Opened in 1829 to John Haviland's radical hub-and-spoke plan, Eastern State Penitentiary was the world's first true penitentiary and the most expensive public building in the young United States. Its Pennsylvania system of separate confinement — each prisoner alone in a vaulted cell with running water, a skylight and a private exercise yard — was copied by more than 300 prisons worldwide before it was abandoned as inhumane. The prison closed in 1971 and reopened to visitors in 1994 as a stabilised ruin: peeling cellblocks, a restored Al Capone's cell, the country's first prison synagogue, and the central rotunda's guard's-eye view down all seven original corridors. An audio tour narrated by Steve Buscemi, guide-led tours and fourteen contemporary art installations connect that history to mass incarceration today.
2027 Fairmount Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19130, United States
Nearest station: Fairmount (Broad Street Line / Metro B), Fairmount Ave & 22nd St (bus 7, 48), Girard (Broad Street Line)
Show on map| Mon | 10:00–17:00 |
| Tue | 10:00–17:00 |
| Wed | 10:00–17:00 |
| ThuToday | 10:00–17:00 |
| Fri | 10:00–17:00 |
| Sat | 10:00–17:00 |
| Sun | 10:00–17:00 |
From $21
Online: adults $21, seniors $19, students & youth 7-17 $17. At the door $2 more. Philadelphia high-school students free with ID; $2 off adults with SEPTA Key. Not recommended for children under 7. Halloween Nights is a separate ticketed evening event.