrested. He escaped to Egypt but was eventually arrested and extradited. By the time of his trial, the statute of limitations had expired on most of the potential charges which meant that he was never convicted of anything.

The Last Lincoln Conspirator:

John Surratt’s Flight from the Gallows