Charlestown State Prison opens.

(Dec.) Architect: Charles Bulfinch. Officially the Massachusetts State Prison (second), it is modeled after the Bastille in Paris, and located on the site of today’s Bunker Hill Community near today’s 250 New Rutherford Avenue. Bullfinch’s first granite building, it serves as the Massachusetts state prison, is enlarged by Alexander Paris in 1826 [1829], and by Gridley J.F. Bryant in 1850. The prison’s insane inmates are transferred to Worcester in 1844. Aged and infirm inmates are moved to Bridgewater in 1901. The facility is condemned in 1878, reopens in 1884, and closes in 1956. The building is demolished in 1957.