INSIDE THE NOTORIOUS OLD DON JAIL
This is a look inside Toronto's notorious Old Don Jail, which was the last prison in Canada that did hangings, as capital punishment.
The music in this video is Royalty Free music from Youtube's Audio Library.
The song is called Liber Manualis by Ad Libitum.
The Don Jail , Toronto
DON JAIL, Toronto, Ontario
In this episode we explore the old haunted Don Jail
The Don Gaol was built between 1858 and 1864, with a new wing being built in the 1950s. Designed by architect William Thomas in 1852, it was constructed with a distinctive façade in the Italianate style with a pedimented central pavilion and vermiculated columns flanking the main entrance portico, and it is one of the oldest pre-Confederation structures that remains intact in Toronto.
The Don Jail is the only jail to have been officially designated the Toronto Jail, yet has rarely been referred to as such outside official circles, with the facility more commonly known as the Don Jail or The Don. The first King Street Gaol, second King Street Gaoland the Toronto Central Prison were all colloquially known as the Toronto Jail, and the Don Jail likely earned its unofficial name to distinguish it from these other facilities.
In 1952, the jail was the subject of the first ever television news report on the CBC Television English-language network when the Boyd Gang, a notorious group of bank robbers, broke out of the facility for the second time. The news anchor was future Bonanza star Lorne Greene.
An adjoining, modernist east wing was built in 1958. When the original Don Jail building ceased to be used for housing offenders in 1977, the east wing remained in operation as the Toronto Jail (retaining the Don Jail moniker).[4] The east wing continued to serve as a jail until December 31, 2013 when a new facility, the Toronto South Detention Centre, was completed on the site of the former Mimico Correctional Centre.
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
A hangman noosepurportedly used in the Don Jail to hang Jan Ziolko in April 1915, as displayed at the National Museum of Crime & Punishment
Before capital punishment was abolished in Canada, the Toronto Jail was the site of a number of hangings. Starting with the execution of John Boyd in January 1908, hangings at the jail took place in an indoor chamber, which was a converted washroom, at the northeast corner of the old building. Previously, condemned men had been hanged on an outdoor scaffold in the jail yard. The indoor facility was seen as an improvement because outdoor executions were quasi-public (at the hanging of Fred Lee Rice in 1905, crowds had lined surrounding rooftops to see something of the spectacle) and because the condemned didn’t have to walk as far.
The best-known Canadian hangmen, such as John Radclive, Arthur Ellis and Camille Blanchard, hanged men at the Toronto Jail. The Toronto-based hangman Samuel Edwards, who worked during the Great Depression, carried out his first execution there in July 1931.
Twenty-six men were hanged on the jail’s indoor gallows, a total of 70 men were hung at the Don. The jail saw three double hangings: Roy Hotrum and William McFadden in August 1921; Leonard Jackson and Steven Suchan in December 1952; Ronald Turpin and Arthur Lucas on 11 December 1962. Turpin and Lucas had each been convicted in separate murders, and their executions were Canada's last before capital punishment was abolished.
In 2007, human remains were found on the jail's grounds during an archaeological assessment.
The Don Jail has long shared its site with a hospital. The original House of Refuge was built in 1860 on the same property as a home for vagrants, the dissolute, and for idiots. The House of Refuge became the Riverdale Isolation Hospital in 1875 during a smallpox epidemic, and later evolved into a hospital for those with chronic ailments and/or needing rehabilitation.
When the newly named Bridgepoint Health demolished the 1950s-era Riverdale Hospital building to replace it with a new 10-storey facility, the historic Don Jail building was extensively renovated to serve as the administrative wing for the hospital, a process which included the removal of 150 years worth of grime from the exterior. About 20 per cent of the former jail’s heritage interior were preserved, including the centre block’s half-octagonal rotunda featuring clerestory windows, as well as original iron railings and balconies supported by griffin and serpent cast-iron brackets. The punishment and death row cells, and the former gallows tower (where an outline of the timber framing remains on the interior walls), were also preserved, to remain behind closed doors except for occasions such as Doors Open.
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#DonJail
Wandering Tour Inside Toronto's Don Jail
Did the tourist thing at the historic Toronto Don Jail, with my HD digital camera in hand, of course.
More info about the Don Jail here on Wikipedia:
I visited the prison on a photographer exclusive day, we were free to roam around the property taking pictures for an hour, I didn't since I'm not a photog, I'm a videog.
This was before Doors Open 2009, lucky, cuz the lineup was LONG and it was crowded like crazy!
For May 2009 only, there are guided tours for the general public, afterwards it'll be open for special venues, then closed down to be renovated for the Bridgepoint Health Foundation.
Visit it before history is painted over and retrofitted with automatic toilet flushers.
It's creepy, cold, decaying, depressing, musty, deathly, old, haunted, eerie, awesome, etc.
One Of Toronto's Most Haunted buildings - The Don Jail
Walking through the most Notorious Jail in Toronto The Don Jail. It's said to be one of the most haunted buildings in Toronto! When it was first built it was the Largest Jail in North America!
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Alone In Darkness (Copyright and Royalty Free)
(No Copyright) Cinematic Documentary Background Music For Videos (Free Download) - AShamaluevMusic
TLTV Ep 50 - The Old Don Jail (Toronto)
The Toronto Jail (more commonly known by the nickname The Don, or in the media as the Don Jail ) is a provincial jail for remanded offenders in the city of Toronto. It was built between 1862 and 1865 (predating Canadian Confederation by two years) with most of the current jail facilities being built in the 1950s. Originally constructed to house 276 prisoners, its rated capacity is now 550, and its average prisoner load is about 620. In addition, as a short-term jail, it was not designed with adequate visitor facilities, exercise areas, telephones, lawyer meeting rooms, showers, or even laundry facilities. However, the average stay is 30-90 days, and many prisoners are kept there for months. Many attempts have been made to close it as politicians, international human rights organizations, prisoner advocate groups and even prison guards have decried its overcrowding and inadequate facilities. Guards at the jail have even walked out in protest of these conditions. Before capital punishment was abolished in Canada, the Don was also the site of a number of hangings. The Don Jail is scheduled to be turned into office space in the near future.
Old Don Jail-New Bridgepoint
A Quick look at the Old Don Jail and its upgrades to Bridgepoint Healthcare.Toronto Canada,Broadview and Gerrard streets.
The Notorious Don Jail - The Site Of Canada's Last 2 Executions by Hanging
This video looks inside the dark and gruesome world of the Old, Don Jail. It's an historic building in east Toronto that was the site of Canada's last 2 executions by hanging. Yep, it's a creepy place. This is a repost of the video.
The music in this video is Royalty Free music from incompetech.com.
The song is Dark Times and Despair And Triumph by Kevin MacLeod.
Dark Times and Despair And Triumph Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
The Don Jail and Annette Street
The Don Gaol was built between 1858 and 1864, with a new wing being built in the 1950s. Designed by architect William Thomas in 1852,[2] it was constructed with a distinctive façade in the Italianate style with a pedimented central pavilion and vermiculated columns flanking the main entrance portico, and it is one of the oldest pre-Confederation structures that remains intact in Toronto.
The Don Jail is the only jail to have been officially designated the Toronto Jail, yet has rarely been referred to as such outside official circles, with the facility more commonly known as the Don Jail or The Don. The first King Street Gaol, second King Street Gaol and the Toronto Central Prison were all colloquially known as the Toronto Jail, and the Don Jail likely earned its unofficial name to distinguish it from these other facilities.
In 1952, the jail was the subject of the first ever television news report on the CBC Television English-language network when the Boyd Gang, a notorious group of bank robbers, broke out of the facility for the second time. The news anchor was future Bonanza star Lorne Greene.[3]
The Don Jail east wing in 2007, six years before its demolition
An adjoining, modernist east wing was built in 1958. When the original Don Jail building ceased to be used for housing offenders in 1977, the east wing remained in operation as the Toronto Jail (retaining the Don Jail moniker).[4] The east wing continued to serve as a jail until December 31, 2013 when a new facility, the Toronto South Detention Centre, was completed on the site of the former Mimico Correctional Centre.[5]
Music, Art, Film, Authors, History, Transportation and the Sciences
Don jail cells
A visit to the don jail in April 2015
The Old Don Jail: A Haunted Place In Toronto?
The Don Jail was designed by William Thomas, architect of some of Toronto's finest buildings of the period, including St Lawrence Hall. Thomas died before the building was completed in 1865 and the job took 7 years from drawing to completion.
Built on the 19th century's progressive theories of penal reform, the jail's narrow cells were intended mainly for sleeping. Prisoners were supposed to work in workshops, classrooms or the jail's surrounding industrial farm for much of the day. But things didn't work out as planned. Changing philosophies left prisoners in their cells and the Old Don was described as a dungeon and a black cesspool unfit for human habitation. The chronic overcrowding caused the spread of diseases such as tuberculosis.
Worse, it was the site of 34 executions by hanging (the last were Ronald Turpin and Arthur Lucas of the Boyd Gang in 1962), several suicides, and is said to be haunted by a young woman prisoner who hanged herself in the 1890s.
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Old Don Jail Doors Open 2009
Taking a Tour of Toronto's Hanging Jail,August 9th 2009,one of the last tours through this 1864 Prison.
LARGEST PRISON IN THE WORLD (Toronto Canada)
Toronto rallies to free Tibet
Spend a Night in Jail in Ottawa Ontario
For 110 years, the thick-stoned building on Nicholas Street was known as the Carleton County Gaol, an imposing hell designed to imprison the city's most notorious offenders. Today, budget travellers spend the night bunking in the original cells, drink beer in the canteen that once fed prisoners slop, and take spooky ghost tours down death row.
More info at:
Opening theme music ‘Bones’ & 'Hey'© 2017 Max Serpentini
Toronto's Don Jail becomes stage for musical
Toronto's Don Jail will temporarily be the site of a new musical production, Kiss of the Spider Woman. CBC Radio One's Here and Now guest host Reshmi Nair got a tour of the space from the show's director.
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Identity of inmate who got gourmet meal in jail revealed
Through a CityNews investigation, Cristina Howorun has learned the identity of an accused murderer and alleged gang leader who was photographed dining on steak and lobster and using an iPhone while behind bars at Toronto South Detention Centre.
Hidden Gems - The Old Don Jail
It is definitely haunted.
Video by Chelsea
Music credit goes to:
Ghost Story Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
Photo credits from:
FRANK GUNN / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO
Old Don Jail
Toronto Doors Open 2013: a tour of the administration block of the new Bridgepoint Health Centre, which re-uses the old Don Jail, with its cells. The architectural renovation has preserved some of the cells,and the block which housed the gallows. Filmed 26 May 2013.
Old Don Jail Slide Show
One of the last tours of the Old Don Jail,August 9th 2009