Sugar House Prison, previously the Utah Territorial Penitentiary, was a

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where Prisoner, people are Imprisonment, imprisoned under the authority of the State (polity), state ...

in the Sugar House neighborhood of

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, United States. The prison housed more than 400 inmates. It was closed in 1951 due to encroaching

housing development A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex, housing development, subdivision or community) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Popular throug ...

, and all of its inmates were moved to the new Utah State Prison in

Draper Draper was originally a term for a retailer or wholesaler of cloth that was mainly for clothing. A draper may additionally operate as a cloth merchant or a haberdasher. History Drapers were an important trade guild during the medieval period ...

. The site is now occupied by Sugar House Park and Highland High School.

History

Territorial prison

In January 1852 Territorial Assembly of the

Utah Territory The Territory of Utah was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from September 9, 1850, until January 4, 1896, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Utah, the 45th st ...

approved a memorial requesting Congress appropriate $70,000 for a territorial penitentiary. Congress approved an appropriation of $20,000 in March 1853 and plans were drawn up. The following October, territorial governor

Brigham Young Brigham Young ( ; June 1, 1801August 29, 1877) was an American religious leader and politician. He was the second President of the Church (LDS Church), president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1847 until h ...

selected the government-owned site, then known as "The Big Field Survey", about six miles from central Salt Lake City. Sixteen "cozy cells dug into the ground, with iron bars on top" comprised the original prison at a cost of $32,000. The facility that became known as the Utah Territorial Penitentiary was opened in 1855. In 1867, the Utah Territorial Legislature determined that the prison was inadequate and once considered moving it onto an island in the

Great Salt Lake The Great Salt Lake is the largest saltwater lake in the Western Hemisphere and the eighth-largest terminal lake in the world. It lies in the northern part of the U.S. state of Utah and has a substantial impact upon the local climate, partic ...

. From 1871 to 1896, the penitentiary was federally operated by U.S. Marshals. The inmate capacity was expanded in 1875 to accommodate 300 individuals with the construction of a new cell house and prison walls.

State prison

In 1896, the buildings and surrounding lands were given to the newly created State of Utah and were designated as the Utah State Prison, sometimes referred to as the "state pen". Starting in 1900,

executions Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...

by the state were carried out in the prison. Prior to that, death penalties were administered in the counties where the crimes had been committed. (reposted by Utah.gov) Tickets were distributed in 1903 for admission to publicly view an

execution by firing squad Execution by firing squad, in the past sometimes called fusillading (from the French , rifle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in the military and in times of war. Some reasons for its use are that firearms are usually rea ...

. With the continuing growth of Salt Lake City, the local residents eventually wanted the prison population relocated away from the neighborhood of Sugar House. In 1937, plans were approved for a new prison, 22 miles south of the city in

. By 1941, work began on the 1019-acre (408 ha) site, then called "Point of the Mountain", to replace the aging penitentiary. However, construction of the new facility was delayed because of shortages stemming from

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. On March 12, 1951, the 575 inmates at the old prison were transferred by bus to the newly completed Utah State Prison. After nine sticks of

dynamite Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents (such as powdered shells or clay), and Stabilizer (chemistry), stabilizers. It was invented by the Swedish people, Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern German ...

had little effect on the heavy walls of the shuttered penitentiary, the demolition of many sections had to be carried out stone by stone. Sugar House Park Lake

City/County Park

Following the razing of the old prison, proposals to repurpose the land included an amusement park, campground, golf course, and shopping center. The former site eventually became Sugar House Park, jointly owned by Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County, while were set aside for the future campus of Highland High School.

Notable inmates

* George Q. Cannon, early Mormon leader who was given a six-month sentence in September 1888 for "unlawful

cohabitation Cohabitation is an arrangement where people who are not legally married live together as a couple. They are often involved in a Romance (love), romantic or Sexual intercourse, sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. ...

" under the

Edmunds Act The Edmunds Act, also known as the Edmunds Anti-Polygamy Act of 1882,U.S.History.com is a United States federal statute, signed into law on March 23, 1882 by President Chester A. Arthur, declaring polygamy a felony in federal territories, punis ...

. * John Deering, convicted

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

er who was executed by firing squad in 1938 while hooked up to an electrocardiogram. * Joe Hill, convicted of murdering storekeeper John A. Morrison on circumstantial evidence; executed in 1915 at the prison despite attempts at intervention by President

Woodrow Wilson Thomas Woodrow Wilson (December 28, 1856February 3, 1924) was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only History of the Democratic Party (United States), Democrat to serve as president during the Prog ...

References

External links

Sugar House Park
(official site)

(photos)

at the Utah State Archives and Records Service
Utah Territorial Prison, Sugar House 1855-1951
at UtahRails.net {{authority control Capital punishment in Utah Defunct prisons in Utah Execution sites in the United States Government buildings completed in 1855 Buildings and structures completed in 1855 Buildings and structures demolished in 1951 Demolished buildings and structures in Salt Lake City 1855 establishments in Utah Territory 1951 disestablishments in Utah Joe Hill (activist)