At Yuma Territorial Prison, an early adobe structure originally served as the place where prisoners were processed, ate meals, and received medical attention, and later housed offices, storerooms, a barbershop, and two cells for inmates working as cooks and waiters. When the prisoner population outgrew the available chairs, a new adobe kitchen and dining room was built, with a redwood ceiling and wainscoting, but it was destroyed by fire in 1924. Southwest of the mess hall, a garden gave inmates a place to read and relax. Prison cells held as many as six men, with walls reinforced by strap iron to prevent escape, little protection from the sun and rain despite whitewashed granite walls and roof, summer temperatures of 110 F, and hot thick air, though the prison had ventilation, running water, and electricity. Voices from the hospital upstairs could be heard from the cells. After the territorial prison closed in 1909, the hospital and other buildings were leased to the Yuma school district for $600 a semester, and high school classes met within the prison walls. During the Depression, homeless drifters moved into the cells, which were later used as a dog pound, and after the 1916 flood, building materials from the prison were salvaged to rebuild the city.