Eastern State Penitentiary
Conceived in the early 19th Century by Philadelphia’s Founding Fathers as a humane revolution in the incarceration of criminals, prisoner isolation within individual cells would provide safety and silence on the path to rehabilitation. The architecture supported this vision through access to daylight and exercise, and set a precedent for prisons around the world. Shuttered in 1971, this sprawling, protected historic site lives on as a stabilized ruin.
When our tour program began in 1994, the buildings were in a terrible state of deterioration, so much so that we've called the penitentiary a semi-ruin. People always ask if we plan to restore the whole prison. We do not. For one thing, it would cost way too much. More importantly, we and our visitors like the decay. Instead, our goal is a stabilized ruin: to stop the deterioration and to make the tour route safe for our visitors.
- Sally Elk, Executive Director of Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site
