The inmates left nearly 12 years ago, and except for the Jefferson City Convention and Visitors Bureau's popular tours, the old Missouri State Penitentiary is an unpopulated, inactive place.
Jefferson City Mayor Carrie Tergin hopes two bills introduced in the Legislature last week will help change the status of at least some of the 128 acres still undeveloped from the original 142-acre site facility that once housed the oldest prison operating west of the Mississippi River.
"It's just really an asset to our community that's been under-utilized now," Tergin told the News Tribune last week. "It's been vacant over the last 12 years - and it's always been the desire of the community to see it put into production and good use."
The entire MSP property covered more than the area surrounded by the stone walls and runs from west of Lafayette Street to the western edge of Ellis-Porter/Riverside Park.
The federal courthouse, the state Health Lab and the Lewis and Clark "green" Building that houses the Natural Resources department all are on former MSP property.
Tergin hopes the state will let the city take ownership of nearly 32 acres, generally on the property's central and northwestern sections.
"Of that 31.82 acres, approximately 6.2 acres encompasses the railroad, 1.5 acres is for Lafayette Street right-of-way that was not conveyed at the time that project was done, and about 4.4 acres would be for right-of-way for MSP Parkway and Chestnut Street extension," the mayor explained. "That leaves about 19.7 acres remaining for development" within the area the city hopes to acquire.
And the proposal doesn't include the "historic campus" area with the main prison buildings, where the CVB operates its tours under a long-term lease with the Office of Administration.
State Sen. Mike Kehoe and state Rep. Mike Bernskoetter, both Jefferson City Republicans, introduced companion bills in their two houses - and Kehoe's proposal on Thursday was assigned to the Senate's General Laws Committee. No hearing has been set yet for the Senate bill.
Both measures, if passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Eric Greitens, authorize the governor "to sell, transfer, grant, convey, remise, release and forever quitclaim to all interest of the state of Missouri" to the city, with the attorney general required to "approve the form of the instrument of conveyance."
Kehoe said the two bills are "the start of a conversation" with state officials about ways to redevelop parts of the old prison site, that generally are sitting idle.
"There's still an incredible amount of land available for the state to eventually put buildings on or do what they want to do," Kehoe said. "It just takes a piece around the historic campus - that we're using now under a lease - and it makes it available to develop for the city and county and the state. We would partner with them on parking facilities, etc."
The area that would go to the city includes three buildings.
One is the gas chamber, where the last execution was carried out in 1989, using lethal injection instead of gas.
Tergin said the city would protect the gas chamber and the area around it from development, and she expects the state would require that protection in any land-transfer agreement.
She said the city also expects to keep the large, red-brick building north of the main entrance area.
"It's the building closest to the Missouri River, so the potential for adaptive re-use of that historic structure would really be amazing, with the tie-in to the prison - so you have that rich history - and, also, the view of the Missouri River," Tergin explained. "There has been some question as to what would the use of that building be.
"As we're looking at this area, there's potential for a private developer to come in and utilize that building, so we wanted to include that in the plan."
Tergin said final plans haven't been determined for the third building, a yellow structure down the hill from the red brick building, closer to the railroad tracks and the river.
One main focus of the city's goal for the land is to build a "parkway" connecting the north end of Lafayette Street with Chestnut Street and the DNR building, with a section continuing southeast to East Capitol Avenue.
"It allows better access to the current site and development," Tergin said.
Kehoe noted Cole County's government would share in the costs of the infrastructure development - and Presiding Commissioner Sam Bushman agreed.
"Before I would build the parkway, though, I would really like to see a contract from a hotelier or a developer to develop the conference center," Bushman told the News Tribune last week. "Before we spend that money, there's a lot of other things that we could do."
Bushman noted Jefferson City and Cole County governments have a list of joint projects to work on, including improvements to East Capitol Avenue, East High Street and Myrtle Street.
"And then, if we do get a hotel or we get something like that coming in, then I'm not adverse to putting money in on a parkway," he said.
Bushman added he's not objecting to redeveloping the prison site, noting he agreed with former Gov. Bob Holden's comment, "We're sitting on a diamond in the rough" with the old prison site.
But, Bushman said, there are other things in the redevelopment mix as well - including efforts to renovate some of the boarded-up older homes on East Capitol.
"I think, once we get East Capitol done, and if we can get some people buying the homes and fixing up the homes, it's going to bring more people over that way, too," he said. "And, with the concert over there over the 4th of July weekend, again, that brings people over there.
"So, I love the idea of developing it. I'm cautiously optimistic, and I would like to see something happen with MSP."
Tergin recalled last year's first outdoor concert on the prison grounds was successful in spite of the rain. She added another is scheduled for July 1.
Conversations about the future of the former penitentiary began nearly 20 years ago after the state decided to replace the prison with the new Jefferson City Correctional Center but well before the Corrections department moved all 1,350 inmates on Sept. 15, 2004.
But, after the inmates were moved to JCCC, very little happened on the redevelopment efforts - to the point that in May 2012, then-City Administrator Nathan Nickolaus declared the MSP Master Plan "dead."
Still, the state's Redevelopment Commission, which included representatives appointed by city and county officials, continued working on those plans and in May 2013 released the master plan, Tergin and Kehoe both noted, will be the guide for the city's use of the land if the state approves the transfer.
Bernskoetter said it may not be easy to convince fellow lawmakers to support the idea.
"I think it will be a fairly difficult conversation," he said. "It's not a slam-dunk by any means.
"But as you can see, the state's not doing anything with the property now, and it doesn't seem like we have any plans of doing anything with the property as long as the budget situation stays the way it is.
"So, I'm hopeful we can convince them that, instead of letting everything deteriorate over there, we can do some kind of development and bring it back."
Tergin said one of the arguments for the plan is Jefferson City's unique position - no other U.S. city has a river, a retired prison and a state capitol near each other.
"We're seeing this area as such a tourist attraction," she said. "The benefits are so great to the entire state," because the visitors have to get to Jefferson City, and many likely will travel through other parts of Missouri to get here.