New York Women's House of Detention

You are standing at the site of what was once the twelve-story Women's House of Detention, a building that held a unique place in the landscape of Greenwich Village from nineteen thirty-two until nineteen seventy-four. Known locally as the House of D, this facility holds the distinction of being the only prison ever designed in the Art Deco style. Its creators originally intended the architecture to signify a new, humane era of penology, featuring street-facing windows without bars to provide a sense of connection to the outside world.