A picture of the Middlesex County Jail from a nearby rooftop.
From the picture above one can see that this jail is in a heavily residential area. I am interested in the history of this location to see why this building was placed here and if the residential area was established first. Also, it is interesting to note that the jail is currently being sold with the promise that all inmates will be relocated by the end of 2013. Seeing as how this area is about to undergo some changes in the next few years it would be interesting to see if the current setting of the area will effect the future plans in this location.
An arial view of my site in East Cambridge.
For my site I am choosing a few blocks in East Cambridge near the intersection of Cambridge St. and 3rd St. This area is particularly interesting to me because it is the location of the Middlesex County Jail, this jail is very peculiar in the sense that it is located on the top 4 floors of an abandoned courthouse.
Another aspect of this area is that there is a lot of parks scattered about the residential area, and from looking at maps from old Boston this land was filled in to become what it is now. I would also like to discover if these green areas where designed or if the vegetation naturally grew and was then overtaken by urbanization. Also, since the jail was built in 1971 I am interested in what this land was originally planned for and what impacts the jail had on those original plans.
View of Cambridge St. towards the north.
The current jail was built in the early 1970s much after this area had already been urbanized. I believe that as I start looking into the history of this area I will find that this jail was something that was not originally planned for, I also believe that this building might have caused some controversy in the area when it was prepositioned.
