Old Idaho Penitentiary
Historic Site · Boise, Idaho
A sandstone prison on the eastern edge of Boise that held more than thirteen thousand people between 1872 and 1973, behind a seventeen-foot wall the convicts quarried and built themselves out of the ridge above. Riots over conditions in 1952, 1971 and March 1973 ended it, and the last four hundred and sixteen inmates were moved out on 3 December 1973. It is now a historic site run by the Idaho State Historical Society, and you walk through the cell houses, solitary confinement and the gallows with the doors standing open.
2200 Warm Springs Avenue, Boise, Idaho, 83712, United States
Open most days with hours that change seasonally, and closed on some holidays - check before travelling. ⚠ THE BUILDINGS ARE UNHEATED AND UNCOOLED STONE, so the visit is genuinely cold in winter and hot in a Boise summer, and the yard has no shade. Admission is a modest historic site charge with reduced rates; parking on site is free. ⚠ THE IDAHO BOTANICAL GARDEN NEXT DOOR IS A SEPARATE ORGANISATION WITH A SEPARATE TICKET and shares the car park. Docent tours run on a published schedule and are included. After-hours, historical and Halloween-season programmes are SEPARATELY TICKETED AND SELL OUT. Run by the Idaho State Historical Society.
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