This was the world's first true penitentiary, a prison designed to inspire penitence- or true regret - in the hearts of criminals. The original seven cellblocks spread like the spokes of a wheel, and had water and central heat before the White House.
It's vaulted, sky-lit cells held many of America's most notorious criminals, including bank robber "Slick Willie" Sutton and "Scarface" Al Capone.
The prison stands today in ruin, a haunting world of crumbling cellblocks and a surprising, eerie beauty.
(I took all of that off of a sign at the penitentiary.)
Friday night we went to the Eastern State Penitentiary for their "Terror Behind the Walls" event. "A Massive Haunted House in a Real Prison." It cost $30 to go inside but it was definitely worth it. The prison reminded me a lot of Alcatraz. It is open purely for tourists to walk through and it housed prisoners like Al Capone. But at Halloween times, it is haunted and amazing! If you look at the aerial view of the penitentiary, from the center you can see down every single row of cells. Very well designed I thought.
Before we even entered the penitentiary we were swarmed with creepy characters. They were seriously awesome. Their costumes and makeup were the best I have seen at a haunted house. And how many haunted houses have characters roaming the whole block?! They had so many characters entertaining us while walking to the penitentiary, purchasing our tickets and signing our waivers to go inside :0).
They have TV's all along the walkway into the penitentiary. So for as long as we were in line we were able to watch Ghost Adventures and Ghost Hunters both taking place at the penitentiary. Luckily for us, the line wasn't too long at all.
This is the creepy old man that showed us into the actual 'Terror Behind the Walls'.
A few things I don't want to forget about this haunted house. It was divided up into different sections so it went on forever, when we thought it was over - it wasn't. At first we started out in the courtyard. My favorite part of that was a HUGE mechanical dog that they had with a night watch person. It sat there growling and then when we walked past it got up and lept and you. And it was seriously HUGE! They had people around every corner. We walked through an old abandoned and totally creepy school bus. Then we went inside.
We went through the control tower, the infirmary (the doctor's office and the dentists office) and one of my favorite parts - we walked down a hallway of jail cells. There were prisoners that would reach at us and clank their handcuffs and some were actually like ghosts, able to move through the jail cell walls. CREEPY :0) It was awesome. We walked up the creepy stairs overlooking all the jail cells and then back down.
We went into a 3D section where they gave us 3D glasses and it was beyond amazing. People can blend in very well in the 3D section. They just wear black and paint their clothes like the walls. SO AWESOME!
Then we went into an area that was pitch black. They gave us little flash lights that didn't put off much light. But the only way we could see anything was with these flashlights. LOVED IT!!! It was doubly awesome as well. I turned my camera to video and just carried it in my hand so I didn't necessarily get very much but the pitch blackness. However, I just watched it and there is a portion near the end of the video where a wall almost falls on me. And instead of helping me - Kj just runs back - leaving me for dead :0/ Again, you can't see it - but you can hear us ;0)
The end was one of my favorite scenes ever. They had a couple different men in a room and one of them was telling us that this is what happens to bad prisoners. He pushed a button, and we saw someone get electrocuted. The person was tied to a wall so he wasn't standing on the ground but his body was upright. He was majorly electrocuted - limbs (arms, legs, head) flailing and everything. The lights were flickering and after the electrocution the body lept off the wall and came right at as. :0) SO FUN!!!! It was awesome! I hope I don't forget all the little scenes in between that made it so much fun. It really was a blast!
After the major terror portion we got to go down one of the hallways and look at the prisoner's cells and see what the penitentiary is like 'unspooked.' It was really awesome, and again reminded me tons of Alcatraz. Before we left they had one more scary scene for us to walk through in the courtyard. It involved us exiting and prisoners trying to escape with us. :0) We made it out - alive! And the prisoners fortunately enough were caught and remain at the penitentiary.
This video isn't one I took. It's just one I found on YouTube but I wanted to save it because when I watched it I remembered walking through the scenes that they show and I don't want to forget them :0)
