Name/Title
Washington County Jail | 47 Court Street, Machias, MaineDescription
Built:1858
Address:
47 Court Street
Machias, Maine
National Register
ARCHITECTS
Gridley J.F. Bryant
ARCHITECTURAL STYLES
Italianate
From Sunrise County Architecture (2nd revised and enlarged edition) 1996, p.64:
WASHINGTON COUNTY JAIL
This Italianate building was designed by Gridley J.F. Bryant of Boston, the leading jail architect in the United States in the nineteenth century. Bryant built a large number of commercial and public buildings, and his jails were the most advanced in his day from the standpoint of security, ventilation and sanitation. The building was constructed in 1858, and Albert Currier of Newburyport, Massachusetts was the master builder. This three story jail is built of brick from Marshfield, and has a granite foundation and granite string course running around the building at the water table and second floor level. The windows and doors are set into arched brick recessions, and entrance to the jail is reached by a stairway leading to the second story. Most of the windows are modem replacements, and the skylights have been blocked up. In 1974 the elaborate brick cornice was boarded up and several chimneys removed from the Court Street end of the building. The Sunrise Research Institute, Maine Historic Preservation Commission jointly restord the Cupola (which had been removed in 1974), making the Jail eligible for the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. The floor space was doubled with addition of anew wing. AFN, JCB
