San Quentin Prison of Yesteryear: The most fashionable inmates ever and the tiny town next door

Tumblr/Yeoldenews

One of my favorite tumblr accounts is yeoldenews, and recently they've shared a few posts (and stories) of women inmates in the early 1900s at San Quentin Prison. And they're a must see.


If you're unfamiliar with San Quentin Prison, it's a maximum security prison in Marin County with a great view of the bay. And until 1933 the prison housed both men and women; following that year, the women were moved to a prison in Tehachapi. When I used to commute from Marin to San Francisco via the ferry, you'd often see men in orange jumpsuits playing basketball or leaning against the fence looking towards the boat.

What many don't know is there's a small town just outside the gates of the prison that shares its name. Once a town purely made up of guards who worked that the prison and their families, there's now an assortment of approximately 100 residents living there; and according to the Wikipedia page, "residents rent their driveways to media vans during controversial executions."