What Is the Eastern State Penitentiary?
The Eastern State Penitentiary was a unique prison built in the eighteenth century in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was constructed using a revolutionary design by John Haviland that featured cell blocks radiating out from a central rotunda like spokes on a wheel; an arrangement that was copied by hundreds of prisons. When it opened for business in 1829, it was the largest and most expensive building in America. The creation of the Eastern State Penitentiary was a result of decades of campaigning by a prison reform group known as the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons. This organization was formed in 1787 by Dr. Benjamin Rush, a prominent physician who offered free medical treatment to the poor. Jails at that time were brutal places where prisoners were stripped, beaten, extorted for every humane service, and allowed to starve to death if they had no means to pay for food. Appalled by this corruption and brutality, society members, including such people
