Proponents of a new museum about New York”™s most infamous prison are raising funds to revise a study of the feasibility of building the museum inside the walls of Sing Sing Correctional Facility.
The Friends of the Sing Sing Historic Prison Museum were scheduled to hold a fundraiser Friday. The group hopes to eventually build a museum inside the prison in what used to be a power house and a portion of one of the original cellblocks.
“What we”™re looking to do is revise the economic feasibility study,” said Ossining Mayor Bill Hanauer. “We”™re looking for private funding and a grant from the state to revise the study.”
The history of the prison spans nearly 200 years. Purchased by New York state in 1825 for $20,100, the 135-acre site has been a working prison since the first 100 inmates arrived from Auburn Prison in May of that year. When the prisoners arrived, there was no prison to speak of ”“ they built the walls of their own confinement after quarrying the building stones on site.
With 800 cells on four tiers, the original prison took nearly three years to build. When it was finished, Sign Sing”™s prisoners continued to quarry marble. Stone quarried at Sing Sing was used to construct, among other buildings, the New York State Capitol Building in Albany and Grace Church in Manhattan.
The original cellblock was closed in 1940 and in 1943 the bars were stripped from the building and donated to the war effort. A 1984 fire destroyed the roof, leaving the cellblock in its current state.
Over the years, Sing Sing has housed some of New York”™s most notorious prisoners, including Albert Fish, Ruth Brown Snyder, Gary Evans and Eddie Lee Mays, all convicted of murder. David Berkowitz did time at Sing Sing immediately following his sentencing for the “Son of Sam” murders.
But Sing Sing is perhaps best known as the home of “Old Sparky,” the electric chair that was used in the execution of 614 convicts in the prison”™s death house. Among those whose death sentences were carried out at the prison were Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the spies who transmitted secret atomic bomb information to the Soviet Union.
Building the museum inside the prison isn”™t a new idea.
“I think it started back in the 14th century,” Hanauer said. The mayor has been involved in the effort since 2005. “(Former Westchester County Executive) Andy Spano reignited the effort, which goes back a long way, well into the 1990s, I believe.”
Currently, there is a small exhibit about the history of Sing Sing at the Joseph G. Caputo Community Center at 95 Broadway in Ossining. But the group behind the effort to build the museum at the prison thinks doing so could be a boon to tourism.
“Visitation to the museum could easily surpass 200,000 people per year and contribute significantly to the regional economy,” said Jerry Faiella, executive director of Historic Hudson River Towns, in a press release. “We see this project as a national and international attraction that will have a major beneficial impact on our member communities, Westchester County and the entire Hudson Valley.”
According to Hanauer, once the studies are revised, the museum could begin to see major funding for construction.
