In 1845, a small-stone jailhouse was constructed adjacent to the first Hudson County Court House. The three-story building had "eight closed cells and three-day cells, with suitable apartments for the jailer" (McLean, 44). The jail, like the courthouse, was extended and enlarged for increased occupancy. The eastern end of the Hudson County Administration Building now covers the site.
In 1870, a new Hudson County Penitentiary for 180 inmates was built at Snake Hill at the southern end of Secaucus. The Penitentiary was part of a county institutional complex that included an almshouse, an insane asylum, quarantine hospitals, and a farm. Laurel Hill County Park now occupies much of the site.
The old jail on Newark Avenue was used into the first quarter of the twentieth century. Following years of controversy about a new facility, the county freeholders (now commissioners) announced plans for a new jail in January 1926. Jersey City architect John T. Rowland, Jr. designed an imposing granite and brick five-story monolith for approximately 250 inmates at an expected cost of $1,500,000. The new jail, on the north side of Pavonia Avenue between Willow Court and the Court House station of the Central Avenue trolley line, opened on May 20, 1926.
The Hudson County Penitentiary in Secaucus closed in 1953 after a roof collapsed a year earlier. The inmates were moved to the county jail in Jersey City. It later contributed to severe overcrowding and related problems. In the early 1960s, the remaining county institutions in Secaucus were relocated, and the buildings were demolished. Much of Snake (Laurel) Hill was leveled. It supplied large quantities of rock, quarried and removed for road construction. The county's plans to redevelop the site as an industrial park never came to fruition.
In June 1990, the new Hudson County Correctional Facility opened on the southern tip of Kearny near Truck Routes 1&9. The Pavonia Avenue jail was closed by year's end and stood vacant until demolition started in May of 1995.
"Hudson County Jail Plans are Announced." New York Times 8 January 1926.
McLean, Alexander. The History of Jersey City, N.J. Jersey City, NJ: F.T. Smiley and Co., 1895.
Newman, Andy. "Bit by bit, a Dreary Landmark Comes Down." New York Times 16 July 1995.
Stover, Mark. "Snake Hill, Mountain of Memories." New York Times 7 April 1996.
Weiss, Peter. "Old County Jail Busted." Jersey Journal 11 May 1995.
