An exterior view of the entrance leading to the lower prison in 1902. The blacksmith shop is seen on the right.
A modern view of the sallyport entrance as it appeared exactly 100 years later.
A 1903 photograph showing the blacksmith shop, the tool house under the wooden stairs, the library situated above the guardhouse, and an open latrine suspended over the water’s edge on wharf pilings. The “Overseer’s Squad Room” (seen here with the door ajar) is located on the upper floor above the sallyport entrance. Also visible is an armed sentry standing ready at the edge of the catwalk in the foreground.
He wrote:
The problem of prisoners was a pressing one from the early days of the war as pointed out on September 10, 1862, by Captain William A. Winder. He wrote to department headquarters that the “... caponiere at the entrance of the fortification, defending approach from the wharf, is occupied by the guard and prisoners; the latter being so numerous they entirely fill the casemate on the right of the entrance, rendering it necessary that the guard should occupy the one on the left. For this reason the howitzers intended for the defense have never been mounted, nor can they until some other arrangement is made for the care of the prisoners.”
Despite these difficulties, the military realized the potential of Alcatraz as an escape-proof prison for hard-core offenders. The first twenty arrivals were from Fort Point, and during the next year over a hundred more prisoners would be ferried to Alcatraz. In April of 1865, President Abraham Lincoln issued an executive order providing discretionary jurisdiction to arrest public activists for the Confederacy. Numerous sympathizers were arrested and sent to Alcatraz as punishment, and several of these offenders were prominent citizens and politicians.
As the role of Alcatraz began to evolve, the island’s defensive systems would eventually be redesigned. Major George Mendell from the Army Corps of Engineers filed a report that showcased flaws in the design of the original fortification. He illustrated that if canon shot were to strike any of the stone or brick structures, the post could suffer extensive casualties from the shard debris that would violently rain down on the soldiers. He submitted a new design that eliminated all exposed brick and rock, replacing it with sand and earthworks. The new plan would allow for better absorption of the powerful explosive debris, and would thus effectively reduce casualties among the soldiers. Using inmate labor, crews leveled many of the brick structures, and packed soft soil ferried from Angel Island in front of the gun placements.
In 1868, the Department Commander officially designated Alcatraz as a place of confinement for prisoners serving long sentences. In the same year, the Spanish-American War elevated the prisoner population from a mere twenty-six men to over four hundred and fifty. It wasn’t long before overcrowding and increasing demand gave cause to build a two-story brick jail structure with individual cells, and construction of this edifice was completed in 1867. The confinement conditions for inmates left much to be desired and the men would still be required to sleep on hard wooden pallets. A report submitted by the Assistant Surgeon General in 1870 described in detail the facilities at Alcatraz:
The buildings consist of a citadel, two brick barrack buildings for troops, and three prison buildings on the summit of the island, and the laundresses’ quarters, blacksmith and carpenter’s workshop, two boathouses, coal and wood house, and bowling alley and theater for the men, most of which are situated on the eastern face of the cliff.
The citadel, of brick, is 200 by 100 feet, and is two stories high above the basement, with bastion fronts facing the northwest and southeast. It is well ventilated by the main hall passages and windows. It is used as officers’ quarters, hospital, and quartermaster and subsistence offices and storerooms. The set for each officer consists of two large and comfortable rooms, with kitchen and dining room attached, and water –closets and bathrooms. The rooms set apart for hospital use comprises of a dispensary, and two wards, a kitchen, and an adjoining mess room, a store-room, bathroom, and a water-closet. The wards are each 35 by 26 by 17 feet, well floored and ceiled, and are furnished each with ten beds and bedside tables, chairs, dumbwaiter, closet, and a washstand. They are warmed by coal grates, lighted and ventilated by side windows. Air space per bed, 1,547 cubic feet; area, 91 feet...
The prison rooms are three buildings, ventilated by skylights and warmed by stoves in the main hall. They are arranged in two tiers (in one three), with galleries for the upper tiers. Ventilators are placed over the door of each cell, and air tubes in the walls. One building contains fourteen single and two double cells; the second has forty-five cells, and the third forty-eight single and four double cells. The average size is 81/2 by 6 by 31/2 feet, giving an airspace to each of 161 cubic feet. Adjoining these buildings are the kitchens and mess-rooms for the troops and prisoners, and the bakery for the post.
A 19th-century photograph showing the Lower Prison (to the right of the Sallyport and Guardhouse, with six visible skylights), and the Mess Hall (situated at the lower right, with four visible skylights). The small narrow building to the left of the Mess Hall was the prisoners’ bathhouse.
A rooftop view of the Lower Prison with an armed sentry patrolling his post, taken in 1893. The brick building on which the soldier is standing was the original jail, built in 1867. Following the completion of the larger three-story wooden prison structure, the brick building was converted into a guardhouse. The small wooden pinnacle was a bell tower. The bell was housed behind the grill, and was used for signaling escapes and other emergencies.
An interior view of the lower prison in 1902. The lower prison cellblock contained three tiers of cells, each with a closed-front wooden door. The cells were approximately three-feet by six-feet (about the size of a small closet), and were poorly ventilated despite the small exterior vent flues. The letters indicate a fallen oil lamp, which horrified the inmates by nearly turning the cellblock into a flaming inferno.
The lower prison mess hall facility. This narrow building was connected to the lower prison building, and was accessed via a small curved stairwell. Conditions were crowded in this hall, which could seat up to 200 men.
A circa-1902 view looking east toward the Lower Prison. The hospital can be seen on the right.
A photograph of the Prison Hospital taken in 1893 from the rooftop of the Lower Prison. Note the finely crafted lattice skirt covering the base of the structure, and the detail of the Lower Prison skylight on the right.
During the same decade, the military adopted the practice of sending what they termed as “troublesome Native Americans” to the post at Alcatraz. The first documented case of an American Indian incarcerated on Alcatraz was Paiute Tom, who arrived on June 5, 1873. There is no formal documentation providing a history of his prison time on Alcatraz, but it is recorded that he was fatally shot by a guard only two days after his arrival, presumably while attempting to escape. Four months later, two Modoc Indians named Barncho and Sloluck were transferred to Alcatraz following an attack on peace commissioners during the Modoc War in Northern California. Barncho died of scrofula (a disease associated with Tuberculosis) at Alcatraz on May 28, 1875, and he was buried on Angel Island and later moved to the Golden Gate National Cemetery. Sloluck was eventually transferred to Fort Leavenworth in February of 1878, having endured the longest prison term on Alcatraz of any Native American soldier. Several others would be arrested and sent to serve time at the prison, though some of them had not been convicted or sentenced for any specific crimes, but were held at Alcatraz for “safe keeping.” Among others who were sentenced to serve time on the Rock were two privates from the Company “A” Indian Scouts. These soldiers had been involved in the mutiny at Cibicu Creek, Arizona Territory on August 30, 1881, in which Captain E.C. Hentig and six privates from the Sixth Cavalry were killed. Five Indian Scouts who mutinied at San Carlos, Arizona Territory in June 1887 were also imprisoned on the island, as were several Indian Chiefs, most notably Kae-te-na, a Chiricahua Apache and a friend of the famed Chief Ger
onimo.
In January of 1895 nineteen Hopi Indians were sent to Alcatraz from northern Arizona. The Hopi tribe had been involved in serious land disputes with the U.S. Government, and had refused to allow their children to attend government schools. Intense pressure had been levied on the Hopi people to “Americanize” by adopting governmental education for their children. However, the Hopi tribes fiercely opposed sending their children to distant schools to learn the trade skills of the white culture. References indicate that the school facilities were mostly inadequate to accommodate large numbers of children, and that potential outbreaks of disease were a concern. The Hopi used the tactic of passive resistance, making commitments to send their children, but never following through. The government grew increasingly frustrated with their defiance, and began using its troops to intimidate the Hopi villages. When the Hopi continued to resist, the government representatives finally imposed force, and arrested “the headmen who are responsible for the children not being sent to school. ” During the course of their imprisonment at Alcatraz the Indians were brought to the mainland to tour San Francisco schools, in hopes that they would become interested in formalized education. They were released in September of 1895, after agreeing not to interfere with the “plans of government for the civilization and education of its Indian wards.”
A group of Hopi Indian prisoners posing in front of the original lighthouse in 1895. These Arizona Indians spent nine months on Alcatraz for refusing to establish a community farming system, and for keeping their children out of governmentally established schools. They are seen here wearing second-hand military uniforms.
Alcatraz in 1891. Note the small outline of a cannon visible on the parade ground.
Alcatraz in 1896.
Military inmates preparing the concrete foundation for new lavatories in the Upper Prison in 1902. Note the small exterior cell vent openings along the building exterior.
The Upper Prison complex and stockade wall entrance in 1902. Within the perimeter there were four prison complexes.
Military inmates during a routine verification count in 1902. The count is being performed on the Upper Prison Stockade grounds, facing one of the prison buildings. Note the sentry patrolling the catwalk that encircled the prison boundaries.
The only known photograph of the interior of the Upper Prison, circa 1902. The Upper Prison complexes could accommodate 307 prisoners in total, with two-tiered cellblocks. Close examination of this damaged photograph reveals several cells containing family pictures, and a stairwell with no safety railings.
In April of 1900, Alcatraz was temporarily used as a makeshift health resort for soldiers returning from the Philippine Islands with tropical contagious diseases. Many of these men had returned with severe dysentery and they were initially sent to the General Hospital at the Presidio. While convalescing, the men were actually organized into military companies and “Convalescent Company Number Two” was sent to Alcatraz.
As the prison population had continued to grow at Alcatraz, a temporary wooden cellhouse had been constructed on the parade ground. The cells in the wooden prison were small enclosures with the appearance of horse stables. There were 113 cells, and the average airspace per man was only 161 cubic feet. The cells had an average size of 81/4 x 6 x 31/4 feet, only a little larger than a standard closet. Even by the standards of that era, the wooden cellhouse was considered inadequate and unsafe for housing a large prison population. A medical report of the era described the following conditions:
Sanitary defects of the prison are especially apparent. The ventilation of the buildings is very faulty. The corridors, kitchen, and mess rooms are disagreeably drafty... The prisoner when locked up for the night is virtually boxed in for so many hours... The means available for solitary confinement are such as have long been discarded in the better class of civilian penal establishments.
In 1902, a lantern fire inside the wooden prison almost turned catastrophic. A quick-thinking guard immediately smothered the fire using water and sand, but the inmates remained horrified of the potential dangers. They knew that if another fire should start, they would be trapped inside a wooden inferno and feared being burned alive.
By 1904, inmate labor had been harnessed to modernize the prison at Alcatraz. The inmate population was moved to the upper prison, which now had the capacity to safely accommodate 307 men and the lower prison was converted to a work area for inmates, housing the laundry and other small workshops. By 1905 the inmate population had grown to over 270 inmates, and convict labor was being used to demolish several of the old building structures and begin new construction. In April of 1906, following the catastrophic San Francisco earthquake which completely destroyed the city’s jail facilities, 176 civilian prisoners were temporarily transferred to the island for safe confinement.
Army prisoners seen working in the Upper Prison against the stockade wall, breaking rock into gravel in 1910.
Another 1910 photograph showing army prisoners breaking rock with small hammers, while kept under close guard by an armed sentry. This view is looking east toward the future site of the powerhouse.
A rare photograph of garrison soldiers congregating at the island dock, taken on August 12, 1904. One of the Upper Prison buildings is partially visible at the top left.
A panoramic photograph showing the massive fires and destruction that followed the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906.
Alcatraz in 1907.
A 1910 photograph of the Alcatraz Morgue. The Morgue was not used during the years in which the island served as a Federal penitentiary.
U.S. Disciplinary Barracks
On March 21, 1907, Alcatraz was officially designated as the Pacific Branch of the United States Military Prison, and the Third and Fourth Companies of the U.S. Military Prison Guard were established there as a permanent garrison. Trained sentries would supervise all prisoner activities, and it was during this period that the rigid routine of Alcatraz would begin to emerge. By the turn of the century, the military prison on the island had grown so large that it obscured the lighthouse. Work on a new lighthouse began in 1909 and soon the tower would soar into the sky at a height of eighty-four feet. Electricity powered the light, as well as the fog sirens at the north and south ends of the island. The new keeper’s house was adjacent to the quarters of the Warden and prison doctor, located at the top of the main roadway.
The original lighthouse would be replaced in 1909 by an eighty-four-foot concrete tower, which loomed over the newer concrete prison. This photograph shows the new lighthouse under construction.
In 1909 Major Reuben Turner, a military construction engineer from the 29th Infantry, designed and supervised an ambitious building project. He created a fully enclosed building that incorporated the main prison, hospital, kitchen, mess hall, library, shower rooms and auditorium – all encapsulated within a single cement superstructure. The top floors of the old Citadel were destroyed and a large new cellhouse was constructed, literally on top of the solid masonry structure of the old defensive barracks. The cellhouse was the largest steel-reinforced concrete structure in the world at the time of its construction, and it was designed to hold up to six hundred inmates. Each inmate could occupy a private cell, with a forced air ventilation system and cold running water. A convict labor force with a meager $250,000 budget would be tasked to build the entire cement complex, which would be completed in 1912. By the late 1920’s the three-story structure was nearly at full capacity.
The original prison blueprints by Major Reuben Turner, a military construction engineer from the 29th Infantry. Turner’s escape-proof design featured a fully enclosed building that incorporated the main prison, hospital, kitchen, mess hall, library, shower rooms and auditorium – all encapsulated within a single steel-reinforced cement superstructure.
Construction photographs of the main prison taken in roughly 1909-1910.
A photograph showing the original D Block during the final construction phase in March of 1911. Note the dirt floor pr
ior to cementing, the flat steel bars, and the group of open swing-out doors on the second tier.
The Alcatraz Military Prison cellhouse was completed in 1912. This was the largest steel-reinforced concrete structure in the world at the time of its construction, and it was designed to house six hundred inmates. The new military super-prison opened on February 6, 1912.
The main corridor of Alcatraz, known as “Broadway.” This 1912 photograph looks toward the east end of the cellhouse. The cell door lock mechanisms were controlled by simple swing arm levers (seen on the left). Also note the absence of the Gun Gallery, as compared to later photographs from the Federal prison period.
The area which would later be known as “Michigan Avenue,” in 1912.
A military prison sentry patrolling A Block in 1932.
A view of the ramps leading to the prison auditorium and administration wing. These ramps and spiral staircases were removed from the refurbished cellblocks in 1934.
Alcatraz: A Definitive History of the Penitentiary Years Page 6
