Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 October 1893 — A REMARKABLE CONSTRUCTION [ARTICLE]

A REMARKABLE CONSTRUCTION

Description of the Great Wall Now En closing the Prison South. Warden J. B. Patten, of the Prlsor South, has just finished one of the-moa-remarkable pieces of masonry and bricklaying ever constructed in the Unitec States, It Is a wall enclosing almost th< entire prison, excepting a small piece in front, where the old structure remains. It surrounds the prison grounds. It h built on a foundation five feet wide and six feet ten inches deep under the surface of the ground. Three feet of the lowei part is composed of broken rock, grave! and cement, making a solid concrete three feet ten inches in hard brick laid in cement. Above ground the wall has an arched face, pilasters supporting it every ten feet, and each of these being 22% feet high. The wall is 25% inches thick between pilasters, and above the arches 37% Inches. On top of the wall is a Gothic metal roof, four feet high, with two feet of iron fence; the hight of the wall to the top of the masonry is 35% feet, and built of hard brick laid in cement. From the foundation to the top of the iron is thirtyeight feet, four inches. There have been used in the construction of the wall 4,713,660 brick. There are towers at every corner fourteen feetsquare and sixty feet high, each with two mullioned windows and two glass doors. There are four of /these towers. Of the brick 2,874,(03 were purchased from the brick makers and the rest are from the old wall. It required 15,472 days of convict labor to construct the wall-and almost all the work was done by convict labor, In fact the outside labor in its construction is so small that its cuts hardly any figure. In length the wall is nearly a half mile long. It replaces the former board wall, which could easily be penetrated by an enterprising convict. Warden Patten began the construction of this wall nearly two years ago and has used hardly any money out of the State’s treasury for the purpose. He says in his report: “The appropriation used to Oct. 31, 1893,f0r construction of sewer.purchase of land and construction of wall wass44,ooo, and the appropriations of 110,020 for the fiscal year beginning Nov. 1, 1863, has been anticipated, and material purchased covering that amount is yet to be paid for after the Ist of November next. This includes -the—cost—of reconstructing the buildings destroyed by fire.” He then gives the following detailed statement: “Materials have been purchased and used, and bills received amounting to

$53,668.43, the same being to cover the following improvements: Purchase of land, $1,864.10; construction of sewer. $6,445.49; reconstruction of burned buildings, $6,258.10; the new wall, $39,100.88. Total, $54,668.48. The outside labor of the new wall, tinners and brickmasons, amounts only to $224.51, and hauling $144.13. The wall was planned and engineered by Warden Patten himself. He also trained the convicts employed in the work of brick-lay-ing. Men who are conversant with such work say that it is among the best walls that have ever been built anywhere, and will stand as long as the hills of southern Indiana.