Eastern State Penitentiary: History and Terror

Eastern State Penitentiary is one of Philadelphia’s famous tourist attractions. The structure became a National Historic Landmark in 1965. ESP officially opened to the public for history tours in 1994. Read on to discover the history of this fascinating and spooky structure.

Prison of the Past

In 1787, during a meeting at Benjamin Franklin’s house, it was decided that a new prison needed to be constructed. The Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons, a group of concerned citizens, decided the atrocities of the local Walnut Street Jail needed to end.

The Walnut Street Jail, located behind Independence Hall, was like most prisons at the time. Men, women and children were all housed together. Thieves and murderers were all kept together in dirty pens. Rape and robbery were common. Jailors did very little to protect the prisoners from each other. Food, heat, clothing and alcohol all came at a price. Many prisoners died in these harsh conditions.

The Society started by passing reforms that included separating prisoners by sex and crime. This was a good start, but the population of Philadelphia was booming. A new facility was desperately needed.

A Prison for the Future?

In 1821, John Haviland was chosen to design this new reformatory. Haviland was an English-born American architect. He was a major figure in the American Neo-Classical architecture, and one of the most notable architects working in Philadelphia in the 19th Century.

Finding inspiration from prisons and asylums built in England and Ireland starting in the 1780’s, Haviland designed a neo-gothic “hub-and-spoke” or “wagon wheel” fortress. ESP opened in 1829. When it opened it was the largest and most expensive public structured erected in the United States.

Designed for Reform

Eastern State Penitentiary was considered the world’s first true “penitentiary”. It was a prison designed to inspire penitence or true regret in the hearts of prisoners. It was believed that solitary confinement could help reform criminals.

This revolutionary style of incarceration was dubbed the “Pennsylvania Style” or “separate system”. Each prisoner was housed separately and didn’t interact with each other. The original cells had their own exercise yard surrounded by high walls, a single glass skylight, a faucet with running water over a flush toilet and curved pipes along part of one wall. These pipes served as the heating during the winter months.

The cells had both metal bar doors and heavy wooden doors. The heavy wooden door helped to filter noise and keep prisoners from being able to interact with each other. These doors were rather small. There are two explanations for the small doors. The first is that smaller doors would have minimized the ability to attack the guards. The second is that they were designed to make the prisoner bow while entering. This act of bowing might encourage a prisoner to penance.

The single skylight was also known as the “Eye of God”. It was designed to suggest that God was always watching them. All of this was aimed at reforming the prisoner.

While seclusion and solitude were the goals of imprisonment here, the prisoners did have some interactions. The Warden was legally required to visit each prisoner every day. In fact, overseers were mandated to see each inmate three times a day. When prisoners were brought in or led through the prison, they each had a hood over their heads. This served two purposes. First, they remained anonymous. No one from in prison could identify them out in public. Second, it would make escape attempts harder.

An End to Solitude

Haviland’s original design was for seven one-story cell blocks radiating out from a center tower. However, by the time cell block three was completed, the prison was over capacity. Afterwards, all subsequent cell blocks had two floors. The prison opened in 1829, seven years before it’s completion.

The prison and their new system were so impressive, it inspired over 300 prisons in Europe, South America, China, Japan and Russia. While many were impressed with the prison and its goals, some were not. Charles Dickens was one of Eastern State Penitentiary’s biggest critics.

By 1913, ESP gave up on its seclusion and penitence system. ESP was originally designed to hold 300 people. By the 1920’s it was housing 2,000 inmates with no chance of solitude. The prison slowly began to deteriorate and was quit a mess in the 1960’s. It was added to the National Historic Landmark list in 1965. As times changed and the building began to crumble, it was finally closed in 1971.

A New Life

Originally, the prison was going to be redeveloped. Many ideas and plans were discussed, but it sat abandoned till the late 1980’s. In 1988, the Eastern State Penitentiary Task Force petitioned the mayor to halt the redevelopment.

ESP was opened to the public for history tours in 1994. It is now open year-round. Visitors can take guided tours or self-guided audio tours. The self-guided audio tour is narrated by actor Steve Buscemi.

During the fall season, ESP runs “Halloween Nights”. Visitors can still take their normal tours during the day, or they can take a haunted house tour in the evenings. They have five haunted house areas in the prison as well as themed bars and lounges and live entertainment.

Interested in taking a tour? Visit their official page here.

Interesting Inmates And Prison Escapes

During its 142 years of operation, ESP housed around 75,000 inmates. Some were quite infamous, such as Al Capone. Al ‘Scarface’ Capone was an inmate from 1929-1930. He was arrested for carrying a concealed deadly weapon. This was his first prison sentence. Capone’s stay was quite cushy. His cell was all decked out with many comforts of home.

Another famous inmate was William Francis “Slick Willie” Sutton. “Slick Willie” was one of America’s most famous bank robbers. He spent 11 years in ESP. In his career as a criminal, he committed over 50 bank robberies, 3 successful prison escapes and spent over 30 years behind bars. During 1945, Sutton along with 11 other prisoners escaped ESP. They spent over a year digging a 100-foot tunnel. They were caught a few minutes after escaping.

Around 100 inmates escaped from ESP during its years of operation. Only one, Leo Callahan, got away with it. In 1923, he and 5 other inmates built a ladder and used it to escape over the East Wall. While his 5 accomplices were recaptured, Callahan was not. He remains at large, though would most likely now be dead.

Haunted

Eastern State Penitentiary is considered one of the most haunted prisons in the world. The drive to reform prisoners using solitude and time to reflect came at a price. Prisoners were expected to practice the “sound of silence”, which means they were to keep silent. Prisoners were expected to refrain from talking singing and humming.

If prisoners were caught breaking this rule, they may end up in a tongue clamp. This device chained their tongues to their wrists. If they struggled, it would tear their tongue. The punishment was terrible, but many found the silence equally painful.

Other punishments included water baths and the mad chair. Water baths included the prisoner being dunked in water and hung from a wall overnight, even during the winter. The mad chair was reserved for the worst behaved prisoners. An inmate would be strapped to a chair in a pit in a room with no windows, referred to as “the pit”. Inmates were unable to move and were starved, often for days. Many times, prisoners would be permanently crippled from this punishment.

While no executions were carried out here, multiple murders occurred as well as natural deaths. Ghost stories have been reported since the 1940’s. Both guards and inmates reported seeing apparitions and having unusual experiences.

Other Haunted Prisons

Eastern State Penitentiary is a fascinating place to visit. I highly recommend a visit at any time of the year. If you want to visit another haunted prison, check out my blog on The Cresson Sanatorium.