This is a fun read:
https://www.tripsavvy.com/spookiest-road......-5078736

What is your favorite spooky road trip?

The creepiest place I've been is Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. Opened in 1829. The penitentiary was eventually shut down in 1971 because it was too costly to maintain the old stone buildings. The penitentiary is now owned by a not-for-profit and the crumbling cell blocks open to the public as a historic sight.
https://www.easternstate.org/

My family and I went there too, along with a couple of other vacant prisons, but Eastern State is definitely the creepiest.

Funny.
We went to Eastern State for their Halloween Haunted House walk through and got their early. Took the daytime (self guided) tour. It was MUCH scarier then the haunt.
At one point we heard ghostly voices and my wife and I freaked out a bit only to find that about 100 yards away from us was a display called something like "Voices of the Past" with men talking about their experiences in the Prison. Talk about sighs of relief!
Would love to take a night tour of the place!

Back in the day when prison was punishment and not paid vacation. Prisoners had few rights in those days and many prisons were super harsh.

Eastern State Penitentiary (ESP) has an interesting history. It was formed by the Quakers under the belief that if you isolated each prisoner, providing them with separate cells and exercise areas and only a bible to read, that they will find salvation and redeem themselves. This practice only lasted a short while, as the cost of maintaining one prisoner per cell was high, and upon release from prison it was found that most returned to their criminal ways. The isolation during this period was pretty extreme, but I don't recall all the details.

I just ordered this book .. Might be a good road trip. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/146714......F8&psc=1

PennHurst Asylum is number two on my list. Build in 1903 and closed in 1987 after 79 years of controversy of being understaffed, dirty and violent. We did the midnight tour through one of the remaining buildings in October many years ago. Self guided with only a hand flash light it was a truly creepy experience.

Pennhurst was good, but nothing has ever given me the oppressive, depressed feeling of Eastern State. They designed it to do its job too well!

You want depressing, you should have seen Greystone Psychiatric Hospital in Parsippany NJ just about 5 minutes from my house. Originally known as the Lunatic Asylum at Morristown when it was built in 1879, the main building had the largest continuously poured foundation of any building in the world until the Pentagon was built. The place was huge and super creepy. About 20 years ago, they started closing it down and building a new hospital on a different spot on the property. Eventually it was completely abandoned and slated for demolition. When you'd go by at night, it was completely dark except for one hallway on the second floor that they kept lit for some inexplicable reason. That was super eerie and I would get a very uneasy feeling just driving by. Ghost Hunters filmed an episode there, and I always thought it would make a great Halloween attraction like Eastern State.
Anyway, today the old campus is a county park with sports fields and playgrounds and a dog park. Pretty much nothing remains from its previous life. Interestingly enough, the new hospital has many of the same problems the old one did in terms of staff abusing patients, patients occasionally escaping, crowded conditions etc. Some things don't change I guess.....

Greystone Psychiatric Hospital

In the early 70s, I use to go to Greystone Psychiatric Hospital once a month to show the more lucid patients how to do simple magic tricks. It was my contribution to its occupational therapy program.

After about six months, they asked me to speak to a number of doctors. We sat in a room, and they questioned me about how they didn't think it was helpful to be "training" the patients using fantasy, illusion and deception (I kid you not).

I told them until these people learn to think in the abstract, no matter how well you program them to go about the motions of a "healthy" person, if they can't touch the creative side of their life, then you have nothing but "cured" robots.

I walked out, never to return.

Good for you Al!!!!!!!

Just as a coda on my short story.

Visiting hospitals and such was an outreach by Ring 200 of the IBM, in North Brunswick, New Jersey.

It just so happens, David Copperfield was a junior member of that ring (I use to drive him home after our monthly meetings).

That's where Copperfield got the idea for his "Project Magic" outreach to hospitals around the country, but the idea didn't start with him.

My bottom line, since he eventually had such a public presence, and was able to kick-start such a program, I wished him no ill feelings. I'm glad he was able to broaden what Ring 200 started.

I bet you have some fantastic Copperfield stories!!!!!