Episode 9 covers the part of Eastern State Penitentiary’s story that most haunted clips skip: what happened after the prison closed.

We follow Eastern State from its 1971 shutdown into the long period of abandonment, when weather, time, and neglect transformed an infamous institution into a threatened landmark. We explain why abandonment matters historically (not just aesthetically), how redevelopment ideas and demolition risk grew during those years, and what changed in 1988 when preservation advocates pushed Philadelphia’s leadership to halt the selling process and pivot toward saving the site. Finally, we trace the turning point in 1994 when daily “hard hat tours” began, bringing the public back inside the walls and setting the stage for Eastern State’s modern identity as a stabilized ruin with an educational mission.

This episode is about memory, ethics, and preservation: what it means to keep a prison standing, how you tell the truth without sanitizing it, and why a ruin can function as evidence.

Sources and links are in the show notes. Come back next week for the next episode.

#AncientSecretsandHauntedJourneys #ASHJ #ASHJPodcast

IN THIS EPISODE

• 1965: National Historic Landmark designation (context for later debates)

• Years of abandonment and decay after closure

• 1988: preservation pivot (task force advocacy; halt to sale process)

• 1994: daily “hard hat tours” begin

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Preserving a prison is an ethical decision, not just a tourist one.

• A stabilized ruin keeps the scars visible, which keeps history honest.

• Public memory of incarceration shifts when the public can finally enter the walls.

Sources & Links (Episode 9):

https://easternstate.org/about/history-of-eastern-state-penitentiary

https://web.sas.upenn.edu/philamonuments/memory-sites/eastern-state-penitentiarys-uneasy-transformation-from-prison-to-museum/

https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/eastern-state-penitentiary/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_State_Penitentiary

Check out my Linktree here https://linktr.ee/ashjpodcast