Students at East recently visited the Eastern State Penitentiary on a photography field trip, where they were tasked with photographing significant sites and capturing the aesthetic of medieval Gothic architecture. The halls were cold and damp, the cells were rusted and bedframes flipped, and the furniture was in ruins. Many students including myself could not shake an eerie feeling as we walked through the cold, damp corridors. 

Built in 1829 on Fairmount Ave in Philadelphia, Eastern State Penitentiary was designed with a unique vision. Igat focused on instilling regret into those who were convicted through isolation rather than the public punishments practiced by other jails. Other jails at the time were overcrowded and inhumane, so Eastern State wanted to create something new that took prisoners off the public eye and into a confined and isolated system, under the idea that isolation would lead to positive changes. Among the most notable prisoners include Al Capone, a dog, and children as young as 11 years old.  

The rules in the prison were strict. Prisoners were required to wear hoods anytime they were out of their cells to contribute to the feeling of isolation. The hoods completely covered their faces and only had holes for vision. The prison had many critics of its inhumane treatment, one notably being Charles Dickens. In his account, Dickens stated, “I hold this slow and daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain to be immeasurably worse than any torture of the body… a secret punishment in which slumbering humanity is not roused up to stay.” This method of solitary confinement eventually gave way. 

The prison was abandoned in 1970, 141 years after admitting its first ever prisoner. But for years, visitors and paranormal investigators have claimed that something still lingers within the halls of the prison. A man named Gary Johnson recalled a time in 1990 when he was removing locks during the restoration process. Many different websites recount what his exact experience was, but some sources claimed that he saw paranormal entities, while others claimed they grabbed him and would not let go. According to Orya Pollard (‘26), an East student, “There were definitely moments where the atmosphere felt heavy… I didn’t see or hear anything that I could confidently call paranormal, but the feeling of being on edge stuck with me.” I also felt an eerie feeling during my visit, with chills running down my spine when I would look inside the dark, abandoned, and ransacked rooms of the cells stuck in time. 

While the stories and speculations of hauntings are fascinating, it is important to remember that the thousands of inmates that resided here hold the stories of the horrors that occurred in the prison. Whether the eerie feeling is actually due to spirits or simply the weight of the prison’s tragic history is up to interpretation. The prison can be visited from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Wednesday to Sunday and is closed on Monday and Tuesday.