Big Scores · STOP 01 · West End
The Jail That Became a Hotel
This stone building at Charles and Cambridge held Suffolk County's prisoners from 1851 to 1990. A future mayor did time here for taking a civil service exam in someone else's name, and so did a woman who ran a bank for single women. A federal judge ordered it closed in 1973. It's a hotel now, and the name over the door is the best joke in Boston real estate.
This is stop 1 of Big Scores. Walk it - any two stops are free.
The plate
Collected on site
215 Charles Street, at Cambridge Street, beside Charles/MGH station
Directions
The suit that closed it was filed in 1971 by prisoners against the Suffolk County sheriff. Their argument: the overcrowding itself violated their constitutional rights.
More footnotes on the story card, in the app.
In these collections: After Dark, Crime Scenes
Near Charles/MGH · Near Science Park/West End
Sources (4)
- Crime Scene: The West End's Three JailsThe West End Museum (Leigh Blander) · 2021-10-21 (modified 2022-03-29)
- Ladies' Deposit (Boston, MA) - bank run episode 7934FinHist (compiles Chronicling America newspapers) · n.d.
- Before Eric Adams, there was James Michael CurleyThe Boston Globe · 2024-09-26
- James Michael CurleyEncyclopaedia Britannica · n.d.