With Installation of Gargoyles, Philly's Historic Prison Dresses For Halloween
By John McDevitt
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Two giant gargoyles were installed this morning at Eastern State Penitentiary, in Fairmount, signaling to the neighborhood that the haunted attraction, known as "Terror Behind the Walls," is about to begin.
The annual Halloween-season event, the site's biggest fundraiser of the year, opens September 19th.
The main gate of once-abandoned prison slowly opened today as eerie music played from loudspeakers and two cast members of the "Terror Behind the Walls" show -- a zombie-like prison guard and an inmate -- rolled one of two gargoyles out to the street, where workers hoisted the statues into place on top of the penitentiary.
"Terror Behind the Walls" creative director Amy Hollaman says there are six attraction areas inside the cell blocks, with newest being the "machine shop."
"You start walking through the old ruins of Death Row, and then enter in a space that used to be called the box factory," she tells KYW Newsradio. "So it lends itself well to this Machine Shop attraction. The machine shop is designed for true interactive activity, which means right from the get-go your group can be sent into another direction than the group that went before you."
She says visitors can choose to wear a glow-in-the-dark necklace, signaling to the ghouls that you give permission to be separated from your group for a more intense scare.
More information on "Terror Behind the Walls" is at easternstate.org.