Narrated by Steve Buscemi and featuring the voices of people who lived and worked at Eastern State Penitentiary, the audio tour takes you on a journey through the history and legacy of ESP.

Every visit to Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site is unique! ESPHS offers a variety of tours, exhibits, programs, and other dynamic ways to engage with this iconic site’s powerful history, …

Thousands of visitors tour Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site every week without incident. That said, Eastern State Penitentiary was abandoned for more than 20 years and remains in a …

Plans are finalized to prohibit all contact between people incarcerated at Eastern State, the world's most ambitious penitentiary, now nearly ready to receive its first prisoners. Masks are …

Frequently Asked Questions Find answers to the most frequently asked questions about Halloween Nights at Eastern State Penitentiary Learn More

In 1829, Eastern State opened, becoming America’s first penitentiary. From then until 1971, Eastern State Penitentiary saw more than 85,000 people pass through its front gate before it …

This program explores how postwar reforms, shifting labor systems, and emerging state and local policies influenced patterns of incarceration and social order in the late nineteenth and early …

Built to the scale of Eastern State’s walls, this massive, three-dimensional bar graph sculpture illustrates the unprecedented growth in the United States’ incarceration rates since 1900. It …

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Give the gift of membership to Eastern State Penitentiary! Members receive exciting and exclusive benefits, like free daytime admission, invitations to exclusive events, discounts to …