Eastern State Penitentiary

Visiting the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philly isn't exactly a barrel of laughs, but it is absolutely fascinating. It's a huge, old prison that is mostly in ruins, but still gives you a great sense of how prisons used to work. The audio tour was actually really well done and the signage was enough to give some good information, but not so much that you couldn't enjoy the surprisingly photogenic interior of this castle-like structure. Above is the exterior of the prison. One of the things I enjoyed photographing the most was some of the old, decaying details. The rust and peeled paint were ubiquitous. Here are just a few examples:

A radiator

A Wall

A huge radiator and wall at the front (and only) entrance

A handrail on one of the staircases

Al Capone stayed at Eastern for a while. This is a representation of how his room looked. He was treated pretty well and actually got out early for good behavior.

This is an example of a cell door. The original idea was that everyone was kept in a separate cell with the idea that time with ones own thoughts would help the healing process. Each cell had it's own small outdoor exercise yard and food was delivered through a small hole.

Here is a cell block showing small cells on both sides.

These mirrors were installed when a new cell block was built. It allowed guards to stand in the middle of the prison, with cell blocks extending from the middle like spokes on a wheel and have a sightline to all of the cells from one point.

Something that always impresses me about old, old buildings is the ability for plants to find somewhere to grow. A little bit of light, a little bit of dirt and a seed will find a way to survive.

This is the view of one of the outside yards that was used as a baseball diamond. You can see a bit of the Philadelphia skyline and old and newer watchtowers on the right. Baseball and group activities only started at the prison once they moved away from the idea of solitary confinement being the best option for prisoners.

Here's Alex, Kim and I on steps that went up to one of the watchtowers.

Another interesting aspect of a visit to Eastern is the art installations. One was called Ghost Cats and the artist installed life-sized white cat figures throughout the prison grounds. Here is one up on a watchtower:


Other artists used fallen plaster pieces to create this sculpture within a cell called Juxtaposition:

This shot gives you a good idea of just how high the prison walls are:
This is another art piece. The artist is replacing the broken and missing pieces of the greenhouse with glass plate negatives of photograms of natural aspects of the prison grounds (plants and birds). It's called my glass house:

It was quite a gloomy day, but that almost added to the mood of the prison grounds. It was pretty creepy, and I can totally see how the haunted house that they hold here has been rated one of the best in the country.

Here are Mike, Kim and Alex in front of one of the old watchtowers.

After touring Eastern we headed to lunch at Sabrina's Cafe, which was delicious. It was good to see Kim, Alex and Mike. We all had busy summers and just seemed to be missing each other. We've been talking about doing this tour for almost a year and I'm glad we finally got around to it.