Historic Property
#SM
159
According to Levy Court
records, by the mid-eighteenth century, the county had erected a brick
jail or gaol to house prisoners on a site near the courthouse in
Leonardtown. The building apparently satisfied its function until 1857,
when its dilapidated condition led to a legislative act to levy funds
for a new building. The site of the brick jail just to the west of the
courthouse, near the present day Spalding/Camalier House (SM-53), was
abandoned and a new site just to east of the courthouse was prepared.
Erected by an unnamed contractor, the building was “to be of stone, one
story, high, size 20 by 32 feet from out to out and divided into four
apartments, including a passage to be built in the most substantial
manner.” Perhaps due to financial constraints, another notice was
published on
February 11, 1858. A scaled down jail was “to be built of Port Deposit
stone 20 by 22 feet, one story, with slate roof.”
Almost immediately
after its completion, however, a grand jury was convened to assess the
condition of the jail. In an opinion filed with the Honorable Peter W.
Crain, Judge of the Circuit Court in April 1860, the jury wrote that “in
regard to cleanliness, in good condition and with reasonable comforts;
but for the safe custody of criminals, to be unsafe and untrustworthy –
several prisoners have recently broken out and escaped with its
imperfect construction.” Despite continued calls the building’s
demolition it was not until 1876, that the county commissioners once
again announced that they would receive proposals for a new county
jail. Much more prescriptive, the specifications required a building
“Size 20 by 36 feet, 2 stories high, to be built of stone and brick.”
Awarding the contract to Mechanicsville builder F. D. Adams, by August
3, 1876 the builder was already tearing down the building ultimately
finishing the present building by October 26, 1876. Serving as the
county jail until 1942, the building later housed the county’s Welfare
Department. In the 1960s, however, the county extended a long term
lease of the building to the St. Mary’s County Historical Society, who
currently uses the building as an office and exhibit space.
St. Mary’s
Beacon, March 5, 1857.
Beacon, March 30, 1876.
