If you visit Eastern State this weekend you might notice some changes. Many museums have the luxury of building a visitor’s center from the ground up with spacious areas to house important visitor services like ticketing, restrooms and a gift shop. Here at Eastern State, our visitor center is housed in the penitentiary’s Administration Building. Eastern State’s architect John Haviland said that this building should "strike fear into the hearts of those who thought of committing a crime." While that might have been a valiant goal in 1829 when Eastern State opened, 182 years later we want our guests to feel welcomed, not frightened, when they arrive.
Our ticketing and merchandise operations are currently housed in a small room that once served as the prison’s no contact visitation room. On the weekends, this space often gets overcrowded. We know that a positive arrival experience is critical to creating an enjoyable guest visit. This fall, we will be prototyping three new ticketing/merchandise models for the daytime tour program that will help us determine how to better serve our guests in the future.
If you visit during one of these prototype weekends, please pardon our appearance as we try the new ticketing and merchandise models. And please let us know what you think! Your feedback is very valuable to us.
Brett Bertolino
Director of Operations
