I am not an expert on the jail but I was inside it a few times in 1946 and 1947 as an altar boy at St. Joe's down the block. The church used to send a priest every morning to offer Mass to the inmates and staff.

Also, the inside is visible in the movie Hair. Scenes were filmed in that jail, as well as in a few locations around JC.

I think it was criminal (accidental pun) that the jail was torn down. As Ted Conrad pointed out, it would not have been difficult or unreasonably expensive to convert it to condos.

It certainly was a solid structure. As I recall, when it was torn down some 15/17 years ago, it cost 2.5 Million just to take it down.

Someone else here can fill in the details of the woman who had the politically appointed job of organist. I can't recall what was the exact superlative but I recall being told she was paid a huge wage for w few hours of "work" per month.

Thank you so much for posting this map. I had a nice time looking at it and noting the changes to the area. The blocks surrounding my building (built around 1900), all look the same, but you can clearly see how the Path construction eliminated about a quarter of our little neighborhood.

I'm curious about the old HC Jail.

For an aerial view of Journal Square of 1929/1930, seee:

http://appletreehouse.org/journal-square-circa-1929/

This is a greatly reduced copy of the 4 foot by 3 foot original that was professionally scanned in its original dimensions thanks to the generous gift of the local developer Joe Panepinto.

The original was created on newspaper stock by the \"Ben Day Process\" (black and white images in which the density of dots creates patterns that the eye sees as gray-scale images) and then hand-tinted with water colors the way old post cards and pre-kodachrome photos were created.

Internal evidence of the photo (the shiny Loews and the existence of the houses on the corner of Newark Ave, just behind the jail, etc.) pretty much fix the date but if anyone sees more specific clues, your input is welcome.