213 Comments for Salem Jail

Your room is the one with the door open

Thanks for taking photos of this place before it was turned into a hotel.I was there with a friend back in 2002 but I was too afraid to go inside.

And there hasn't been anything worth watching since.

Just a thought, but perhaps the locks were inset so that if an inmate did manage to grab some keys from a passing guard, he wouldn't be able to reach around at that angle to unlock the door.

That sounds pretty horrific for sure; I am continuously amazed this place remained in operation for so long. Thanks for commenting.

I actually was housed there during the summer of '87. I was on the uppermost tier and can attest to the overcrowding, the buckets in the cells, and the dumping of some of those buckets into the cells of some of the more hated inmates (There were 2 peodiphile brothers housed in one cell that were constant targets while I was there). The bottommost tier inmates had it worst. There WERE people that pissed on em, spit on em and dropped EVERYTHING on em. Plus, whenever it rained or was humid, the walls leaked and leached moisture.... I also remember one guard that was HUGE and was good to the inmates for the most part. His nickname actually was Tiny! Horrific time for sure...

The destruction to the door was caused from the inside.

I'm so glad you have a gallery for this place. I fell in love with it when I saw it... right around the time you shot this set actually. I had no idea there were plans to renovate it, and I'm sure I would have been disappointed to go back and finally explore it only to find it's been turned into apartments. I'm certainly glad they preserved the building, and now I can at least go inside without risking arrest! Thanks for a great set Motts!

I used to live tree blocks from here never gave it much thought. I worked four blocks away. When you live in a place with so much history and old places you don't give it much thought. Salem is a great place to live....

Being in Massachusetts, this was probably last on during the '86 World Series!

I imagine that the beds were assembled inside the room.

There's a scrawl on the right side that reads "Austin is #1" which leads to the title of this photo :)

What a lovey look. Thank you for the gallery, Motts.

The spires on top of the roof remind me of a Russian Orthodox church. I'm glad they didn't move the cemetery.

What I see resembles the outside of a church building. I guess we each see things differently. But this photo is most pleasing to the eye. In looking at it alone, one would never suppose that it was a jail.

Well, I'd say lavender is much more calming than red or that ghastly yellow we saw in that one cell.