{"id":1188,"date":"2016-10-28T06:27:04","date_gmt":"2016-10-28T06:27:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/?p=1188"},"modified":"2016-10-26T15:33:28","modified_gmt":"2016-10-26T15:33:28","slug":"10-28-16-castle-of-horrors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/10-28-16-castle-of-horrors\/","title":{"rendered":"10.28.16 Castle of Horrors"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Deep within the City of Brotherly Love stands a castle of historic horrors.<\/p>\n

If you had lived in Philadelphia in the 1800’s, you would have feared this place.\u00a0As you approached it, its 30-foot-high fieldstone walls would have scared you silly.\u00a0Once you passed through the narrow entrance, the iron gates would have clanged shut behind you, sealing your doom.\u00a0You’d be led past a central tower and down a hallway with an arched ceiling reminiscent of a church.\u00a0On either side you would have seen dark rooms just large enough to hold a prisoner.\u00a0When you arrived at your cell, you would have had to duck your head to fit through the doorway.\u00a0Once inside, you’d notice a skylight, put there to expose you to the judgment of God.\u00a0And God would be just about your only companion for the duration of your sentence.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\"eastern-state\"<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

You are now an inmate of Eastern State Penitentiary, the world’s first modern prison.\u00a0Built in 1829, “the castle” was one of the largest and most expensive public buildings in the country.\u00a0It was designed around the revolutionary theory that prisoners were more likely to atone if they were kept in solitary confinement than if\u00a0 they were kept in groups.\u00a0The prison was laid out like spokes in a wheel, with a central guard tower looking out over 7 radiating cell blocks.\u00a0Each prisoner was assigned to a tiny cell, with a small high-walled “back yard.”\u00a0Access to the yards was very limited and synchronized so that only one prisoner could be outside at a time.\u00a0On the rare occasion a prisoner left his cell – to see the warden, or visit the doctor – he would be hooded the entire time to prevent him from seeing any other humans.<\/p>\n

Eastern State was the model for most of the prisons in this country and for over 300 prisons worldwide. But it never fulfilled its promise of prisoner rehabilitation.\u00a0Solitary confinement was intended to cause reflection, but in practice it often drove prisoners mad.\u00a0Hundreds of prisoners perished here, unrepentant.\u00a0And over the years, things just kept getting worse.\u00a0First it became horribly overcrowded.\u00a0A second story was added to many of the blocks, depriving many prisoners of skylights and yards.\u00a0Then the prisoners started getting violent.\u00a0The guards responded by torturing them, strapping them to chairs for days, or throwing them into an unlit cellar known simply as “the Hole.”\u00a0By 1913, much of the prison was repurposed for group housing, and the prisoners started conspiring.\u00a0There was a mass breakout in 1945; a sweep of the prison found 30 unfinished tunnels.\u00a0Security was tightened even further, and the inmates became more violent.\u00a0By 1971, Eastern State – run-down, filthy and dangerous – was finally closed.<\/p>\n

For the next twenty years it stood idle, crumbling to ruin.\u00a0Its roof collapsed, and a forest slowly grew within its walls.\u00a0The only inhabitants were hundreds of stray cats. It was on the verge of collapse when a group of folks started renovating it. In 1991, they began offering tours of a small portion of it.\u00a0In 1995, a larger part of the building was re-opened as a Halloween attraction, “Terror Behind the Walls.” It was scary successful.\u00a0Since then, thousands of visitors have dared to face the horrors of the haunted castle.\u00a0The building has been featured on “Ghost Hunters,” “Ghost Adventures” and “America’s Scariest Places” as one of the most haunted places in America.<\/p>\n

This year the prison is offering six different creepy experiences, including “Machine Shop,” “Quarantine (4D),” “Break Out!,” “Detritus,” “Infirmary,” and – new for 2016 – “Lock Down\/The Uprising.” Oooooo.<\/p>\n

Prices range from $19 to $45 and the shivers last until November 5.<\/p>\n

Go ahead, I double-demon-dare-ya.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deep within the City of Brotherly Love stands a castle of historic horrors. If you had lived in Philadelphia in the 1800’s, you would have feared this place.\u00a0As you approached it, its 30-foot-high fieldstone walls would have scared you silly.\u00a0Once you passed through the narrow entrance, the iron gates would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1506],"tags":[1589,534,944,1590],"class_list":["post-1188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1506","tag-eastern-state-penitentiary","tag-halloween","tag-philadelphia","tag-prison"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1188"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1193,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1188\/revisions\/1193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}