Willowmist's Visuals > Eastern State Penitentiary (10)
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You should realize that this prison is right, smack-dab in the middle of the city now. When it was built, it was mostly out in the middle of nowhere. That was part of its security system.
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Lovely, imposing front gates. This place was a tourist attraction from the very beginning - even while it housed prisoners.
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This is an alleyway between cellblocks. The cats are not real. They are called ghost cats. An artist’s rendition of a group of stray cats that used to live in Eastern State Penitentiary after it was closed down. A single caretaker was left for upkeep and he continued to feed the kitties. The cat statues were available for sale after the exhibit was over, and I would have loved one, but they ran $250!
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This is Libby, Tom’s friend from the Navy. She is standing in front of Al Capone’s cell at Eastern State Penn. She isn’t tall, the doorway to the cell is tiny.
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This is a hallway in one of the cellblocks. They are specifically not restoring ESP to its former glory as a way of preserving the building’s entire history. Keep in mind that when the penitentiary was built the only door in a cell led to the private exercise yard. The hallway would only have had a slot to slip meals in and out.
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This is a cell as the photographer looked in from the hallway. Imagine that eventually these cells would house two men apiece, although the original concept had one man per cell. That slit in the ceiling gave the only light. Men were transported outside of the cells with a hood over their face so serious was the concept of solitary penitence.
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This is a cell as viewed from the back, looking into the hallway. In reality, that doorway would have only been a slot and the actual door would have been behind the photographer, leading out to a similarly small and narrow, walled exercise yard.
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If I remember correctly, this is the tower where the warden would host his guests. One of the few escapes from ESP occurred because the warden used prisoners as party staff. The escapee was later recaptured for some new crime and returned to ESP.
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One of the watchtowers - lest you should forget that you were a prisoner. There were guards posted at each corner.
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The building was gothically inspired. It looks more like an old castle than a prison, until you get inside. This is the outside wall as you approach the entrance.