Supreme Prisoners
The Supreme Court Building, imposing in its size, design and situation across the street from the Congress, occupies a space that had much humbler inhabitants during the Civil War. A crowded and dank prison stood where the temple of justice now stands. The site was the dwelling of captured Confederates, political prisoners, suspected spies of both sexes, as well as escaped slaves and local prostitutes. The building began as a temporary house for Congress after the British burned the Capitol in 1814, but was empty by the time it became a jail.
After Lincoln's assassination, the prison held many suspects, including the owner of Ford's Theater, his stage carpenter, and boardinghouse owner Mary Surratt, whose building still stands in Chinatown.
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