Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors.
Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker.

Responsive image


Kentucky State Penitentiary in Frankfort

Kentucky State Penitentiary Frankfort
The prison in 1860
General information
Town or cityFrankfort, Kentucky
Groundbreaking1798 (1798)
Opened1800 (1800)
Closed1937 (1937)
Demolished1950 (1950)

The Kentucky State Penitentiary in Frankfort was an American prison. It was the first prison built west of the Allegheny Mountains and completed on June 22, 1800 when[1] Kentucky was still virtually a wilderness. The Kentucky Legislature of 1798 had appointed Harry Innes, Alexander S. Bullitt, Caleb Wallace, Isaac Shelby and John Coburn as commissioners to choose a location for a “penitentiary house.” The house was described "to be built of brick, or stone, containing cells, workshops, with an outside wall high enough and strong enough to keep the prisoners from getting away." The site chosen was Frankfort, Kentucky.[2] Henry Innis, one of the commission, gave one acre of land and the legislature appropriated $500 towards its building with more funds to be allocated later.[3]

This prison was known as the Kentucky Penitentiary until the 1910 Prison Reform bill[4] passed March 1, 1910: This bill included that one institution be penal and the other reform; the changing of its mode of Capital Punishment from the gallows to the use of an electric chair, and included that the electric chair be kept in a "penitentiary," and that a "Death House" to be built.[5] The electric chair was installed at the Branch Penitentiary September 1910.[6] All convicts under 30 years of age with minor crimes should be kept in a reformatory and those over 30 years of age should be kept in a penitentiary.[7]

The prison's history ended in January 1937 when a flood ravaged towns and cities all along the Ohio River and the trans-Mississippi River Valley wreaking havoc in its wake. The old Frankfort prison was among its victims.[8] The flood made the prison uninhabitable. The State had appropriated funds the previous year (1936) for the building of a new prison to ease the overcrowding. No one predicted a flood would hasten the process.

  1. ^ The Park City Daily News, Bowling Green, Kentucky 7 Feb 1937 p2 Old Reformatory originated with $500 allowance.
  2. ^ Chapter XX page 253-254 of The Development of American Prisons and Prison Customs 1776–1845
  3. ^ The Park City Daily News, Bowling Green, Kentucky 7 Feb 1937 p2 Old Reformatory originated with $500 allowance.
  4. ^ The Twice-A-Week Messenger, Owensboro, Kentucky 29 Jan 1910 p1 Berry introduces important bills.
  5. ^ The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Kentucky 17 Jan 1910 p4 "Death House" bill
  6. ^ The Franklin Favorite, Franklin, Kentucky 29 Sep 1910 p6 Electric Chair Installed
  7. ^ Supplement to 1909 Kentucky Statutes including 1910, 1912 and 1914 Acts of the General Assembly. Cincinnati, Ohio: W. H. Anderson Law Publishing Co. 1915. p. Sec 3795. Retrieved August 9, 2020.
  8. ^ The Park City Daily News, Bowling Green, Kentucky 22 Jan 1937 p1 Reformatory is flooded

Previous Page Next Page








Responsive image

Responsive image