Schemers. Thieves. Murderers. Madmen.
Camera-toting septuagenarians.
The Old Don Jail welcomed the latter kind of prison population yesterday, as the law-abiding public soaked in the squalor as part of Doors Open Toronto. Never before have so many marched so blithely into the city's best version of hell on earth.
"It was worth it," said John McConkey of the nearly four-hour wait.
His tour group, and dozens more, were corralled in half-hour spurts through the 145-year-old structure, designed by architect William Thomas in the Italian Renaissance style. When it was built in 1864, the Old Don was the biggest jail in North America, in a provincial backwater of about 50,000.
"At the time, people were treated absolutely horribly in prisons in Europe and the U.S. They were essentially thrown into a big hole," event promoter Chris MacKechnie said. "This was one of the earliest jails that treated prisoners somewhat humanely."
By mid-19th century standards, that meant state-of-the-art plumbing, also known as buckets, a single shower upon processing (the last shower of many inmates' lives), and 1-metre by 2.5-metre cells that housed three inmates each.
And that's just the beginning.
At the Old Don, the devil is in the details: a Father Time keystone that teased new arrivals, for example, or the iron serpents and dragons, symbolizing temptation, that prop up the catwalk.
There was an obligatory stop at the gallows, where 34 inmates were hanged.
"To see what the inmates endured, what quarters they had to live in – it was interesting," said Sandra Taylor. "The cells on death row were very narrow and dark. I can't imagine just waiting your turn to be executed."
The tour was not without light moments. Visitors heard of two ingenious 1950s escapes by the Boyd Gang. (One had a hacksaw smuggled inside a wooden leg; the other made use of a bar of soap that most definitely wasn't dropped.)
Doors Open Toronto ends today but tours of the Old Don, which was closed in 1977, continue through October. (The Don detention centre is next door and still in use.)
Starting June 1, the family-friendly "Don by Day" tour will tell of the storied inmates, while the "Don by Night" tour will focus on the murders, suicides and, of course, tortured souls said to haunt the gaol.
In November Bridgepoint Hospital will gut the jail cells to install another kind of prison: cubicles.
