Comments

emergence

Rust never Sleeps

I'll never forget locating Eastern for the first time.Driving up to it .Driving around it.
The silent fortress.
Plenty of parking.
I've wanted to go back there.
Nice neighborhood,too.

Good idea including it here at....OPACITY.

Al Capone (January 17,1899 to january 25,1947) obeyed the pater familia to take a hit and lay low by going to prison on an easily accessable weapons charge after the St Valentine's Day massacre although I don't think staying here was a pic nic.
Al died riddled with syphilus in quiet retirement (not prison) in 1947 after turning 48.

Makes me wonder : why did they have a court yard if(at first)nobody was allowed to use it?
Later on they(inmates)were allowed to mingle(at times)and they played ball in the courtyard.But they weren't allowed to have a ball!!So they made their own.When they'd hit homeruns over the wall onto Brown street,neighbors would keep them as souvenirs and threw real balls back over the wall.
well,if they weren't allowed to have balls(shut-up!!),how come the prison erected netting on top of the wall to prevent homers!!!??

no,this wasn't available when I was there.
I did take notes though on what I saw in a little tiny notebook.
I wonder where it is?
Probably in the library along with the other Eastern State stuff.]
I especially liked the courtyard.I liked the vibes coming off of it.

Yeh, that room really went.
You can see what I mean by how thick that plaster is.
Can you imagine plastering the ceiling?A lost artisan's art.

Originally each inmate had their own exercise yard(joined to the back of their cell)and the entrance to their cell was through that yard!!

I think 2nd tiers were added later.

I'll repeat : I don't think anyone was executed here.

During its period of actual abandonment, (oh,say 1960's,1970's/80's)people climbed trees in back of the prison(Brown st.)to get over the wall and climb down trees inside the prison yard to get inside(they must have had a blast)Things were stolen ,such as metal,of course,but they also stole-can you believe it!-the oak doors on individual cells.Now these doors were small,with a high step to make it hard to attack the guards when exiting the cell.
The prison is bounded by 21st st. on the left,22nd st. on the right,Fairmount ave at the front (only)gate,and Brown st. in the back.

Today in the 21st century they call it " The Silent Fortress"

They made the little stickers on your licence plate here,but they didn't make the licence plate here.

more modern wing

How would you like to turn a crank that didn't do anything all day, as some prisoners did.