Tags: Museum, Philadelphia County, Prison, Ruins

Quite a few pics; worth the loading.

I can’t recommend this place enough. I’m sorry I put off going to it for 3 years. How much does this place rock? You have to sign a waiver to even set foot in it, that’s how much.
Yes, ESP is state run, but that doesn’t affect very much. The tour is a self-guided 45 minute audio tour. Then after that, you’re off on your own. You can go to many places the tour doesn’t cover. You don’t have free reign however; some sections are entirely closed off. That doesn’t really matter, since you can still spend a good part of a day here.
Interestingly, like the Burlington County Prison in Mt. Holly, Eastern State stayed open well after it should have closed….it was open til 1970.

This plaque shows inmates who fought in WWI…credited only by their number.

This cart runs along the ceiling.

One of the last remaining ‘exercise rooms’. Early in the prison’s history, each prisoner had one.

The Philly skyline must’ve really discouraged later inmates.

Parts of a tree trunk that were growing into the fence around the baseball diamond.

Capone’s cell. Capone was here for 8-9 months.

For more info, hours, directions, whatever else, go to Eastern State’s site.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Tags: Castle, Celebrity, Connecticut, Historical, Museum

I honestly didn’t know much about this place before deciding to visit it. I found out it was the home of the guy who played Sherlock Holmes on stage, a fact I admit I didn’t really care about at the time. I just figured it was a cool-looking castle in Connecticut. It’s pretty impressive nevertheless…definitely not a normal house.

I didn’t get many pics of the inside of the castle since we got yelled at twice. First I was told flash was not allowed inside. That’s fine, but you’d figure they’d have a sign stating this. Secondly, once you go upstairs, they don’t let you back downstairs. Once again, a silly rule that isn’t mentioned or written anywhere. If I had known that, I wouldn’t have rushed to the top.

Overall, Gillette Castle is a cool place…quite different from the norm. The people running it, however, need to let visitors know before they go upstairs that they can’t go back down. Yeah, I’m still annoyed about that.

Popularity: 14% [?]

Tags: Historical, Museum, Restored Historical Town, Revolutionary War, Sussex County

History buffs will love this place. Waterloo was a canal town in its heyday. Most of the buildings have been restored, and like many of the other towns in state parks, people reenact the crafts & dress of the time period. The buildings are from the 1700’s & 1800’s; many you can go inside. There’s a blacksmith, sawmill, gristmill, tavern, etc…

Also in the village is a reconstructed Lenape village, which has a tour about every hour. The guides and tour are very informative. I was amazed how many people in my group didn’t know a single thing about the Lenape.

Some Lenape Village pics:

All in all, Waterloo’s a great place to just walk around and relax. It’s very spread out and tranquil.

There’s an admission fee which varies depending on the time of year and any events taking place there.

For more info, go to Waterloo’s site.

Popularity: 19% [?]

Tags: Delaware, Delaware Bay, Historical, Museum, WTF

The Zwaanendael is almost your typical local history museum. Almost.
Like most other local history museums, there are artifacts, clothes, etc. from the time period they’re focusing on. You can also see the door of the Cape Henlopen Lighthouse, which toppled over in 1926.
But I didn’t come to see that.

I went to the Zwaanendael Museum to see just one thing: the merman.

It’s not really a merman (derrr), but rather half fish and half monkey. It’s not very big…a bit over a foot long.

There is no admission charge to visit this museum.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Tags: Burlington County, Historical, Museum, Prison

Most sites won’t cover a place like this, and I feel they’re missing out on quite a bit by not doing so.

This prison was finished in 1811 and used up til 1965. For the most part, it’s in its original condition, with many of the walls still having prisoners’ graffiti on them. It also has the distinction of being the 1st fireproof building in the US. Many hangings occurred here, the last being a double hanging in 1906. 2 guards were also killed here by drunken inmates.

It starts out as most museums do…a room with artifacts set up as they would have been arranged back in the day. Nothing too exciting.

Then on to the good stuff. I think what really made this trip was the writing on the walls. Know how in the old cartoons & movies the prisoners mark off the days on the wall? They really do that.
Take note that most of the writing had plastic over it, so the flash was reflected.

You can go out in the courtyard too. Not much to see except for the high walls and reconstructed gallows.

All in all, not a bad trip. At only $4 it’s not bad if you’re near Mt. Holly and have an hour to spend. My favorite part was reading the writing on the walls. That alone made it a worthwhile place to check out.
For more info about the prison museum, check out this link.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Tags: Abandoned, Castle, Museum, Passaic County

One of my friends has been telling me about Garrett Mountain for years. He had heard ghost stories of a castle that was on the mountain, Lambert Castle. So we decided to go see for ourselves. The castle itself was kind of disappointing (it looks brand new and is a museum now), but the watch tower up the mountain a bit was more to our liking.

The doors leading inside were welded shut, so I could only get pics from outside the bars.

Many of the windows were only half-sealed.

Popularity: 8% [?]