Some of the last roses and last leaves of, er . . . autumn, seen Friday through the tall iron fence which surrounds Jefferson Market Garden which, through much of the mid-twentieth century, was the site of the New York Women's House of Detention.
The institution's prominent location in the commercial center of a crowded Greenwich Village was apparently a perfect opportunity for the prisoners to, in the words of Wikipedia, ". . . taunt and curse people going about their business on 6th Avenue." Ah, if the ladies could see the old grounds today . . . .
The notorious [art deco] lockup may have vanished without a trace, but the Rockefeller Drug Laws have continued and expanded its dreary commission. Today the old building's function has been assumed by an even more forbidding-looking fortress tucked into an increasingly-upscale Chelsea gallery district. It also however sits on the very edge of the incredibly noisy West Side Highway, a site much less amenable to any inmate "taunt and curse" activities, even if contemporary cell windows could open.
More on the history of the courthouse, jail and market complex now loosely called "Jefferson Market" can be found here.