Eastern State Penitentiary

The Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons was founded on May 8, 1787 ^{1, 6, 7}. Eastern State's finding aid says the founding meeting was held in Benjamin Franklin's home ^{3, 6}. The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia names the 1787 body the Pennsylvania Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons, formed under Bishop William White, with Benjamin Rush as the driving force ².

Sources differ on the money. The National Historic Landmark nomination says the legislature appropriated $100,000 for the prison after roughly 20 years of petitioning, while the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia says the legislature appropriated $250,000 in 1821 ^{1, 2}. John Haviland won the design competition and a $100 premium when his plan was selected on May 24, 1822 ^{1, 2}. The cornerstone was laid on May 22, 1823, and the completed prison cost a total of $772,600 ^{1, 2}.

The penitentiary went up on farmland known as Cherry Hill, about two miles from Center City Philadelphia, on a site of roughly 10 acres ^{2, 8}. Haviland set a central rotunda with seven cellblocks of solitary cells radiating from it, a hub-and-spoke layout that aided surveillance and ventilation ^{1, 3, 2, 6}. The first three cellblocks were single-storied with 38 cells each, measuring roughly 12 by 8 by 10 feet and divided by a central corridor ¹.

Each cell had central heat, running water, a flush toilet and a skylight, with a private outdoor exercise yard behind a 10-foot wall ^{3, 2}. The front wall stood 30 feet high, 12 feet thick at the base and 670 feet long, and the Encyclopedia adds that it extends another 10 feet below ground ^{1, 2}. More than 300 prisons on five continents were modeled on the plan ^{3, 2}.

Charles Williams entered as Prisoner Number One on October 25, 1829 ^{3, 1, 2}. Under the Pennsylvania System prisoners wore a mask or hood whenever they left their cells, a practice the National Historic Landmark nomination says lasted until 1904 ^{1, 3, 2}. Between 1829 and 1913 prisoners spent about 23 hours a day alone in their cells, working, reading and eating meals there ².

In 1833 the prisoner Mathias Maccumsey died after being subjected to the iron gag, and the penitentiary physician attributed the death to apoplexy ². An inquiry in 1834 investigated Warden Samuel Wood over the death; he was not found guilty and served until his retirement ^{2, 1}. Charles Dickens visited in 1842 and called the regime cruel and wrong ^{2, 6}. The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia calls him perhaps the Pennsylvania system's most damning critic ².

The prison added a congregate workshop in 1905, eight years before the Pennsylvania System was officially discontinued, and by 1909 the inmate newspaper The Umpire was printing baseball league scores ³. The system of separate confinement was formally abolished at Eastern State in 1913 ^{1, 3, 2, 6}. Women were held at the prison until 1923, overseen by a hired matron ².

Warden Michael Cassidy added the first new cellblocks in the 1870s and 1890s, and the nomination dates three added blocks to 1877-79, an eleventh to 1894 and a twelfth to 1908-1911 ^{1, 3}. The penitentiary was designed for 250 people, but its population peaked at roughly 1,700 in the mid-1920s ⁶. The administration produced a silent film in 1929 for the building's centennial, showing weaving shops, kitchens, dining halls and new guard towers ³.

Al Capone was held at Eastern State in 1929 ^{3, 2}. The finding aid says he was sentenced to one year and furnished his cell with antiques, rugs and oil paintings, while the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia describes an eight-month sentence during which he enjoyed an oriental rug and a radio ^{3, 2}. In 1933 prisoners rioted and set fire to their cells to protest overcrowding and a lack of recreation facilities ².

On April 3, 1945, 12 prisoners escaped through a tunnel that exited outside the wall near 22nd Street and Fairmount Avenue, and all were eventually recaptured ^{9, 7, 2}. Smithsonian magazine reports the diggers cut a 31-inch opening through the wall of cell 68, dropped 12 feet and drove about 100 feet beyond the prison walls, and the archaeological report describes the tunnel as beginning in a cell at the end of Cell Block 67 ^{7, 9}. Smithsonian reports the escape was planned and largely executed by Clarence "Kliney" Klinedinst, a plasterer and stone mason, though Willie Sutton claimed credit in his 1953 autobiography ⁷.

Sutton had been sentenced to Eastern State in 1934 for the machine-gun robbery of the Corn Exchange Bank in Philadelphia ⁷. Klinedinst was free about three hours after the escape, and Sutton was recaptured after roughly three minutes ⁷. Smithsonian reports the first recaptured escapees, Sutton among them, were held in the Klondikes, illegal dark solitary cells secretly built by guards in the mechanical space beneath a cellblock ⁷. In 2005 the site commissioned an archaeological survey that relocated the tunnel using excavation and ground-penetrating radar, and remote cameras then entered one intact section ^{9, 7}.

Cellblock Fifteen, or Death Row, was built in 1956 as the last major addition to the complex ^{3, 6}. After the largest riot in the prison's history in 1961, Pennsylvania began serious discussions about closing the penitentiary ². Sources date the end differently. The finding aid and the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia say the Commonwealth closed the facility in 1971, 142 years after it opened, with the remaining prisoners transferred to Graterford State Prison, while the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections says the prison operated until 1970 and Eastern State's own history says state operations ceased in 1970 and the building was used briefly as a city jail in 1971 ^{3, 2, 8, 6, 1}.

The counts of the cellblocks differ as well. The Encyclopedia says the prison had 14 cellblocks and nearly 1,000 cells by 1945, the National Historic Landmark nomination records 14 blocks holding 900 prisoners at closing, and Eastern State's own history counts 15 cellblocks by 1956 ^{2, 1, 6}. The property was nominated to the National Register in 1974 under the Social/Humanitarian theme and is a National Historic Landmark ^{1, 4}.

The City of Philadelphia purchased the site in 1980, intending to reuse or develop it ³. In 1984 the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority weighed commercial proposals for the property, including a shopping center and condominiums ². In 1988 the Eastern State Penitentiary Task Force persuaded Mayor Wilson Goode to halt redevelopment and sale of the site ^{3, 6}.

Regular guided tours began in 1994, drawing 10,000 visitors in the first hard hat tour season, and the Pennsylvania Prison Society signed a 20-year operating agreement with the City in 1997 ^{3, 6}. The nonprofit Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, Inc. took over the operating agreement in 2001 ³. In the 21st century the site is described as a stabilized ruin, with revitalization projects almost constantly underway ^{2, 4}.

Eastern State does not permit paranormal investigations at the historic site, including EVP recorders and other paranormal investigation equipment ⁴.

The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia notes that the site hosts popular annual events, including a Bastille Day celebration and Terror Behind the Walls, a haunted house fund-raiser ². Halloween Nights runs select evenings from October 2 through November 7, 2026, a separately ticketed festival with five haunted houses, historic tours, bars and live entertainment inside the prison ^{10, 5}.

Visitors commonly describe footsteps and voices carrying down the long vaulted cellblocks when no one else is in sight, and shadows that appear to move across cell doorways in Cellblock 12. Accounts often single out Cellblock 4, where a locksmith working on the doors in the 1990s said he saw shapes pressed against the walls, and Cellblock 12, where people report laughter or echoing calls from the far end. Others describe nothing more than the building itself: dripping water, peeling plaster, and the sound of their own steps returning to them.

The historic site is at 2027 Fairmount Avenue, in the Fairmount neighborhood within the Parkway Museums District, five blocks from the Philadelphia Museum of Art ^{4, 3}. It is open to visitors year-round, and one admission price covers all standard tours, exhibits and art installations ^{5, 4, 10}. Hours are daily, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and subject to change ⁵. From January through February and December 1 to 22 the site is open Wednesday through Monday and closed Tuesdays, and it is closed on New Year's Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day ^{5, 10}.

Online daytime admission is $21 for adults, $19 for seniors and $17 for college students and youth ages 7 to 17, with tickets $2 more at the door ⁴. Visitors follow a one-way route and choose a self-guided audio tour or a guide-led tour and discussion, with mini tours, exhibits and 14 art installations included ^{4, 10}. The main audio tour has 10 stops and runs about 40 minutes, guide-led tours run 45 minutes, and most visitors spend about two hours on site ^{4, 10}. Points of interest open to visitors include Al Capone's cell and the penitentiary's historic synagogue ⁴.

Eastern State warns that the building was abandoned for more than 20 years and remains a semi-ruin, with uneven ground and sharp stone edges, and asks visitors to stay within marked public areas ⁴. The complex has no climate control and is open rain or shine, and the site does not recommend sandals, flip-flops, open-toed shoes or high heels ⁴. There are no dining facilities inside the complex ⁴.

There is no on-site parking lot ⁴. A neighboring paid lot sits at 22nd Street and Fairmount Avenue, and free unlimited parallel parking is available on the Eastern State side of 22nd and Brown Streets ⁴. Several SEPTA bus routes serve the site, as do Philadelphia Trolley Works, Big Bus, The Phlash and Philadelphia Bike Tours ⁴. A collection of fragmentary records, about 31 linear feet dating circa 1830 to 1970, is held on site, and many documents are restricted for privacy reasons ³. Eastern State has paused its research request service until late summer 2026 because of staff availability, and the site directs researchers to the Pennsylvania State Archives ⁶.