The Tombs

The Tombs is the colloquial name for the Manhattan Detention Complex, a municipal jail in Lower Manhattan at 125 White Street, as well as the nickname for three previous city-run jails in the former Five Points neighborhood of lower Manhattan, an area now known as the Civic Center. The original Tombs, officially known as the Halls of Justice, was built in 1838 in the Egyptian Revival style. It was a replacement for the colonial era Bridewell Prison, located in today's City Hall Park. The new structure incorporated material from the Bridewell (built in 1735 and demolished in 1838), mainly granite, to save money. As of 2014 the Manhattan Detention Complex consists of two buildings: a South Tower, the former Manhattan House of Detention, completely remodeled and reopened in 1983, and a new North Tower to the north across White Street, completed in 1990 and designed by Max O. Urbahn Associates and Litchfield-Grosfeld Associates. The entire complex still houses only male inmates, most of them pretrial detainees. The combined capacity of the two buildings is about 900 people. The current Tombs jail was named The Bernard B. Kerik Complex in December 2001 at the direction of Mayo Rudolph Giuliani; Kerik had been a well-regarded corrections commissioner from 1998–2000 before becoming police commissioner. After Kerik's 2006 plea bargain admitting to two misdemeanor ethics violations dating from his tenure as a city employee, Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered his name removed.