The rotary jail was a very unusual architectural design. In response to a need for better control over prisoners, 18 of the revolving, escape-proof structures were erected in the United States from 1882 through 1889. There were problems. There were mechanical difficulties due to the extreme weight of the components. Unwary prisoners lost digits or limbs when carousels were rotated without warning--one lost his life. Because inmates could only be let out of their cells one at a time, some rotary jails were closed as fire hazards. This book describes in detail their construction, operation and eventual demise, as well as some of the colorful inmates that were held in them.

Gunslingers, gamblers and outlaws vastly outnumbered sheriffs and marshals in the cattle towns of the Kansas frontier. Famous lawmen, such as Charlie Bassett, Wild Bill Hickok and Tom Smith, kept the peace by sheer force of personality and the integrity of the local lockup. The story of the state's settlement can be tracked in the fascinating development of these bastions of prairie justice. Makeshift jails of earlier times were replaced by limestone, brick and concrete structures with iron cells and elaborate locking systems. From the squirrel cage of Wichita to the iron jail of Lawrence City, tour these early Kansas prisons with author Gerald Bayens.

A bold and provocative interpretation of one of the most religiously vibrant places in America—a state penitentiary Baraka, Al, Teddy, and Sayyid—four black men from South Philadelphia, two Christian and two Muslim—are serving life sentences at Pennsylvania's maximum-security Graterford Prison. All of them work in Graterford's chapel, a place that is at once a sanctuary for religious contemplation and an arena for disputing the workings of God and man. Day in, day out, everything is, in its twisted way, rather ordinary. And then one of them disappears. Down in the Chapel tells the story of one week at Graterford Prison. We learn how the men at Graterford pass their time, care for themselves, and commune with their makers. We observe a variety of Muslims, Protestants, Catholics, and others, at prayer and in study and song. And we listen in as an interloping scholar of religion tries to make sense of it all. When prisoners turn to God, they are often scorned as con artists who fake their piety, or pitied as wretches who cling to faith because faith is all they have left. Joshua Dubler goes beyond these stereotypes to show the religious life of a prison in all its complexity. One part prison procedural, one part philosophical investigation, Down in the Chapel explores the many uses prisoners make of their religions and weighs the circumstances that make these uses possible. Gritty and visceral, meditative and searching, it is an essential study of American religion in the age of mass incarceration.

From the grand boulevard of Summit Avenue to the gleaming State Capitol, St. Paul's Architecture presents more than 225 notable surviving buildings and the history of several neighborhoods in the city. With historical photographs and illustrations, this engaging book is a valuable resource not only for those interested in architectural heritage but also for anyone who admires St. Paul's unique beauty and charm.

Alternately lauded as the future of architecture or dismissed as pure folly, revolving buildings are a fascinating missing chapter in architectural history with surprising relevance to issues in contemporary architectural design. Rotating structures have been employed to solve problems and create effects that stationary buildings can't achieve. Rotating buildings offeredever-changing vistas and made interior spaces more flexible and adaptable. They were used to impress visitors, treatpatients, and improve the green qualities of a structure by keeping particular rooms in or out of the sun. The follow-up to his critically acclaimed book A-frame, Chad Randl's Revolving Architecture: A History of Buildings that Rotate, Swivel, and Pivot explores the history of this unique building type, investigating the cultural forces that have driven people to design and inhabit them. Revolving Architecture is packed with a variety of fantastic revolving structures such as a jail that kept inmates under a wardens constant surveillance, glamorous revolving restaurants, tuberculosis treatment wards, houses, theaters, and even a contemporary residential building whose full-floor apartments circle independently of each other. International examples from the late 1800s though the present demonstrate the variety and innovation of these dynamic structures.

The rotary jail was a very unusual architectural design. In response to a need for better control over prisoners, 18 of the revolving, escape-proof structures were erected in the United States from 1882 through 1889. There were problems. There were mechanical difficulties due to the extreme weight of the components. Unwary prisoners lost digits or limbs when carousels were rotated without warning--one lost his life. Because inmates could only be let out of their cells one at a time, some rotary jails were closed as fire hazards. This book describes in detail their construction, operation and eventual demise, as well as some of the colorful inmates that were held in them.

Early Wichita earned a wicked reputation from newspapers across Kansas thanks to a bevy of madams and murderers, bootleggers and bank robbers, con men and crooked cops. Gambler and saloonkeeper "Rowdy Joe" Lowe was the toast of the town before shooting down his rival, "Red" Beard, and skipping town. Robber and cop killer "Clever Eddie" Adams spread a wave of terror until the police evened the score. Dixie Lee ran the city's classiest brothel with little interference from authorities. Notorious quack "Professor" H. Samuels made a fortune selling worthless eye drops. And county attorney Willard Boone was chased out of town when he was caught with his hand in the bootlegger's cookie jar. Local author Joe Stumpe tells the real stories of the city's best-known and least-known criminals and misfits.