The Eastern State Penitentiary is one of Philly’s spookiest spots and hosts an annual haunted house attraction during the Halloween season. But how many of us actually know the history of this site?
The penitentiary opened in 1829 and was known for its experimental and controversial system of total isolation of prisoners.
Inmates were required to wear hoods whenever supervisors moved them around the building. To reduce the cost of incarceration, the state had prisoners do work in the cells like shoemaking, weaving, and chair caning.
The only visitors ever allowed were members of the prison society or a local minister employed by the penitentiary known as a “moral instructor.”
Critics at the time claimed that this type of treatment leads to insanity and even death.
One of the most prominent critics was novelist Charles Dickens. Dickens visited the prison in 1842 and argued in his book “American Notes” that while the intentions were human, the system itself was torturous.
There’s so much more history to dive into, but even after learning just a bit one does start to question the ethics of using sites like prisons, hospitals, and asylums as Halloween attractions.
