On April 10th, Visitors will have access to two places they've never been allowed to see: the guard towers and the underground punishment cells called the hole.
It's all a part of the Tunnels and Towers Weekend.
TowerCam! is a brand-new, interactive exhibit featuring high-definition, remote-controlled cameras, mounted in the penitentiary's actual central guard tower five floors up. The former guards will compare the view from TowerCam! to their memories of looking down from the catwalks as young men.
Included among the men will be Donald Vaughn, who began his long career as a tower officer at Eastern State Penitentiary in the late 1960s. His memories of watching inmate baseball games from Eastern State's towers is featured in the Towercam! exhibit on a looping video monitor.
The Prison Inside a Prison tour takes visitors under Cellblock 14 for a look at the tiny, cramped, windowless cells used to punish inmates. This space has never before been open to the public.
Beginning April 12, TowerCam! will be open every day from 10 am to 5 pm. Prison Inside a Prison tours will be given Monday through Friday at 3:15 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays at 12:15 p.m. and 3:15 p.m.
For more information, visit Eastern State's website.
