Eastern State Penitentiary
National Historic Landmark · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
A castellated stone prison that opened in 1829 on what was then farmland outside Philadelphia, and which invented the idea that a prison should reform rather than simply punish. Its method was total solitude — every prisoner alone in a cell with a skylight and no human contact — and although it failed, roughly three hundred prisons around the world were built on its radial plan. It closed in 1971 and has been stabilised as a ruin rather than restored, so what you walk through are collapsing cellblocks with trees growing out of them.
2027 Fairmount Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19130, United States
Open daily, generally 10 AM to 5 PM with last entry well before closing; the site closes for major holidays. Timed tickets required, booked online, with the audio tour included. The autumn after-dark programme runs on separate dates with separate tickets.
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