July 28 Arrival and visit to penitentiary

We got to Philadelphia in the early pm. 

We checked in to the Skyview Plaza (see 1st image).  This hotel is on the south edge of the center city and is south of what is usually called south Philly. It is about 5 miles north of the airport and about three miles from the historic area.

After depositing our luggage in the hotel, we drove to the Eastern State Penitentiary. The choice to drive was because it was already a bit late in the day, rain was threatening and there was parking near the Penitentiary.

On the way, we found that many cars in the city were parked in the median of Broad Street (see second image) which is the main north-south artery of the city. This was not so in the historic district but was so for at least a mile between the hotel and the historic district. We later learned this was true of parts of Oregon Street, which is a major east west road just north of the hotel.

Apparently this has been the case for some time and the legal status of it is complex. There was a story in a local network media outlet after we came back to Md. 

Notwithstanding the odd parking, we drove to the Eastern Penitentiary. This was the world's first true Penitentiary, built in a large scale with the idea of inspiring penitence. It opened in 1829. It was also the first large building in the US to have central plumping (the White House did not have central plumping until 1902). 

We brought Wily Coyote (see third image). Wily would have used a giant spring or catapult to escape but actual prisoners used ladders or dug tunnels (not many escaped and the ones that did were usually apprehended fairly quickly.
One of the notable occupants of this penitentiary was Al Capone. His room is shown in the fourth image (the fifth image has Wily looking at the room).

A view of one of the cell blocks is shown in the sixth image. 

We went back to the hotel after visiting the penitentiary because it began to rain hard. In fact, it ended up with about 8" of rain, most of it between 7 pm and midnight (when we were back at the hotel).