Hosted by Adirondack Architectural Heritage | Click here to register

From the mid-19th century to the present day, New York State and federal corrections planners have adapted existing infrastructure in the Adirondack Park into sites of incarceration. Some of the region’s prison architecture lived a previous life as rehabilitative spaces for Tuberculosis curing in places like Gabriels and Ray Brook while some boast rich architectural legacies like the historic Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora. Each of these buildings houses unique histories, stories, and architecture and remain profoundly connected to communities large and small across the North Country.

Clarence Jefferson Hall Jr. is author of A Prison in the Woods: Environment and Incarceration in New York's North Country recently published by UMass Press in November 2020. He is a North Country native, historian, and Assistant Professor of History at Queensborough Community College (CUNY). Dr. Hall’s work explores the intersection of prisons and the Adirondack Park’s environmental conservation movement and highlights the deeper history of the region’s carceral spaces.

In this webinar, followed by a Q&A period, Dr. Hall will discuss the role of architecture and reuse in these intersecting histories of Adirondack prisons.