History

Eastern State Penitentiary was built in 1829 by John Haviland, who become an architect. He wanted to create an imposing Gothic structure with 30 foot stone walls and a massive central guard tower surrounded by radiating spokes of cells. It's located at Fairmont Avenue between 21st and 22nd streets, like five blocks north from the Philadelphia Museum of Arts. Eastern State's solution believes in solitary confinement inspired fury and insanity rather than peace and "penitence". They were supposed to move the criminals towards an spiritual reflection and change. Instead, it was more of a harsh punishments that leads to death. In 1913, the prison was designed to have 250 inmates but, it was jammed with 1700 prisoners. In 1924, Pep was the first dog that got send to prison by killing the governor's cat. The famous prisoners in the Eastern State Penitentiary are Al Capone and Willie Sutton. Al Capone is a modern life mass murder that was involved in the Valentine's Day Massacre. Willie Sutten is a robber and escapist but inside, he is a nice man. The Eastern State Penitentiary was abandoned and closed in 1971 because they didn't want anyone to know what happened in ESP. In 1988, the Eastern State Penitentiary Task Force completely petitioned Mayor Wilson Goode to halt redevelopment. In 1994, Eastern State reopened to the public for historic tours. Even today, the Eastern State Penitentiary is running as a museum and historic site that remain opens from April through December until the next year. In every October, they offer Terror Behind the Walls haunted house which it is a incredibly popular event. This Penitentiary been filmed by Ghost Hunters, MTV's Fear, Twelve Monkey's, and a music video for their song "Punk Rock Girl". Even though, some people believed that this prison is haunted.

Here's the video to watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwbhsgb13xU&feature=related

Here's the Eastern State Penitentiary website:

http://www.easternstate.org/