When I arrived, I was immediately taken by the commanding position the church held atop a fairly high hill surrounded by grave markers. As I walked up the hill, I wondered how the town's older worshipers might have made it up.

The history of Eastern State Penitentiary is a fascinating story spanning many years. As a model for prisons yet to be built, it would stand as first a shining beacon, and then as a potential embarrassment both admired and reviled.