Visit Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia!

Tours include a headset audio tour guide, “The Voices of Eastern State“, that is excellent and kept our entire family fascinated the whole time.  It gives history, context & some 1st-hand accounts by actual inmates and guards from Eastern State’s operating years.  They also have guide-led discussion tours and interactive experiences, Hands-On History, available.  There are also award-winning museum exhibits discussing crime, justice and the modern prison system. 

• Cellblock 1- one of the original cellblocks from 1829, untouched by later additions.
• Visit Cellblock 15, ESP’s “Death Row” for the most violent offenders with a death sentence.  They were transferred out for all executions.  
• In 1924, the Pennsylvania Governor sentenced Pep “The Cat-Murdering Dog” to a life sentence at Eastern State.  Pep allegedly murdered the governor’s wife’s cat.  The wife later exonerated Pep and said he was not guilty of the crime.  They had donated their own beautiful black Lab to the prison to increase inmate morale.  He roamed free and accompanied guards on their rounds.  Pep’s mugshot and small exhibit is toward the end of your tour.  
• Al Capone’s Cell– In 1929 & ’30, the Chicago mobster spent 8 months, here, his very 1st prison sentence.  He was sentenced for carrying a concealed, unlicensed gun into a movie theater.  He had a polished desk and bookshelf on a large, ornate rug.  Colorful oil paintings adorning the walls and a fancy cabinet radio used to play the waltz.  
• Ball-field & exercise yards where the inmates played baseball and football.  You can see how tall the walls tower over you.  You can see some of Philly’s skyline a few miles away.      
• Artist Exhibitions– There are 13 throughout the prison, the most moving to me was the one near Death Row with photos of 50 of the murder victims on Eastern State prisoners.  From a 1 year old baby who was killed in a kidnapping gone wrong to a 12 year old boy slain with scissors & brutally assaulted by a 16 year old.  Those details are not in the audio tour.  They’re in a victim’s binder at the exhibit.  Details are very minimal, only a couple of sentences and their photo.  Have kids avoid the book.
• 1945 Escape Tunnel Cell #68–  There is a small hole that prisoners covered with plaster, hung a laundry chute cover on, and later 12 of them escaped through.  A painted line traces the path of the tunnel.  All were recaptured.  One rang the prison doorbell 8 days later and asked to return because he was starving on the city streets.  Archaeologists found the hole in 2005.
• The Hole “Klondike”- 4 cells where solitary confinement was later carried out as punishment.  This was after they had already abandoned silence and separation of inmates.  In here, they had no plumbing, no mattress or blanket.  They stayed a week to a month with a meal a day, or bread and water.    
• Memorial Plaque dedicated to the prisoners (identified only by inmate number) who fought in WWI.  
• The architecture, even in a state of ruin is often in its own way beautiful.  It’s also gritty, sometimes creepy, and holds so much lingering history that it hangs in the air.  As you listen to your audio tour and walk the cellblocks, your mind will easily take you back in time and leave you in awe at the history of this place.  You’ll feel the stories of those who lived a dark chapter of their lives here.  
• Other places include the, once state-of-the-art, prison hospital, kitchen, greenhouse, 1st Jewish prison synagogue & barbershop