Burlington County Prison Museum
Burlington City was the first settlement in Burlington County, founded in 1677, and was the county seat until 1796. The first jail in the county was locate in the basement of the court house in Burlington City. This was replaced by a separate stone structure in 1767. In 1796, the county seat was moved to Mount Holly and a new court house was built that same year. The Burlington County Prison in Mt. Holly was not completed until 1811. It was built by architect Robert Mills who also designed the US Treasury Building, US Patent Office, US Post Office, the Washington Monument in Baltimore and the National Monument in Washington, DC (the tallest building in the world at the time of its construction).
The prison was built with three floors and two wings and designed so that most of the prisoners had their own cell with a fireplace and a small window placed above eye level. These individual cells were arranged in blocks of four opening off a hallway at each end of the building. Each block was meant to hold a separate group of offenders (women, first offenders, habitual offenders, etc.) Larger rooms on the main halls were used as communal cells for debtors and held three to four men at a time. These prisoners were allowed to move about during the day and were employed doing different chores at the prison. The maximum security cell was located in the center of the third floor to prevent escape by digging, minimize communication with fellow prisoners and provide constant surveillance by the guards. This cell was the only one without a fireplace and had an iron ring set into the middle of the floor to chain the prisoner. The maximum security cell was originally used to house those condemned to the gallows, but after 1908, it served as a solitary confinement cell to punish the unruly.
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