1827 GEORGETOWN NEW PRISON

1827 CALL FOR PROPOSALS

GEORGETOWN JAIL

For the construction and completion of a new PRISON in Georgetown, Sussex County

Delaware, of the following description and dimensions, will be received by the Sussex Levy Court

Commissioners.

The building is to be two stories high, forty-five feet in front, fifty feet in width, and twenty feet in height to the eaves.

The materials of the walls to be of the best bricks that can be had in the vicinity of the place,

except the show of the front wall which must be of good Philadelphia paving bricks. The roof to be

of good shingles.

Through the house, from front to rear, to be a passage of ten feet in width, in each story,

equally dividing the whole, with substantial doors at the extremities of the lower passage.

Of the divisions thus formed , the one is to be is to be more substantial for the prison apartment.

The outer walls must be 23 inches in thickness, the inner ones forming one side of each entry, 23 inches, and the subdividing walls of the several apartments 13 inches, of which apartments there will be four in each story, each one with a fireplace. Into each window thereof must be affixed with

strong iron grates and the doors to be strong and corresponding. The rafters and joist strong and not more that six inches apart.

The floors of the entries, stairway, and apartments, to be of 2 inch oak and the finish of the whole to be in a like substantial and corresponding manner.

Of the other division, designed for the keepers accommodation , the outer walls will be 13 inches in thickness, the flooring to be of good pine, with three rooms, each floor, with fire place

in each. The whole to be of good and suitable materials, finished in a plain substantial manner, the style and construction whereof to be what common and comfortable brick dwellings generally are.

The Commissioners wish to know the extra rate that would be asked to build it of all Philadelphia bricks, which can be brought to Milton, 8 miles distant, by water freight.

Proposals will be received until the 25^th day of May next, address to:

HENRY B RODNEY, LEVY COURT COMMISSIONER:

March 22, 1827 Lewes, Delaware.

Abstract July 2017, Harrison H, from 15 May 1827 American Watchman of Wilmington, Delaware .