Miami Reniments

Miami just built a new Courthouse and they are tearing the old one down.

Old

New

The old courthouse's floors and walls were made of marble. So for a very small price you can come and chisel slabs of marble for yourself. My parents bought several sheets for $7.00 a sheet! They eventually want to either make a marble table or tile our foyer with it. I brought a small piece of it back with me for free since we don't have any use for large sheets of it unless we stored it. Plus it was pretty much all gone by the time we got there.

The very top of the old courthouse was the county jail. My dad took me up there (my mom stayed in the car...she had toured it earlier and was creeped out by it.) We were the only ones up there and there was a cold breeze coming in from the a broken window. Luckily the lights were on and there were workers in the building just not on the top floor. It was very creepy. There was a lot of graffiti and artwork. Most of it was religious. There were poetry and love wishes. Vulgarity too.

This used to be one of the solitary cells--now used for storage.

There was one mural in particular that gave me the chills. It was painted by a guy who murdered the son of some of my parents' acquaintances.


It was painted on the side of the wall of the solitary cell (which my dad made me stand behind the door for a picture, but not before he totally closed the door and I was getting pretty freaked out.)

I was trying to look serious and sad. It was hard not to laugh though.

I can't explain exactly how I felt about being up there..the solitary cells were so small, not even a cot could fit. The other rows of cells were bigger but the whole place was extremely old and extremely creepy.


The dates on the walls proved that prisoners were up there until 1995 roughly. It's a whole different world than I ever experienced or imagined...while I was out frolicking in school there were people in there!