Waterloo County Gaol

The Waterloo County Gaol, located in Kitchener, Ontario, is a retired prison and historic site. Constructed in 1852, it is the oldest government building still-standing in the city. ^[1]

History

The precursory requirement for the creation of a county at the time of the gaol's completion was the presence of a local gaol and courthouse.^[2] In deciding the seat of Waterloo County, a seat for which Berlin and Galt were both competing, the presence of such buildings were taken into account. It was thus with the presentation of land for the purposes of a gaol by Frederick Gaukel in the late 1840s that Berlin won the seat.^[3] Construction of the gaol began in 1852, the year of Waterloo County's inception, and was orchestrated by the architectural firm Mellish and Russell, operated out of Brantford. The cost of the gaol in 1852 was £4875. For over a century after its completion, the gaol was administered municipally, although this changed after 1968, as the government reformed the administrative system of Ontario's prisons. The addition of the governor's house in 1878, designed by architect David W. Gingerich, served as the gaolor's residence for the next century of the facility's operation.

Closed in 1978 to be replaced by the Waterloo Regional Detention Center, the building is now a heritage site. Since its closing, the building has been the subject of a 2002 feasibility study aimed at converting the former prison into an affordable housing project.^[4]

References