This weekend, Kevin and I FINALLY made it to the Eastern State Penitentiary! I wanted to go SOOOO bad. I'm actually not sure what made me want to go so bad, but perhaps it was because I have heard so much about it here! For those of you wondering why anyone would want to visit a penitentiary...this is not what you think. It hasn't been in use since the 70's. It's more like a ruin, than an actual penitentiary.
Here are some fun things I learned about the Eastern State Penitentiary.
* It was the world's first true penitentiary, a prison designed to inspire penitence-or true regret-in the heart of criminals.
* Before they built it, Philadelphia had a competition on its architecture...John Haviland won.
* When the Penitentiary was first in use, inmates were able to go out, but had to have hoods over their head so no one would know who they were. The goal was to make it so once they were free, they would be able to go out and have a clean slate. No one would have known they had been to jail.
* Inmates were to be in complete solitude. This meant that they stayed in their cell, read the bible, learned new skills (shoe making, carpentry,etc.)and occasionally went out in a mini back yard for air. This changed however, once the peniteniary became over crowded.
* The cells were made of concrete with a single glass skylight, representing the "Eye of God", hinting the prisoners that God was always watching them.
* Notable visitors included Charles Dickens and Alexis de Tocqueville while notable inmates included Willie Sutton and Al Capone.
As you can see...it was quite a learning experience! I could go on and on...but you would probably rather look at pictures!
A tunnel one of the inmates made to escape!
Al Capone's cell. Nice huh?
Kevin and I had so much fun! It was nice to get out and do something together. On the way home...we decided to take a picture of our church for the blog. Why?
Because it is gated. When we first saw it, it intimidated us! Today, I was looking around the chapel before sacrament started and I thought...this is really starting to feel like home. It's nice to look around and know some faces now. We love our ward and are grateful for the many examples we have there!
Next...I'll have to post Kevin and I running up the Rocky Steps!
4 comments:
That is interesting, and so cool! Much different than the penitentiaries today. And how does the gated chapel work there? Is it unlocked during church hours, we have heard rumors of putting one around our building, but we think it would become more of a target.
PS Our new plants & trees were stolen from our grounds! We have some crazy's around our church.
Wow that is so neat. I would love to see that! Ya know, I will never forget when Debbie in our music class called you Aubrey Hepford!ha
That was a really cool post. What an interesting place.
Wow! I learned a lot from just reading your blog, it saved me a trip up there! I am glad that you have fun.
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