- City:
- Buffalo, NY
- Site Type:
- Civic Facilities, Military and Public Safety, Penal Facilities
- New Deal Agencies:
- Public Works Funding, Public Works Administration (PWA)
- Started:
- 1937
- Completed:
- 1938
- Designer:
- Maxwell James
Description
Originally the Erie County Jail, the Erie County Sheriff’s Office in Buffalo, New York was constructed with federal Public Works Administration funds (Docket No. 1282-D). Construction began February 1937 and the building was completed in 1938.
According to a local newspaper at the time, the jail, Architect Maxwell James claimed was “so escape-proof [that] neither wall nor fence is needed.” The fifth floor of the structure was set aside for female inmantes.
The building has since been integrated into a larger law enforcement and penal complex that includes the Erie County Holding Center.
Source notes
https://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper4/Binghamton%20NY%20Press%20Grayscale/Binghamton%20NY%20Press%20Grayscale%201937.pdf/Binghamton%20NY%20Press%20Grayscale%201937%20-%200098.pdf National Archives Record Group 135-SAR: Prints: Photographs rejected for use in the Photographic Report to the President: “Survey of the Architecture of Completed Projects of the PWA, 1939”; Box 14: New York State; Folder 8: Penal Institutions. National Archives and Records Administration, Negative P-269 National Archives and Records Administration, Negative P-270Site originally submitted by Evan Kalish on August 3, 2014.
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