Manufacturer: Carr China Company
User: Cook County Jail
Pattern: Maythorne
Distributor: The Stearnes Company – Chicago
Date of plate: circa 1929
Notes: From Wikipedia: "The Cook County Jail, located on 96 acres (39 hectares) in South Lawndale, Chicago, Illinois, is operated by the Sheriff of Cook County. It is sometimes referred to as California or Hotel California, as its address is on California Avenue. A city jail has existed on this site since after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, but major County prisoners were not generally collocated here until closure of the old Hubbard Street Criminal Court Building and jail in 1929. Since then, a 1920s neoclassical and art deco courthouse for the criminal division of the Cook County Circuit Court has operated at the South Lawndale complex."
In 1925, the Illinois Senate passed a bill for the construction of a new Cook County jail and criminal court building, and a headline in the Rock Island Argus dated March 5, 1927 stated: "Model Jail Is Being Planned In Cook County"- Prisoners Beginning to Look Forward to Completion of $7,500,000 Structure."
The article went on to state: "They have real reason to yearn for the home just now being started, and to be completed at a cost of $7,500,000. The prospect of a single room and bath, constructed on approved hotel lines, is enough to appeal to any prospective prisoner.
"Now that Chicago is going ahead with her plans to build a new jail and criminal court building, she has decided to construct the best that money can buy. The model lay-out, which may serve for an example to be followed in building future jails call for all conveniences.
"Plans call for segregation of prisoners. In one cell house will be the hardened criminals, in another the youngsters and persons held on suspicion, in a third there will be women prisoners and in the fourth cell house, mental defectives. Cafeterias will be provided for each fifty prisoners so that there will not be the general association that comes with general dining rooms.
"The present daily population is 900, with 11,000 passing through the jail each year. In the new building there are to be 1,394 individual cells."
The new jail and criminal court building opened in March 1929, and an article in the Chicago Tribune dated March 9, 1929, states: "New Cook County Jail Wins Praise of Criminologists [at] a dinner of more than 1,000 social workers in the dining room of the institution at California avenue and 26th Street."
Again from Wikipedia: "The jail has held several well-known and infamous criminals, including Al Capone, Tony Accardo, Frank Nitti, Larry Hoover, Jordan Tate, Jeff Fort, Richard Speck, John Wayne Gacy and the Chicago Seven."
It is not known what venues in the jail used this china, but it is unlikely that it was used in the prisoner cafeterias since a shard of broken china could be turned into a weapon. A photo above shows the dining hall of the Bridewell, the 1929 Cook County Jail's predecessor, with enameled dishes in use. Most likely, therefore, this Carr China was used in the dining rooms used by the guards and administrative staff of the jail and criminal court building.
White body plate with Carr China's Maythorne border pattern in blue around the rim. There is a dark blue stripe around the rim's outer edge, and under this stripe and breaking the Maythorne pattern at the top are the stacked words "Cook County" and "Jail" in an Old English font.
Sources:
Wikipedia – history of the jail
Rock Island Argus dated March 5, 1927 – article about planned new jail
Chicago Tribune dated March 9, 1929 – article about praise of jail
The Chicago Chronicle dated 1897 – article about prisoner protest
Chicago Daily News, Inc. – photos of jail in 1922 and 1929
Chicagology.com – photo of enamelware used in Bridewell pre-1929
Contributors:
Roland S. Burritt: research
Susan Phillips: plate photos
Ed Phillips: author