pre 1900 - several families who manufactured earthen-ware hibachis, called "hoa lo", lived on the land where the prison was later built. Since it was customary to name streets according to the primary industry or commerce conducted on the street, the street (pho) became known as "Pho Hoa Lo", or "Hibachi Street."

1901 - Near the turn of the century, when Vietnam was still part of French Indochina, the French colonists built a prison on the site as part of their barracks, with construction completed in 1901. They called it Maison Centrale & renamed the street "Rue de la Prison," ("Pho Nha Tu" in Vietnamese).

1901 to 1954 - Vietnamese prisoners, particularly political prisoners who were agitating for independence, and some aging leaders of the Communist government in Hanoi, were imprisoned here during the French era. Vietnamese prisoners were often subject to torture and execution under the French.

1954 - When the French departed in 1954, the Vietnamese authorities changed the name of the street back to "Pho Hoa Lo" and the name of the prison to "Hoa Lo."

1957 - The Vietnam War began after Vietnam was divided into two zones with a de-militarized zone (DMZ) between them. The War ostensibly began as a civil war between feuding governments with the South Vietnamese government wanting to maintain its governing status within the partitioned entity rather than to "unify the country" as was agreed to at the Geneva Conference. Fighting began in 1957, and steadily escalated from there, with the United States, the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China all eventually becoming involved. The conflict also spilled over into the neighboring countries of Cambodia and Laos. So, simply stated, the Vietnam War was a conflict between North Vietnam and its allies, and South Vietnam and its allies. North Vietnam’s allies were the NLF ( National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam), the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. South Vietnam’s allies included the United States and South Korea.

1964 to 1973 - the US became involved in 1964 and stayed until their official withdrawal in 1973.

1964 - Lt. Everett Alvarez was shot down over Vietnam and sent to Hoa Lo prison and spent almost nine years there, earning the dubious honor of being the longest prisoner of war in Vietnam.

1964 to 1973 - Hoa Lo prison (which the American POWs sarcastically nicknamed the Hanoi Hilton) held captured American POWs from August 11, 1964 to March 28, 1973. When POWs began to be released from this and other North Vietnamese prisons in the late 1960s and early 1970s, their testimonies revealed widespread and systematic abuse of prisoners of war. Initially, this information was suppressed by American authorities for fear that conditions might worsen for the prisoners remaining in North Vietnamese custody.

1975 - the War ended on April 30, 1975 with the capitulation of South Vietnam to the North Vietnamese. In addition to the thousands of military casualties on both sides from the war, there was an untold number of civilian casualties as well.

Post war 1975 - Neither the United States nor its allies ever formally charged North Vietnam with the war crimes revealed to have been committed there, nor did they demand extradition of Vietnamese officials who had violated the Geneva Convention at the Hanoi Hilton. The present government of Vietnam firmly holds to the view that the Hanoi Hilton was a prison for criminals, not POWs, and that those held in the Hanoi Hilton were "pirates" and "bandits" who had attacked Vietnam without authority.

1987 - The Hanoi Hilton was depicted in the Hollywood movie “Hanoi Hilton”. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093143/

1994 - in 1994, the ‘Hanoi Hilton’ looked much as it had for almost 80 years, including the years when American prisoners of war were held there. Restrictions were placed on where you could walk near the prison and as late as 1993 photographs were prohibited.

1996 - most of the walls of the ‘Hanoi Hilton’ were torn down to make way for the new upscale, high-rise Singaporean Hotel. Portions of the walls were retained for historical reasons as the Vietnamese also have bitter memories of the prison - many communist revolutionaries were kept and tortured there.

1998 - the old front of the prison was painted and restored, and the remaining portions of the prison were turned into a tourist site. Some of the cells were opened and considerable information about Vietnamese prisoners is available; however, information about the U.S. prisoners of war is said to be unreliable. Many of the tourists shuttled by guides from cell to cell inside the site are too young to have personal memories of the war.

1999 - Hilton International and the Vietnamese government jointly built the Hilton Hanoi Opera, a $64 million dollar luxury hotel in Hanoi. It is located several blocks away from the prison site and has no connection to the prison.

There are many good sources of information on the internet about the Hanoi Hilton & it’s POWs. These are some of them:

http://www.marymount.k12.ny.us/marynet/studentresources/art/southeastasia/vietnam/html/hanoi.html

http://www.vietnamwar.com/hanoihilton.htm

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=12273

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanoi_Hilton

A NY times article about Senator John McCain who was a prison there:: http://www.mishalov.com/Vietnam_hanoi_hilton.html

Washington Post story re the McCain Amendment to ban the U.S. military and other government agencies from engaging in "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" of detainees: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/26/AR2005102601909.html