Old New-Gate Prison


Today with the humid weather finally dissipated we decided to go exploring pretty close to home. I'd heard that Old New-Gate Prison in East Granby, Connecticut had reopened as a tourist attraction after being closed for nearly a decade.


New-Gate is just a few miles from Bradley International Airport on a winding country road past stone walls and stately maples. Originally the site was a copper mine, but due to its unprofitability it was turned into a prison around the time of the Revolutionary War and remained open until the mid-1800s.



It's a small but interesting place, with the ruins of brick prison quarters overgrowing with ivy.

Most interesting is the mine. You can walk down (it's a constant, murky 52-degrees down below) and view both areas that were mined and also housed prisoners at night. One section highlights 

where prisoners were put into solitary confinement -- another an 80-foot deep shaft from which a prisoner escaped.



Looking up a well from the bottom in the mine

Above ground there's also a guards quarters and cell block where sick prisoners stayed. It's interesting to look out through the bars and see the same view people saw 250 years ago. And what were criminals most commonly charged with at New-Gate around 1800? Passing counterfeit coins and stealing horses, in addition to attempted murder and other crimes. New-Gate was the first prison in Connecticut and may have been named after an infamous jail in London.



As I suspected, although Ethan isn't a museum-loving kid, the fact that we were visiting a site where bad people had been locked up helped hold his attention a little more. Chloe enjoyed some of the kid friendly activities they had in one building (coloring pages and design your own coin), and Anna is really old enough to appreciate things like an adult.

This is not a place where you'll spend all day. But if you want to take an hour or so to step back in time and check out something a little out of the ordinary, I recommend it. With all of the negatives we hear these days about Connecticut and tourism, it's nice to see this little gem up and running again, and with lots of visitors.

Cost is free for children 12 & under and $6 for adults. Look for more info here. 





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