Eastern State Penitentiary

Why don’t we fully restore Eastern State Penitentiary? 🏰
The way a building decays over time can reveal just as much about its history as the way it was originally built. That’s why our preservation philosophy focuses on maintaining the site as a “stabilized ruin.” Rather than fully restoring the prison to a single moment in its past, we carefully stabilize it and prevent further deterioration while still preserving the layers of history visible in the building today.

Take a guided virtual tour through the birthplace of solitary confinement and explore the history and lasting legacy of the practice in the full video from our Justice 101 program on the History of Solitary Confinement, available on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/bMwxRbEQQps?si=ZkdEiamXctwlBmfi