If Those Walls Could Talk!

And if only they had saved the walls (or photographed them).

In 1950, when the old City Hall (old Chinook clubhouse) at the corner of 4 Avenue and 7 Street South was torn down, various things prisoners had carved into and written on the walls of the cells was shared.

“Demolition of Cell Block Reveals Humorous Thoughts of Prisoners

A few of the prisoners who spent time in the battered basement cell block of the old city hall, formerly occupied by the local police force and presently being demolished by a gang of workmen, kept busy scribbling their names and various sayings upon the walls.

There are at least 100 or so names penciled on the walls or scraped in with some sharp instruments. And crude as the writing is, there are a few items, dating as far back as 1928, that are clearly legible and lean toward the humorous side.

One saying, written on the north wall of the cell, goes like this: ‘Safe in the arms of the policeman; Safe in the Lethbridge jail; Fifty years hard labor, For pulling the donkey’s tail.’

A number of the prisoners took time to scrape their names into the bricks, many of them adding why they were sentenced to jail. One man from Red Deer must have spent considerable time chipping his name and his sentence through the paint on the wall and deep into the bricks.

A 17-year-old youth printed his name and his sentence in red pencil. Part of this has been erased with the years.

One prisoner took time to chip, in big block letters above the inside entrance of the cell, ‘Hell’s Gate,’ while another titled a cell block entrance ‘Heaven’s Gate.’

In one corner of a cell is scribbled in pencil: ‘I pity the ___________ C.P.R. bull when I have my hands on him.’ The prisoner who wrote the words down was sentenced in 1923.” (1950 August 26, Lethbridge Herald)

The building is shown prior to its becoming Lethbridge City Hall (when it was still the Chinook Club).