A tunnel believed to be an attempted prison escape route from the 1800s was uncovered beneath Court Square in Boston during demolition work on the old courthouse foundation.
The discovery was made in 1912 by workmen removing the last remnants of the courthouse, which had been demolished to make way for a city hall annex. Six feet below the street, workers found a three-foot-square tunnel leading from a section of the courthouse once used as jail cells.
Mysterious Boston Tunnel
September 13, 1912. — A mysterious tunnel, discovered under the street in Court Square, Boston, is thought to have been made by prisoners attempting escape from jail cells of three-quarters of a century ago in the old courthouse recently demolished to make way for a city hall annex.
Workmen removing the last stones of the foundation of the courthouse, found the entrance to the tunnel some six feet below the street level. The hole was three feet square and led from that part of the courthouse which in former years had been used for cells.
There was nothing to show that the tunnel had ever been walled up, which strengthened the belief that it had been made secretly by prisoners.
A cave-in prevented a thorough inspection of the tunnel, but the workmen have been instructed to work with caution to recover any possible relics or bones.
Source: The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.), 13 Sept. 1912.
