Get your Halloween on lockdown

The tall stone walls loomed over us and as we crossed inside, I think I gripped Tony’s hand just a little bit tighter. It may be “Always Sunny in Philadelphia” but there was heaviness that took over once inside those walls. Darkness? Despair? Paranoia? It’s hard to say. But the sun was shining when we went in…wasn’t it?

My admittedly vivid imagination may have been in overdrive, but there was a definite “shift” in something when we crossed the threshold of this centuries old prison…I’m sorry, penitentiary, called so because it was designed to inspire penitence in the very hearts of it’s inmates. Not simply repentance, but an “action of feeling or showing sorrow and regret for having done wrong” as defined by Webster.

The Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons ascribed to the Quaker belief that all men were inherently good and could achieve redemption through the instruction of moral principles. This apparently applied to women as well, because the penitentiary was not gender specific, though segregated. Horrified by the unsanitary conditions and harsh treatment in the Pennsylvania prison system they raised the call for prison reform in 1787. Although not a Quaker himself, Benjamin Franklin believed in many of the ideas of Quakerism and was also part of the society.

As a call to action, Eastern State Penitentiary opened on October 25, 1829. Maybe that is why Halloween is so significant there! Wait, I’m getting ahead of myself…

After spending a wonderful evening in Philadelphia’s Garden District of Chestnut Hill (which Tony is going to tell you all about next, so stay tuned!) we had a delicious breakfast and set the course on the GPS for what several sources call “one of the most haunted places in America.” With the Big Guy behind the wheel and the sunroof open, I decided to put almighty Google to work to search for tickets. ***TIP – Many attractions allow you to purchase tickets online and sometimes there are coupons and discounts for doing so. In this particular case, we saved a total of $4.00, $2.00 per person, by purchasing ahead. It sometimes streamlines your entry too because you don’t have to stand in the ticket line.

Our admission price included “The Voices of Eastern State” Audio Tour, with the wonderful surprise of it being narrated by the talented Steve Buscemi. It is well written and easy to follow, including dialogue with former inmates and guards. We walked to the well marked spot that began our tour, placed our foamy headphones, counted down and hit play at the same time.

We did just the basic audio tour which included information about the design and development of of the prison, conditions and isolation of the inmates, as well as an up close and personal look of what incarceration would have been like. It wasn’t until later that we realized that there were additional audio spots that we could have included on our tour, including the cell of gangster Al Capone who had a temporary stint here in 1929 after being sentenced to one year after a gun possession charge. I knew this when I arrived, but thought that since it wasn’t “part of the main tour” it must have been closed.

But we make the mistakes and learn from them so you don’t have to!!! DON’T STOP when Buscemi says “The first part of our tour is over. You now have a chance to explore the rest of this fascinating and haunting property on your own.” We had been walking for a while now, were getting hungry for lunch, and saw the different “hand-on” exhibits with their start time signs, and they looked like they were mostly for the kiddos…so we passed. And it doing so, we missed out on some of the things that we wanted to do and see. This was really the only complaint that I have of this fascinating historical attraction, that when we were given our MP3 player, I wish they would have mentioned that even in passing. I suppose Steve told us, but our stomachs were thinking for us.

As for all of the paranormal research and haunted speculation that we were aware of before entering the penitentiary, we looked with our eyes, listened with our ears, and took hundreds of seemingly pointless photographs into empty space and nothingness. All of this produced no visual or audible results. But there were two areas that we visited that were…uncomfortable. There are no other words to really describe it, but we just felt…something. This was on the catwalk above Cellblock 7 and Cellblock 15 – Death Row.

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Was it ghosts? Energy? Evil? The power of suggestion? I don’t know, but since we both felt it, we were pretty confident that it was something. Enough that I was pretty convinced that I didn’t want to take part in the other “attraction” held within these crumbling walls. The already eerie establishment boasts “#1 Haunted Attraction in the US” by Forbes Magazine and as darkness starts to creep across Philadelphia, “Terror Behind the Walls” comes to life.

I would love to give you a full report on this, but HELL no! I am the girl that watches horror movies occasionally…and by watches I mean stares at my lap or peeps from behind a pillow while asking everyone else what is happening! But the reviews on Trip Advisor seem to suggest that I would be terrified and others would frolic in the fear. So here is your assignment! Go visit “Terror Behind the Walls” this Halloween and post all about it in the comments. Were you afraid? Would I be afraid? But if you do, I have a request. Make sure you go early enough to drop by The Speakeasy at Al Capone’s cell because I REALLY want to do that part, along with so many other haunted and ghostly tours that Philly has to offer. But that is a road trip for another day.

There is so much more that I could tell you about our adventure at Eastern State Penitentiary, and we can’t wait to go back to experience more! That is one of the best things about road trips…they are easy to repeat! But the best way to learn all there is to offer is to experience it for yourself. And if you do, remember to comment here and tag us on Facebook and Instagram @norolesjustbiscuits so that we can hear all about it!

~D