The police headquarters and jail

In 1887, the Hôtel de Lalande became a police barracks, with the servants’ wing accommodating the stables, hay storeroom and tack room, while the public security and vice bureaus, including the municipal division, police chief’s office and prosecutor’s office, were housed in the main building. At the rear of the property, a jail was built in the former garden, based on a design completed in 1885 by the municipal architect Marius Faget. The garden, enclosed by high walls and planted with more than 60 trees in three rows, also a lawn and various plants and shrubs, was replaced by a sprawling jail with thick stone walls forming a quadrangle. This house of detention, originally intended for “French and foreign sailors found in violation of discipline and girls who infringe the laws of morality and decency” was put into operation in June 1886. In 1907, the first upper floor of the Hôtel de Lalande was renovated, eliminating the split levels that had been installed to create more office space. Relegated to the servants’ wing upon the opening of the Musée d’Art Ancien (Museum of Ancient Art), the police bureaus moved out of the Hôtel de Lalande in 1964.