Old Salem Jail

The Old Salem Jail, an active facility until 1991, once housed captured British soldiers from the War of 1812. It contains the main jail building, an imposing granite and brick structure built in 1813 and renovated in 1884; an 1813 jail keeper's house; and a barn, also dating to about 1813. The jail was shuttered in 1991 when Essex County opened its new correctional facility in Middleton. Old Salem Jail Ventures, LLC, an affiliate of New Boston Ventures, was chosen by the Redevelopment Authority in 2005 following a request for proposals for the jail site. In 2010 it finished a complete multi-year $12 million dollar renovation. One feature is reconstruction of the jail keeper's house, a three-story brick, Federal-period building originally built in 1813. The project went into a long phase of stagnation when in 1999 the county government was dissolved, resulting in the sale of Salem Jail by Commonwealth of Massachusetts to the City of Salem for $1. The Old Salem Jail complex was renamed 50 Saint Peter Street and is now private property, with private residences. Although the exhibit about the jail's history will be free of charge, it has yet to open.