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| Fremantle Prison. (Photo from tripadvisor United Kingdom) |
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| Kingston Penitentiary (Photo from Wikimapia.) |
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| Collins Bay Institution (Wikipedia) |
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| The former Prison for Women in Kingston. (Wikipedia). |
The Kingston Penitentiary was constructed with limestone by KP inmates, between the years 1833 and 1834. The site includes a cell block, perimeter walls, guard towers, workshops, a massive dome and tunnels.
Collins Bay was also built with limestone, by KP inmates. Local residents call the institution "Disneyland North." Collins Bay, as well as most of the older federal prisons in Canada will be decommissioned in the future, see the four documents below:
1.)
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| Let the Future Begin - 1997 |
3.) A Roadmap to Strengthening Public Safety - October 2007 Report - A huge new prison will be built in Kingston, Ontario and the complex will be populated from the consolidation of existing institutions:
Pittsburgh
Joyceville
Warkworth
Regional Treatment Centre
Kingston Penitentiary
Millhaven Penitentiary (From page 197/255 of the Report.)
Joyceville and Pittsburgh prison farmland will net $2 million dollars, while the sale of the Kingston Regional Headquarters complex will bring in $17 million dollars. (From page 206/255 of the Report.)
4.) City of Kingston Official Plan - May 1, 2018 - Page 49---Special Planning Areas - "The Special Planning Areas include the Collins Bay Institution and a portion of the Canadian Forces Base Kingston. Both of these areas could be the subject of further development in the future..."
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The Prison for Women is located across the street from Kingston Penitentiary. A local developer recently bought the property, he is planning to remove all the evidence that the building was once a prison, and relocate the bars etc. to a museum. Then the building will be gutted and converted into condominiums and commercial space. High rise condominiums will be built on the surrounding greenspace,blocking the view of the women's prison. A tunnel connecting P4W to the Kingston Pen was sealed off.
City of Kingston - Heritage Properties Working Group - June 26, 2018
Prison for Women (P4W)
The report to Council requests direction on
1.) Taller buildings on the site.
2.) Community benefit considerations for the restoration to the heritage building; and
3.) Removing the heritage attributes of the current designation bylaw.
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| A 2007 letter sent to me by the Honourable Peter Milliken, Member of Parliament for Kingston and the Islands. |
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| The master locking mechanisms on the cells were invented during the 1880's by a Saint-Vincent-de-Paul Penitentiary inmate. |
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| Port Arthur Asylum for mentally-ill convicts. |
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| The Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney, Australia. |
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| Rockwood Asylum for mentally-ill prisoners in Kingston Penitentiary. |
The Rockwood Asylum was constructed in 1859 to house the "criminally insane" of Kingston Penitentiary. Rockwood is currently endangered for several reasons:
1.) The owner of Rockwood is an Ontario Crown corporation that privatizes provincial buildings and land--- the Ontario Realty Corporation, now called Infrastructure Ontario.
2.) The Ontario Realty Corporation is now selling most of the land on the huge property to developers. High rise buildings will block views of Lake Ontario and the the Asylum.
Rockwood was constructed with limestone, therefore the buildings may last for thousands of years. The Great Pyramid of Giza is 4,000 years old, and the foundation of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece is limestone.
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| The former Kingston Penitentiary warden's residence is now a museum. (Document sent to me by the Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office in Gatineau, Quebec.) |
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| The former residence of the deputy warden of Kingston Penitentiary. The building at 525 King Street West then became a half-way house for female prisoners, the Isabel Mc Neill House. |
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| Guard quarters outside Fremantle Prison. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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| Again , Kingston Penitentiary inmates built the limestone water tower, located on Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard. The nearby farmland and quarry were sold by Corrections Canada to Queen's University in 1969. |
Is located one kilometer from Kingston Penitentiary. The parish priest at the Church of the Good Thief was also the Kingston Penitentiary chaplain.
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| The Church of the Good Thief. |
Portsmouth Harbour, where Kingston prisoners disembarked and Sydney Harbour in Australia.
At one time the Kingston Penitentiary was called The Portsmouth Penitentiary.
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Cultural references to the Kingston Penitentiary:
In 1842 Charles Dickens visited the prison and wrote an essay about the experience, beginning with the words "There is an admirable jail here, well and wisely governed..."
And Ernest Hemingway wrote a story about a 1923 jailbreak at the Pen.
What will happen to prison sites in Kingston if they are not preserved by the United Nations/UNESCO:
They will be destroyed:
The New Westminster Federal Penitentiary was almost completely demolished. One of the few buildings saved was The Gatehouse, which is now The Pen restaurant. I noticed that Australia's National Flag is flying in front of the Fremantle Gatehouse. Canada's Maple Leaf Flag was removed from the Kingston Penitentiary, Prison for Women and Saint-Vincent-de-Paul Penitentiary.
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| The B.C. Pen Gatehouse. |
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| Fremantle (From: griffithsarchitects.com.au) |
The Saint-Vincent-de-Paul Federal Penitentiary in Laval, Quebec was a Recognized Federal Heritage Building. In 1873 the first inmates from Kingston Penitentiary arrived by boat to the Laval penitentiary.
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| Saint-Vincent-de-Paul federal Penitentiary (Photo by Pierre Vidal). |
According to the document "Portsmouth Visioning" half of the Kingston Penitentiary will be demolished. That includes most of the perimeter walls, guard towers and buildings.
Councillors at Kingston City Hall agreed to this monstrosity, in fact they called the project "exciting".
Residential towers will be 25-storeys high.
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| The future of the Kingston Pen? |
The Will of the People
Individuals who want to save the Kingston Penitentiary:
The Honourable Mark Gerretsen, Member of Canada's Parliament
Bill Glover, Councillor for Sydenham District
Dr. Jennifer McKendry - Architectural Historian in Kingston, Ontario.
Ed Grenda - Frontenac Heritage Foundation
Floyd Patterson - Frontenac Heritage Foundation
Glen Shackleton - Founder/CEO, Haunted Walks Inc.
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Canada Lands Company, why don't you leave the Kingston Penitentiary alone.
You have already sold off, redeveloped or demolished many federal properties in Canada:
CFB Downsview
CFB Rockcliffe
CFB Chilliwack
CFB Jericho Beach
CFB St. Hubert
Wolseley Barracks, London Ontario
CFB Calgary
CFB Shearwater (returned to the federal government a few years later.)
CFB Pleasantville
Kapyong Barracks, Winnipeg
Shannon Park, Dartmouth Nova Scotia.
Prison for Women, Kingston
Saint-Vincent-de-Paul Penitentiary in Laval, Quebec
800 Montreal Road next to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation Headquarters in Ottawa
Tunney's Pasture, Ottawa.
The Natural Resources Canada Complex on Booth Street, Ottawa
Veteran's Affairs properties on Smyth Road, Ottawa and in Senneville, Quebec.
National Defence Medical Centre, Ottawa
933 Gladstone Street, Ottawa
The Constitution Building on Rideau Street and King Edward, Ottawa.
The Dominion Public Building on Front Street in Toronto
Fisheries and Oceans Canada land in Port Credit, Mississauga and Richmond British Columbia; and eventually Portsmouth Olympic Harbour in Kingston.
Agriculture Canada Experimental Farm land in Upton Farm, Prince Edward Island
A Canada Post mail processing plant located at 1500 rue Ottawa; Griffintown Montreal.
Dominion Public Building, Charlottetown PEI
780 Division Street Kingston - CMHC.
The Canadian National Railway's Moncton Shops in New Brunswick.
The Canadian National Railway yard at Brandt's Creek in Kelowna, British Columbia.
The George Derby Veteran's Affairs property in Burnaby, British Columbia.
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| Canada Lands Company is selling a 5-acre Fisheries and Oceans Canada property for $11 million dollars. The land has been rezoned to residential. |
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