A pre-Halloween visit to Eastern State Penitentiary’s Terror Behind the Walls, the annual haunted attraction replete with zombie performers and fog machines galore, is practically a rite of passage for Penn students. At least once during an undergraduate career, nearly every Philadelphia college kid will make his or her way to the historic prison for some October frights. Few, however, ever visit the landmark site in daylight hours, or are at all versed in its rich history. From December through late March, Eastern State hosts a Winter Adventure Tour, helming four excursions every weekday, with hourly departures on the weekends.
Unlike the Terror Behind the Walls production, this foray into the Penitentiary isn’t intended to scare, but to inform … though the bare, peeling walls and rusting fixtures might inspire a chill, only amplified by the frosty temperatures. Tour attendees will get a crash course in correctional facility history, delivered by a cheery, engaging guide who might as well have a PhD in criminology. Architecture buffs will appreciate the site for its status as a marvel of modern prison design; at the time it was built, the ESP was the largest edifice in the nation. Quick to adopt retrospectively modern technologies, the prison installed flushing toilets in the late 19th century (even before the White House did!). Your impressively knowledgeable cicerone will dismantle all the myths you’ve heard — about the institution's religious leanings and the brutality of the inmates’ experiences — with a detailed narrative of the prison’s centuries-long saga. Particularly of interest will be accounts of jailbird misbehavior; if you’re lucky you’ll hear stories of over-the-wall drug deals shadier than your frat brother’s purchases from West Philly coke peddlers.
By the end of the tour, you’ll have probed some weighty ontological questions as to the ethics of crime and punishment, the politics of historical preservation and the ability of architecture to transmit social values. And you might just have a little fun in the process.
