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| Where fear has a lock, day and night |
| By washingtonpost.com |
| Published: 10/28/2009 |
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When I walked through the iron gates of Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia one afternoon last week, I regretted not bringing a friend. With its stone walls and guard towers, this former prison looks like a castle. But inside, it's clearly not fit for royalty. Long hallways are lined with cells, each one with peeling paint, a rusted bed frame and a toilet. The temperature outside was above 70 degrees, but inside it was 10 to 15 degrees cooler. I shivered, and not just from the cold. I'd come to Philly to see what AOL City Guide last year called the No. 1 haunted house in America. Each year, from mid-September to early November, this historic landmark in the city's Fairmount neighborhood becomes the site of "Terror Behind the Walls," an elaborate nighttime theatrical production involving strobe lights, digital sound effects and 150 actors dressed as prison guards and prisoners. But I was curious about the prison itself, so I'd added a daytime tour to my itinerary. What I found out? By day, expect to learn something. By night, expect brain candy. "The Halloween event is played entirely for the enjoyment factor," said Sean Kelley, the penitentiary's program director. Read More. |
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