On an overcast and very warm June day, a couple of friends and I set off to explore the dank cavernous ruins of the first modern style prison: Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. This place is so cool, it's been featured on MTV's "Fear"! It's so cool that it's been on "The Scariest Places On Earth"! It's so cool that I am going to memorialize it with a Travelogue!

Before I begin, let me tell you a bit about the prison itself. Eastern State Penitentiary was built by the good old Quakers back in 1829. You see, the Quakers started thinking that the best way to rehabilitate criminals was to isolate them from society, give them a Bible, and make them reflect long and hard on all the bad things they've done for a few years. The Bible will lead them back to the path of righteousness, and all will be well. So, with this is mind, ESP was built. It was the most expensive structure ever built in America at the time of its construction, and it was so famous around the world that Dickens stated it was one of the two things he most wanted to see when he visited the U.S. in 1842 (Niagara Falls being the other). The prison had a novel, highly influential design: a circular central area with seven spoke-like halls radiating outwards. This would allow a guard to stand in the central area and watch all of the halls at the same time. Many other prisons ended up adapting this design. The prisoners were never allowed to talk to or see one another - they were completely isolated from all human contact. They had private courtyards that they would be allowed to exercise in for a short time each day, but they would never be outside at the same time as their neighbors, so there was never any chance of conversation. They even made sure not to have exposed pipes so that prisoners couldn't "knock" messages to one another. They were given a Bible and some needlework type tasks to do, and that was it. As you might imagine, quite a few people went insane after several years of this sort of thing... so they ended up deciding it wasn't such a good idea after all, and the solitary confinement philosophy was officially abandoned in 1913. Since it was designed to be a solitary confinement prison, it didn't work very well when they started intermingling the prisoners. The narrow halls allowed people walking by cells to be grabbed by prisoners and injured, among other problems. A lot of prisoners were killed or badly injured here - which explains its reputation for being haunted. The prison stayed in operation until 1971, when it was closed. It sat empty and decaying for over thirty years until it was opened as a museum in 1994. And here we are!

We ended up going on a nice guided tour of the prison, which takes you into some of the areas that they don't let you wander around in by yourself. There are some areas that you are free to wander in alone, though. I figure I'll just let the pictures do the talking... with captions, of course. (Click on the thumbnail to see a large version.)

Our hotel was only a few blocks from the prison, so we walked up to it. This is the view as you approach it.	The prison has a foreboding "fortress-like" appearance, doesn't it? That is intentional...	You see, the designers of the prison wanted it to look like a impenetrable fortress - scary and inescapable.	When it was built, the prison was on a hill outside the town...	They wanted to instill fear into the common people...
So they would think, "I never want to do anything to cause me to end up there!"	There is evidence of the years of neglect everywhere. Here, nature attempts to take back the wall...	Here's the front gate, looking into the courtyard...	Here's another view into the courtyard...	Here's the door that leads from the courtyard into the gift shop. They have lots of nifty gifts here too!
Now, here's the REAL thing - one of the creepy interior hallways of the old prison. The peeling paint is one of the more noticeable features inside.	The door to Cell #843	Here's one of the "comfortable" accommodations. The only light that came in during the olden days was through that tiny slit in the ceiling - and those metal beds were none-too-comfy as well!	Of course, I quite enjoyed this room - with its display of photographs illustrating the history of the prison.	But I ESPECIALLY enjoyed this room - which illustrates the VIOLENT history of the prison! Supposedly, some of these people still walk the halls of the prison in ghostly form...
An eerie skylight... This place is a black & white photographer's dream!	Here's a shot of one of the corner guardhouses from the interior courtyard.	Here's another cozy little room. Suffice it to say, the rooms were freezing cold in the winter and stiflingly hot in the summer. Here you can see the original stonework walls behind the paint.	I love this shot... Did you know that the Anne Heche/Joaquin Phoenix picture "Return To Paradise" was filmed here? This place made for a good Asian prison substitute, though in the film it's supposed to be very hot - but it was actually filmed in a freezing Philadelphia winter!	Another comfy room...
Another cell that shows the original brick and stone walls.	This cell's got that nice "lived-in" look. I believe this cell is supposed to be reflecting the average prisoner's accommodations. You'll be seeing what the 'above-average' prisoner's accommodations looked like soon enough...	One of the tidier hallways in the prison. They are currently engaged in a massive "clean-up" and "damage prevention" campaign at the prison. Their main priority currently is to fix all the roofs to prevent leaking and additional decay of the buildings. Some wings are still off limits to tourists due to hazardous conditions.	In the central circular guard area of the prison, there was this sign commemorating the prisoner's that had fought in The Great War. (WWI)	Here's a shot from the guard's circle, showing the spoke like hallways running off from the center.
Unfortunately, this one turned out somewhat blurry, but it's a shot of one of the two story cell blocks (the second story was a later addition). You can see that they added metal bars across the gap between walkways - can you guess why? (Yep - 'cuz playing 'Toss Across' with the prisoners and guards was causing too many injuries!)	Here's another shot of the cell blocks that emanate out from the central area...	A hallway in ghostly disrepair...	Here's the Haunted Cellblock. You see, apparently quite a few people were killed in that upper walkway section. (You can see how narrow it really is - not a safe place!) Some psychic walked up there and said that they felt a presence try and strangle them and they ran away in fright. Cool place to go for Halloween, huh?	An old cart
Here's a cart on rollers that run between the two walkways on the upper level.	"Clang Clang go those jail guitar doors..." - The Clash	Here's one of the tiny old courtyards that would provide the prisoners their lone view of sunlight back in the days of complete solitary confinement.	A view of the watch towers from the interior courtyard.	Here's a better view of one of the more modern corner guard stations.
Another view of the bars preventing Toss Across accidents...	Here's where I REALLY wanted to go - through this gate and down the stairs into "The Hole". Unfortunately, they wouldn't let us down there... Drat!!	Here are the main door controls for one of the cell blocks...	This is the control that opened the cell doors... I think!	This cell actually still has its own toilet!
Here's a shot inside the 'Death Row' cell block. No executions actually took place here - the criminals were sent to another prison for the actual executions.	Another purty cell door...	Here's another prisoner's cell. Pretty nice, huh? Can you guess which prisoner it was? Yep, if your name was Al Capone back in The Day, you got some pretty nice accommodations.	Especially in comparison with some other, less fortunate tenants...	Here's another shot from the central guard station. Because ESP wasn't designed for inter-mingling of prisoners, there were some safety problems for guards such as blind corners that prisoners could lay and wait in. The installation of mirrors such as this one helped increase the safety factor a bit..
One more look inside the hallowed halls of Eastern State Penitentiary...

Beside the gift shop area is a nice little museum that displays the original door to the prison and lots of interesting trinkets - like a confession of murder written in the inside of a drawer. Also, the visitation area is back there and they show videos of the history of the prison. It was very interesting and I took lots of pictures. Where are those pictures? Damned if I know!! When I went back to look at the pics a day later, I realized that many of them - including all the museum pics and some nice 'flower in front of castle wall' type pics - were missing. I guess I must have accidentally not transferred all the images from the camera. Talk about a sad moment in my life! Anyway, take my word for it, it's all really quite interesting...

Eastern State Penitentiary - a wonderful place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there!