Location
22nd and Fairmount, the Art Museum Area
VIEW ON MAP
Terror Behind The Walls
Click here to visit our page on Eastern State's annual Halloween haunted house inside the penitentiary. Terror Behind the Walls is a blockbuster fall attraction.
The Experience
Eastern State Penitentiary set the standard for penal reform, with its soaring, castle-like Gothic architecture and its founders’ Quaker-inspired belief that solitary confinement could reform criminals. The 11-acre prison even had central heat, running water and flush toilets before the White House! A Who’s Who of the underworld – bank robber Willie Sutton, who staged a breakout in 1945, and Al Capone, who furnished his cell with antiques, rugs and oil paintings – both served time here.
Tours include a restored 19th-century cell, the warden’s office, several cellblocks, exercise yards, death row and critically acclaimed art installations. The annual “Terror Behind the Walls” tours – running nightly for the entire month of October – are the region’s premier Halloween event!
Video
Click here to view a video preview of the Eastern State Penitentiary experience.
WATCH VIDEO
Virtual Tour
The New York Times recently published a great multimedia tour of the prison called "Voices from Eastern State Penitentiary," featuring audio clips and great photography. View it here.
History
When Eastern State opened in 1829, visitors from around the world marveled at its grand architecture (John Havilland) and radical philosophy. The experiment, to reform criminals through strict isolation, soon became a model for prison design world wide. An estimated 300 prisons on four continents are based on Eastern’s distinctive “wagon-wheel” floor plan. Once the most expensive building in the USA, Eastern State was finally abandoned in 1971 after 142 years in use. It is a National Historic Landmark.