“J” is for “Jail”
The Old Prison
By Phyllis Knox
This blog is part of a very special series created and written by Phyllis Knox, “Alphabetic Musings”, whereby she chooses a word starting with a particular letter from the alphabet and injects it with her storytelling magic.
The Jail, which for many years held all sorts of criminals and the accused – including participants in the Rebellions of 1837-38, has now become a tourist attraction! The Old Prison – “La Vieille prison” – is part of Musée Pop, and it has a fascinating history.
The Old Prison: A Few Historical Facts
Who: Built by Francois Baillairgé, a Quebec City architect
When: Blueprints prepared in 1815
Masonry carried out the following year
The prison opened officially in 1822
It remained in operation until 1986
Formally recognized as a historic site in 1978
What: Built in the Palladian Style which Wikipedia tells me is “a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508-1580).
Where: On Hart Street in downtown Three Rivers.
Musée Pop’s website tells us that although the old jail was “designated to hold about forty inmates, it sometimes housed up to a hundred prisoners at once during the course of its history.” Many of the Old Prison’s original architectural features were preserved by turning it into a museum, and it has become “an object of fascination and a major attraction in the museum complex.”
Immersive tours, using today’s technology and storytelling, are offered of the prison by the guides of the Musée Pop to better understand the history of the Quebec penal system going back 200 years. The jail was in operation for 164 years, opening in 1822 and only closing its doors in 1986, which was not so long ago! In the summer, the museum offers only one English tour per day, which in the past has been at 11:15 am. To make a reservation and find out more, look here. There are special visits at Hallowe’en – the scary music and frightening costumes set against the original dark and gloomy background can make for a memorable experience.
For some reason, many people flock to this particular tourist spot in our city centre. Out of curiosity, I went on to Google and asked a specific question on that subject – my exact written words were – “Why do people visit old prisons?” The answers I found were clear, but also surprising! From the online article, The Rise of Prison Tourism: Historical Interest or Morbid Curiosity, on TourismReview.com, people visit for moral reasons, and the public “wants to learn about the conditions in which historical prisoners incarcerated for unjust reasons in other eras lived. Most tourists want to learn a bit of history from the visit.” Other tourists might be interested in the architecture of the premises, while still others, “can’t get enough of getting a taste of life behind bars”. An interesting article from Mother Jones, The Gruesome Attraction of Prison Tourism is Being Challenged at Last, calls into question the ethics of turning prison visits into spooky tours which put the emphasis on “gruesome” and “salacious” details to “attract visitors for a playful afternoon of ducking into cells and taking selfies in striped jumpsuits.” It makes the argument for the importance of using visits of historic jails and prisons to educate. – But does that mean that they have to leave out all the scary anecdotes? Something to ponder, EH?
The Musée Pop is attached to the Old Prison and located on the corner of Laviolette and Hart Streets (across from the Gouverneur Hotel). The museum opened on June 26, 2003. It was built on the site where the historic Chateau de Blois once stood before being razed by a horrific fire. I can still remember so clearly the day that as an 18-year-old teenager, I watched, tears in my eyes, as the magnificent building burned to the ground: July 13, 1966...such a very sad memory. Today, as we all know, time has moved on, and the Musée Pop has been described by the Bonjour, Québec tourism website as bearing “...witness to the unique identity of Quebec society in its diversity and development.” Its exhibitions are “enlightening and thought-provoking.” A new prison – although we now call it a “detention facility” – has been built on the outskirts of town to hold those judged to need to be... well, let’s call it, punished. The wording may have changed and the conditions may be improved but the purpose of the centre is the same. Despite the new language and terms, have our attitudes toward criminals changed? If so, how? And how has the crime rate changed? Interesting questions, but they are beyond the scope of this blog!
This particular block of our downtown core – where the Musée Pop now stands – means a lot to me. In 1951, The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) was in the process of setting up a site in the city for what we generally called the “RADAR Building”. This plan of theirs would change my family’s very history. In 1952, my family – Mom & Dad and the seven kids aged 1 to 11 – got on a train in Halifax and travelled west from Eastern Canada to settle in Three Rivers. We lived at the St. Louis Hotel (now closed) in the heart of town on des Forges Street for about a month until our ‘new’ house was completed on Fortin Street. My three oldest siblings went to nearby St. Patrick’s School which was within walking distance on St. Julie Street while the “babies” (of which I was one) stayed ‘home’. I can’t remember any of this, of course, and I honestly prefer not to, EH! So, as our father worked for the Air Force in post-war affairs, the whole family was just a couple of blocks away (living the high life at the hotel, EH!!!!) within the city limits. Not a bad set up, all things considered.
So, this unique area is what actually might be called “home” to me. I have abundant memories of parades and parties put on by the Canadian Armed Forces of the day. As I stand on that spot and walk through that particular area, I remember a time gone by, but not forgotten.
P.S., I hope you can relate in some way or another to the people, places and/or things mentioned in this blog. What stands out to me is that really nothing stays the same! While I can see (and feel) the Old Prison in my childhood’s memory, it feels nothing like it did when we knew that both men and women were actually living and breathing within those high walls. We understood, even at a very young age, that we never ever wanted to have to inhabit that place. Perhaps, that very scene kept me on the straight and narrow, so to speak? I will never know for sure, EH?
Phyllis
