Our Brief Jaunt to Eastern State Penitentiary

In recounting his visit to Eastern State Penitentiary in 1842, Charles Dickens wrote:

"... I hold this slow and daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain to be immeasurably worse than any torture of the body..."

Eastern State Penitentiary stands smack in the middle of a Philadelphia neighborhood, nestled between houses, businesses, and churches.  Even a community garden and small park sit nearby.  I wasn't expecting it's monstrous walls to appear so soon within the limits of the city nor was I expecting to see a building that so closely resembles a medieval castle.  We found an unrestricted parking spot along the back wall and enjoyed our leisurely stroll to the front entrance, past charming row homes of different design and decoration.  As we rounded the last turn, a quick glance up yielded a view of a guard tower, decrepid and deteriorating, that was complete with broken window panes and a large metal door hanging open from only its bottom hinge.

 Guard Tower

As we neared the main entrance, we got our first view of what prisoners would see in their last moments before being plunged into mental agony.

 Front Entrance

At this point prisoners would turn left and there would be a large wooden and steel gate
before them.  Later this door was replaced by a gate made of steel bars.  This is the view from between those bars:

 Through the iron bars at the entrance

When this country was in its very beginnings, the prisons of the eighteenth century were little more than large holding pens where men, women, and children (petty thieves and murderers alike) sorted out their affairs behind locked doors.  In 1787 there was a meeting of the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons at the home of Benjamin Franklin to express their growing concern with the conditions of current prison systems.  The ideas expressed at this meeting were unheard of, but seemed to be a better alternative to the systems already in use.  They wanted to create an environment in which the prisoner is made to feel regret and penitence in order to rehabilitate them.  It took more than thirty years for this organization to convince the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to build this new prison and utilize this enlightened approach to rehabilitation.

The method behind the Quaker-inspired system was isolation from other prisoners with the addition of labor.  To prevent distraction, knowledge of the building, and even minor interaction with the guards, prisoners were hooded whenever they left their cells. They lived alone, worked alone, and even ate alone. Additionally, prisoners were not allowed books, letters from home, or visitors.  They were allowed to enjoy only the light pouring through their skylight, the Bible, and honest work (such as weaving or shoemaking). Proponents believed that prisoners left to struggle with the thoughts of their behavior and the ugliness of their crimes would become genuinely penitent, thus the term 'penitentiary'.

  Looking up on the outside

But even this new system didn't trump the design of the prison itself.  The earliest seven cell blocks may very well be considered the first modern building in the United States.  These seven cell blocks extend from a central surveillance rotunda.  John Haviland, the architect, created ambitious mechanical innovations that placed each prisoner in his or her own private cell, centrally heated, with running water, a flush toilet, and a skylight. At this point in history, even the White House did not yet have running water and was heated with coal-burning stoves.  During the century following its construction, more than 300 prisons worldwide were based on its plan.

  Cell door

 Interior passageway

Many critics disagreed with the notion that a prison should involve round-the-clock solitary confinement and, in the end, the critics won the argument.  The system was abandoned in 1913, resulting in prisoner integration and vistation among some of the developments, while other European and Asian counterparts continued the separate system until after World War II.  The first time Al Capone went before a judge in 1929, he was sentenced to one year of jail, but he spent most of that sentence in relative comfort at Eastern State where he was allowed to furnish his cell with rugs and tasteful artwork.  By 1960, the prison was in need of costly repairs and it was finally closed in 1971, 142 years after it had admitted Charles Williams, Prisoner Number One.

 Half of the no-contact visitation room

To be honest, our family's primary interest in Eastern State lies in the fact that it is believed to be haunted.  This location has been featured on The Travel Channel's Most Haunted, Sci Fi's Ghost Hunters, and MTV's FEAR.  The Eastern State website offers some great footage taken during tapings of these shows on their Real Ghost Sightings page.  Some of it is truly amazing - especially when the Ghost Hunters records what appears to be a robed apparition running from a cell doorway.

Unfortunately, we did not get to go into this ominous beast of a prison yesterday while on our day trip into Philly.  The last tour went in at 3:30 and we'd arrived shortly thereafter.
We will be going back for a winter tour within the next month or two.  Tours are only about an hour and culminate with a cup of hot cocoa (probably to warm you up since there's no heat there and it's COLD here in the winter!).  When we go back I will be sure to take a lot of pics in the hopes of getting some orbs and, perhaps, some more insight into what life was like behind the thick, medieval-looking walls (which were, by the way, built in that fashion to be intimidating, giving the impression that inhumane acts were committed behind its walls thus deterring criminal behavior).  My son said that he felt "the feeling" a few times while we were there, but I didn't catch anything with my camera.  He, more than anyone, can't wait to go on the tour!

NOTE:  Most of the historical information contained in this article comes from the Eastern State Penitentiary's website.  There was SO much available in the FREE museum there, but there was far too much to be remembered, so I did look to the website to provide you with accurate and interesting facts about this incredible place.