Old Boston prison becomes hotel

BOSTON -- The Boston Liberty Hotel is no longer behind bars. 

The grand opening was held on Wednesday. The owner of the hotel opened the lock to what was once a jail, and welcomed the public in to what's now a high-class hotel.

The Charles Street Jail was built in 1851 and then closed down in the 1970's.

"Each eight by ten jail cell there were three and sometimes four prisoners together with a toilet and a sink so it was very confining space," said Richard Friedman, hotel owner.

It's not so confining anymore. Over the past seven years the jail was transformed into a luxury hotel. The former jail has 18 hotel rooms. A new brick tower was built to hold 280 more rooms. The hotel also features original pieces of the jail.

"You'll notice that we have some of the handrails. These are original from the old catwalks that surrounded the rotunda. All of the brick walls are naturally the original brick within the rotunda," said bla

The hotel also used old jail bars to separate tables in their restaurant, and kept an original cell.

The hotel costs between $300 and $400 per night.

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