It’s officially wintertime at the Pen.
Everything seemed a bit different when I walked through the massive front gates of Eastern State yesterday morning. The gates were locked, the blocks were quiet, and the brochures were blue. Oh yeah, and there was that heavenly scent of gingerbread wafting through the corridors.
To kick off the new 2010-2011 season of Winter Adventure Tours, ESP hosted a gingerbread throwdown in which two local bakeries competed against one another in creating their own unique interpretations of the site. The rules were simple – make it Eastern State, make it from gingerbread, and make it awesome.
And awesome they were. Chad Durkin, Executive Pastry Chef of Desserts International in Exton, PA, drew from visitors’ photos and a view from Google Earth in order to create a three-dimensional model of the penitentiary complex that could easily replace the one displayed in the Rotunda. His version is nearly as precise, except that it’s made from freshly baked cookies, held together by chocolate, and covered in icing and confectioner’s sugar. Yum.
Diana Anello, of Bredenbeck’s Bakery in Chestnut Hill, took a more whimsical approach. Her “house” contains four cells, complete with institutional green- and white-painted walls, fondant furniture, and candy cane prison bars. They are occupied by disgruntled gingerbread inmates and protected by satisfied gingerbread guards. They even have toilets made of gumdrops!
These creations provide the perfect complement to ESP’s eerily quiet and deserted halls in the colder months. While the weather may be fitting for contemplation of serious issues like corrections and criminal justice, the gingerbread provides a fun and festive way to tie in the holidays and ring in the new season.
The gingerbread penitentiaries are both wildly imaginative and unbelievably well constructed. The skill used to create these masterpieces is beyond any reasonable expectations we could have had in planning the event. The bakers’ interpretations are also very different. Good thing the voting isn’t up to me, because I could never make a decision. That, of course, is your job.
Each visitor to the historic site from now through Sunday will be given the opportunity to vote for his/her favorite, and the winner will be announced on our website on Monday, December 6, 2010.
Happy holidays!
-Nicole Fox
(Photo by Nina Golboro)
P.S. If you are interested in participating in this event next year, please contact Nina Golboro at ng@easternstate.org.
