The Old Gaol
Nantucket
built its first jail in 1696 on Vestal Street in response to its emerging
status as an international seaport, which brought with it an increase in the number
of transient visitors.
In
1805 taxpayers decided to spend $2,090 (roughly the cost of building a whaleship
at the time) to build a new, sturdier penal facility also on Vestal Street. Opened
in 1806 and dubbed the "New Gaol," the wooden structure represents colonial
architecture with exceptional reinforcements.
The
New Gaol was constructed using massive oak timbers with iron bolts running the
length of the walls, iron rods across the windows and heavy wooden doors reinforced
with iron.
The solidly built jail forced prisoners to come up with creative escape plans.
Archival material held at the NHA Research Library contain many accounts of successful
and unsuccessful prison-breaks, including one of a 15 year-old boy who crawled
out the chimney flue, and of a prisoner who had a key delivered to his second
floor window by a woman using a block and tackle pulley system constructed for
the purpose.
1933 saw the last prisoner housed in what is now known as
the "Old Gaol." The town closed the property and deeded it to the Nantucket
Historical Association in 1946.
