University of Virginia Library

New Center Will Be
'Drab, Windowless'

By TERRY JASPERSON

The state department of Welfare and
Institutions is planning to build a state
prison for medical and receiving purposes
in the Green Springs area of Louisa
County.

When the facility is built it will be
located four miles north of Interstate 64
on Rt. 15. It will have approximately
1800 feet of frontage on Rt. 15 and 4800
feet on Rt. 617.

The 200 acres on which the prison will stand
was purchased by the state from Richard
Purcell. Out of those 200 acres only 30 are
usable due to the marshy consistency of most
of the land. Mr. Purcell still owns an additional
1,000 acres adjacent to the state's land.

Maximum Security

The state facility will be a maximum
security prison, windowless on the exterior.
The gun tower, announced as 60 feet in height,
will be directly opposite Green Springs House
cc 1774. The tower will be visible from most of
the homes and land in the area, according to
Green Springs residents.

In the architects word's, the facility will be a
poured concrete construction, dead grey in
color and unpainted. The hexagonal prison is
600 feet in diameter on each axis, which is the
length of two football fields end on end, in
each direction. The penitentiary walls will be
two stories high on three sides and on the front
it will be four stories high.

Accommodations

The prison will accommodate 700 persons,
receiving all convicted male felons in the state.
Parking space will be alloted for 150 to 200
cars. A 10 foot steel mesh and barbed wire
fence will encircle the perimeter of the entire
structure. In addition there will be extensive
lighting at night.

Open sewage lagoons are planned. They will
treat 70,000 gallons of sewage a day and will
pour this effluent into Wheeler Creek Solid
waste sludge will also be part of the sewage
process.

According to Frederick Hartt, chairman of
the Department of Art, "Housing will have to
be provided to accommodate the prison staff,
hamburger joints and pizza parlors for visitors
to the prison."

Roadway System

Extensive roadways will be built to
accommodate the increase in traffic. At present
most of the roads in Green Springs are narrow,
gravel, country roads that wind in and out,
contouring to the country side.

In the future, after the prison is built, the
state plans to add a 100 bed maximum security
hospital, which will be built on top of the
prison.

The entire facility will be built at a cost to
the taxpayers of $10 million dollars.