Jail time: Cecil Township Historical Society working to preserve local lockup
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Completed in 1906 or early 1907, the Cecil Township jail housed just one prisoner before standing empty for more than a century.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
The Cecil Township jail, which sits along Route 50, across from the old movie theater, is entirely made of brick and stone and boasts an artful arched roof, which is in need of repair.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
The two “cages,” as Cecil Township called the cells in a notice to contractors published in the August 1906 The Daily Notes, are still standing inside the old jail, which is in need of repair.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
A view from inside one of two jail cells in the Cecil Township “lockup,” as it was known when the building was erected along what is now Route 50 in 1907
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
A detail shot of the old Cecil Township jail’s exterior, which still sports a caged window that opens into the small lobby
In 1907, after years of deliberation, Cecil Township opened a two-cell jail, the only non-county jail in the area.
Shortly after the jail opened, one man was sentenced to a brief term in the brick prison. When he was released, the jail sat empty on a lot near North DePaoli Road, now Route 50, where it’s been slowly deteriorating for more than a century.
“Before this thing was built, the constable, if there were drunk folk that he arrested, he would have to take them to his house for an overnight stay. That probably got old,” said Jim Zamiska, a lifelong history buff, Cecil native and president of the Cecil Township Historical Society.
The jail was a topic of discussion for years, and put to vote at least once, according to historical documents. In 1906, the township supervisors approved the project, and the jail was up and running by 1907.
“The more interesting thing, to me, is they used it (the jail) once. They had one guy,” Zamiska said. “There had to be more people. Why didn’t they use it anymore? What did they do with it? Was there a jail built somewhere else that took over, in close proximity? That’s what I don’t know.”
The jail, which measures 15-by-15 feet overall, is divided into two sections: what was probably a lobby, and then two holding cells, each about 29 square feet (today’s average bathroom is between 36 and 40 square feet, Zamiska pointed out).
Each cell is 6 feet 2 inches high and had a pull-down frame made of steel, for lying on.
The jail sits in disrepair, ivy inching up its one-foot-thick brick walls. The Cecil Township Historical Society aims to breathe life into the jail that once was through a fundraising campaign, to renovate and restore the structure.
“Work had started on it a while back. There was talk of moving it; that kind of went by the wayside. Then everything got focused on that Coal Miners Memorial. That was a huge success, honoring the coal miners who perished from Cecil Township and then providing people (a place) to honor family coal members,” Zamiska said. “This was our next undertaking. Now it’s time.”
The CTHS is seeking local business sponsorships and community donations to make the 116-year-old jail structurally sound. The jail needs a new roof, and the society is researching what other renovations are necessary to make the jail safe for the public.
Once the structural renovations are funded, the historical society will determine how best to use the historic jail, including how to manage the property and make it available to the community.
“It’s one heck of a piece. Hopefully we will be able to get this done and next year at this time, we’ll see visitors coming to see it. That’s my timeline. I don’t know if it’s a realistic timeline,” Zamiska laughed. “There’s a lot involved.”
Zamiska envisions the renovated jail as a destination, where placards tell the still-unfolding story of the brick structure and people rent out the space for small events or fundraisers. He also hopes the renovations to the old jail spark an interest in Cecil history.
“It’s important to know where you came from and how we got where we got. Historical buildings, and what the town looked like 50, 200 years ago, is part of what we’ve become,” Zamiska said. “When I was growing up in the ’60s and ’70s, I did not even know this existed, and that can’t happen. You want people to know it’s here and make it something that they can brag about in their area. We still have an old jail from the early 1900s; it only got used once.”
While little is known about the jail, including the name of the only gent to sleep it off in one of the cells, The Daily Notes printed several stories about the controversial “lockup.”
In Feb. 1906, an Uncle Banks wrote to The Daily Notes that while “no Hotel-de-Booze exists” in the township, many “disorderly ones” go unpunished because there is no jail.
“Booze hotels on the borders furnish the ammunition that fires the passion of otherwise civil men and when they are amply loaded they make their way into neutral territory and vent their spleen and devilish actions in, on and about the domiciles of the innocent,” Banks wrote.
Between February and August of 1906, the township board of supervisors approved construction of a jail; on Aug. 14, The Daily Notes ran a notice to contractors for bids, for a “lockup built of brick and stone, to be 15 feet square with an arched brick and cement roof.”
An article published two days later voiced support for the jail.
“The question of the erection of a lockup has agitated Cecil township for some years past, and the matter has been voted on two or three times,” the article stated. “Since the Millers Run valley has become largely a mining community, the need of a lockup has been felt, as there are frequent outbreaks among the miners…”
Construction began in September, according to The Daily Notes, and by November the “cages,” or cells, and doors had arrived on site, the paper reported.
The precise date of the jail’s completion is not yet known, nor has the Cecil Township Historical Society stumbled upon information regarding the first – and last – inmate.
But in April 1907, the Notes shared a frustrated letter to the editor: “About a year ago the authorities of Cecil township erected a lockup in which to safely keep offenders arrested by the constables. Up to the present time, however, only one person has been confined in the township jail,” the letter read, “and some of the taxpayers are wondering if they really got a run for their money.”
When, or if, the jail officially closed is another missing piece of the structure’s puzzle, but the lockup was out of commission by mid-1907, less than a year after the building was completed.
“It just sat here,” Zamiska said. “The fact that it is (about) 120-something years old and it’s still like this is, you know? Whoever built it did a great job.”
Zamiska and the historical society are hoping to do a great job renovating the piece of history that for so long has sat abandoned, waiting for someone to rediscover it and share its story. Zamiska encourages anyone with additional information about the jail to come forward and shed light on the small structure.
He also hopes the community will rally around the historical society to help raise enough money to complete the restoration project.
“With a building like this, with the actual, physical structure, you can immerse yourself in (history). You can walk in there as a constable or as a scofflaw who was drinking too much last night and, you know, put yourself in that environment, in that situation, just to feel like what it was,” Zamiska said. “Anybody who wants to help and anyone who wants to join the society, become part of it, is more than welcome.”
To make a donation to the Cecil Township Historical Society, a 501©(3) nonprofit organization, please send checks to: The Cecil Township Historical Society Inc., P.O. Box 48, Cecil, PA, 15321. All donations are tax-deductible.
To learn more about the CTHS, visit http://www.ceciltwphistoricalsociety.org/index.html.