[Frederic Shonnard & W.W. Spooner (1900)] The principal event in Westchester County of the decade 1820-30 was the building of the State penitentiary at Sing Sing. By an act passed March 7, 1824, the construction of a new State prison was authorized in the 1st and 2d senatorial districts, and the Sing-Sing site was selected on account of its marble quarries — which afforded a means for the advantageous employment of convict labor. — its accessibility by water, and its salubrity. At that time there Mere only two State prisons in existence, one in New York City (called Newgate) and one in Auburn. "On the 14th of May, 1825," says Dr. Fisher, the historian of the Town of Ossining, " one hundred convicts from the Auburn prison, under the supervision of Captain Elam Lynds, were landed on the grounds from a canal boat in which they were brought. Operations were at once commenced, and in May, 1828,1 the prison buildings were completed. The main struc-ture, which was built of hewn stone from the marble quarries, con-tained six hundred cells. Before the roof was fairly finished it was ascertained that the accommodations were entirely inadequate, and therefore a fourth story was added, which increased the number of cells to eight hundred. In after years two additions were built, each of one story, so that at the present time there are six stories and an aggregate of twelve hundred cells.