In the years following the American Revolution, a young United States aspired to align its public institutions with the values championed by its founders. The early American promise of the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” as laid out in the Declaration of Independence, played a role in shaping systems like education, medicine, and politics in our burgeoning nation. The criminal justice system was no exception.
In 1787, just weeks before 39 delegates began to draft, sign, and enact the new U.S. Constitution, a group of notable Philadelphians including Benjamin Franklin and Dr. Benjamin Rush established the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons. Concerned with the harsh conditions and punitive nature of America’s prison system—and guided by the belief that humans had the ability to change their circumstances—the Society proposed a bold experiment to transform the face of incarceration in America.
In 1821, at the urging of the Society, the Pennsylvania legislature approved funding to build Eastern State Penitentiary, a first-of-its-kind prison designed to encourage regret or “penitence” through a strict system of solitary confinement with labor known as the Pennsylvania System. British architect John Haviland’s design was selected for this revolutionary project. His radial plan—featuring seven cellblocks connected by a central hub like the spokes of a wheel—promoted, in his words, “watching, convenience, economy and ventilation.” The penitentiary’s medieval Gothic façade was meant to intimidate, while its church-like interior was intended to instill reverence.
In 1829, as construction continued, Eastern State admitted its first prisoner, and innovative as it was, this experiment soon faced its share of criticism. After an 1842 visit to Eastern State, Charles Dickens called the penitentiary’s practices “rigid, strict and hopeless solitary confinement” and stated, “I believe it, in its effects, to be cruel and wrong...."
In 1913, Eastern State officially abandoned the Pennsylvania System; however, its practice of strict isolation began eroding decades earlier as prisoners started to share cells, dining spaces, and more due to a rapidly growing population. Although the building was originally designed to incarcerate 250 people, the penitentiary’s population peaked at approximately 1,700 in the mid 1920s. To accommodate, new state prisons were built while construction continued at Eastern State throughout its operational years. In 1929, SCI Graterford, also known as Eastern State’s “farm branch,” added another 3,500 beds to Pennsylvania’s state prison network. At the same time, construction at Eastern State expanded the penitentiary’s footprint from seven to 15 cellblocks by 1956.
In 1970, faced with costly repairs and deteriorating conditions, Pennsylvania ceased the operation of Eastern State Penitentiary. After being used briefly as a city jail in 1971, the building stood empty and at risk of demolition until 1988, when, at the urging of a task force of concerned architects, preservationists, and historians, Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode halted the process of selling the site. With the help of countless partners, the Eastern State Penitentiary Task Force began to pursue their vision to preserve this iconic landmark and stabilize it to make it safe and accessible to the public.
In 1994, Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site welcomed 10,000 visitors for its first year of hard hat tours. In the decades since, hundreds of thousands of visitors from across the country and around the world have had the opportunity to bear witness to and learn from this architectural wonder and the many stories it holds.
Today, Eastern State continues to preserve the historic site—shedding light on its complicated legacy—to advance public understanding of the criminal justice system and its impact on the lives of those affected by it, to inspire a more just future.
Want to learn more?
Eastern State has a small but fascinating collection of historic materials from the penitentiary’s past, including historic documents, artifacts, and written and oral histories. In addition, we maintain a database of outside resources for information relating to the history of Eastern State Penitentiary.
If you would like to request additional resources for academic or personal research (including genealogy requests), donate an item to Eastern State’s collections, or participate in our oral history project (for people formerly incarcerated at or employed by Eastern State Penitentiary), we welcome you to contact us through this form.