Being the day before Halloween, it’s perfectly acceptable to be thinking about the creepiest experiences you’ve ever had. One of the most recent of mine was on a recent trip to Philadelphia. First trolley stop on my list: the Eastern State Penitentiary.
It’s located right near the Museum of Art – home of the “Rocky” statue. Pretty darn near downtown.
The first thing I noticed was that it’s in a neighborhood. A neighborhood where people live and drive and walk their dogs. This evil history, just set amongst the townhouses.
We walked in from the street into the gift shop and paid for our admission. There’s an audio tour you can get so that you can listen to different parts of the story where ever you are in the complex. Many parts of it are narrated by Steve Buscemi. We got our headsets on and started off.
It was really hot that day and stepping into the first spoke of the wagon wheel shaped set of buildings was at first refreshing. Then your eyes become accustomed to the dimness and focus on the corridor for what it is: cell after cell, door after door, a place in history where the worst offenders where kept.
We learned that in its earlier years, it was a model for prisons around the world. It was the Pennsylvania System and was based on the true concept of “penitence”. Inmates were kept completely solitary, not seeing another human being for months or years at a time. Even while being led into their cells, their heads were covered. It was “confinement in solitude with labor” and worked extremely well for years.
I found the extensive corridors mesmerizing.
I had seen one of the ghost shows do a visit of this place, declaring it haunted. This place, on a catwalk across the second level, was the area of the most paranormal activity. I found that out after we went, but recall feeling, as I stood on the catwalk, that I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. I took a few photos and hurried back down.
There are artist installations throughout. One is in homage to the many cats who moved in after the prison was closed in the early 70’s and the man who continued to feed them. There are plaster cats in various poses throughout.
Another artist’s installation had these small models of cell and prison life. I found this one extremely unsettling.
Women were incarcerated in separate wings.
Al Capone spent some time in here. His cell was outfitted in the finest of the time.
Mostly, what struck me, as a photographer, was the age and decay, the texture and ruin, the glimpses of lives lived in this place. Men, women, sleeping, eating, living here in these small rooms, doing penance for their crimes.
The aging provides some beautiful terrible texture to these walls. So pronounced in some places that the layers of paint curled inches away from the surface.
One of my favorite musicians, Sting, used this dimension as a backdrop for an album cover shoot.
Another creepy place in the prison was the hospital, although we could not enter the actual rooms, the implication of disease and death hung heavily in that part of the prison.
This is a scary and fascinating place.
With some unusual and unexpected beauty.
When you are here in Philadelphia, come and check this place out. It’s really worth a few hours of your time to understand the evolution of the prison system in this country and the power of this place.
You can read all about the history and check out the plans for this year’s Halloween.
http://www.easternstate.org/
