The small, sunny Solarium above Eastern State Penitentiary’s hospital block tells the story of a prison system struggling to keep a deadly disease under control.
Tuberculosis had plagued prisons for centuries. Known by a variety of names (“consumption,” “scrofula,” “phthisis,” “white plague”) and often misunderstood, the disease spreads easily in the dark, damp, crowded conditions so common to prisons worldwide. The disease could devastate a prison’s population.
At first, things at Eastern State Penitentiary were better than elsewhere. The early system of prisoner isolation—called “The Pennsylvania System”—slowed transmission of many diseases. But tuberculosis still took its toll: the first inmate death at Eastern State Penitentiary was Inmate 19, dead of “consumption” in 1830.
But as Eastern State’s administrators relaxed the Pennsylvania System in the late 1800s, and prisoners increasingly worked, ate and socialized together, the disease that had plagued so many other prisons quickly spread through the cellblocks here.
The disease was devastating. Each year the prison lost inmates to the painful, hacking cough of the disease. In 1887, for instance, 21 out of 27 inmate deaths – or 78% – were attributed to tuberculosis.A 1903 Grand Jury investigation concluded, “It has been discovered that every cell in the institution is infected with the germs of the tubercular disease.” Something had to be done.
Medical doctors at the time did understand one critical way to fight the disease: sunshine and fresh air. Tuberculosis can spread through saliva and dust. Patients in sunny, open rooms are less likely to spread the disease to each other and to their medical staff.
So Eastern State Penitentiary, with its strict discipline and grim, castle-like walls, began to add floor-to-ceiling windows, a “yard for consumptives” and a pavilion. Finally, in 1922, administrators built a “Solarium” above the hospital block. The small, bright building was specifically designed for maximum exposure to sunlight.
A vaccine for tuberculosis was finally available following the Second World War, and prison administrators worldwide could devote resources to fighting other diseases and medical conditions.
Eastern State’s Solarium served several other purposes before the penitentiary closed in 1971, including use as a classroom and as a classification center for new inmates.
Today the Solarium remains sunny and open. The western bank of windows overlooks the penitentiary’s baseball diamond (and audio tour route). Here, high above the prison grounds, the peaceful sense of a sunny retreat remains.
The Solarium was in dire shape. Its severely leaking roof threatened not only the Solarium’s future, but the future of the entire Hospital block below. To lose either of these grand architectural spaces would have been a terrible loss. Together they present the perfect place to host exhibits on medical treatment inside prisons, the evolving technology and standards of treatment, even the return of widespread tuberculosis outbreaks in prisons today.
The Solarium’s new roof was finished in the Summer 2009. This has allowed Eastern State to move forward with restoring the roof over Cellblock 3 (the Hospital Block) below the Solarium. This work should be completed by the Summer 2010.
View the complete list of Solarium funders.
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