The Eastern State Penitentiary (ESP[4]) is a former American prison in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is located on 2027 Fairmount Avenue between Corinthian Avenue and North 22nd Street in the Fairmount section of Philadelphia and was operational from 1829 until 1971. The penitentiary refined the revolutionary system of separate incarceration first pioneered at the Walnut Street Jail which emphasized principles of reform rather than punishment.[5] Notorious criminals such as bank robber Willie Sutton and Al Capone were held inside its unique wagon wheel design. When the building was erected it was the largest and most expensive public structure ever constructed, quickly becoming a model for more than 300 prisons worldwide.
The prison is currently a U.S. National Historic Landmark,[3] which is open to the public as a museum for tours seven days a week, twelve months a year 10 am to 5 pm.

History and other information this location.

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It opened in December of 1881 and closed its doors in 1889. During its short business life, the Bird Cage was the wildest place in the west! The Bird Cage is named after its thirteen little cribs that hang from the ceiling where ladies of the night plied their trades. Twenty dollars a night, would buy a gentlemen a bottle of whiskey and a lady for the night. Different from the way Hollywood has portrayed it, no respectable lady would have ever entered the Bird Cage. The longest single poker game in history was played in the basement gaming area. Eight years and four months of one continuous poker game!
The theater is very interesting because of its antiquities.It adds to the possibility of a residual haunting.

Most of the open spaces that used to contain tables for its patrons is now replaced by historical objects, much like a mini museum. we also noticed that the piano near the stage is the original one that was placed there over a century ago.This is a picture of the famous Bird Cage Theater (lower left), as it looked after it closed in 1889. The Bird Cage was literally boarded up for about fifty years, before it was reopened as a tourist attraction. Besides remodeling the outside to prevent it from being destroyed by weather, the Bird Cage is an original Tombstone building. Most of Tombstones original buildings were completely destroyed by one of two fires that took place during the 1880’s.

In the 1880s it was not only a theater, but also served as a saloon, gambling hall and brothel. It was open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – even on holidays. The New York Times called it, “the wildest, roughest, wickedest honky tonk between Basin Street and the Barbary Coast.” That statement was well deserved, since the Bird Cage was the scene for twenty-six deaths during its eight years of business.

Doc Holliday dealt Faro from time to time at the Bird Cage Theatre. One night Johnny Ringo, who hated Holiday with a passion, was passing Doc’s table. When Doc slurred, “Care to buck the tiger, Johnny? It’s the gustiest game in town.” Ringo wheeled around, removing his bandana and yelled back, “care to grab to the other end of this bandanna, this is the deadliest game in town?”

Doc stood and said with a smile, “Sure Johnny, I’m your huckleberry and this may be my lucky day.” When two men grab opposite ends of a bandanna, they fire at each other, at point blank range. Normally this would kill both men, however Ringo was drunk and slow on the draw. At the last second Curly Bill grabbed at Ringo’s gun and yelled, “Hell Doc he’s drunk!” as both men fired and missed. Holiday, who was also in a drunken stupor answered, “Bronchos, I drink more by 10:00 AM, than he can all day.” Holiday then walked off. This event is known as the handkerchief dual and it took place in the Bird Cage Theatre, between the Faro Table and the Orchestra Pit. The ladies of the night or soiled doves, worked the customers of the Bird Cage 24 hours a day. The ladies plied their trade in cribs suspended from the ceiling in the building. There are 14 cribs which line the side of the gambling hall in the Bird Cage, 7 on each side of the room. The ladies would close the drapes to entertain their clients with champagne, kisses and other favors of the trade.

Today the floor of the Bird Cage has been converted into a museum, but the theater’s namesake – the famous “bird cages” where ladies of the night sold pleasures to cowboys and miners – are still intact. You can see their red curtains in this photo. The old song, “She’s only a bird in a gilded cage” by Arthur J. Lamb was written for the “tainted angels” of the Bird Cage Theater. Today, though, a visitor can walk through the museum-floor and soak in the history of this wonderful old place. Historic figures such as Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Bat Masterson once walked on these very floorboards.

Reported Phenomena

The sounds of laughing, yelling, and music have been reported to pour out of the theater at night. Visitors during the day have smelled fresh scents of cigar smoke and the sharp odor of whiskey, even though neither are allowed there now, nor have been for many years past. Testimonies by tourists and Bird Cage employees recount sightings of people wearing period clothing from the 1800s, and in particular, a man in black wearing a visor walking has been witnessed walking across the stage. Some of the sounds seem to come from the balconies above the main floor.

The Investigation

We began our investigation in the main room, where the patrons of the theater would watch the nightly shows. Due to the Memorial day weekend, we were unable to obtain better access to do a full investigation. So we decided to pay for admission tickets and do a general sweep of the areas open to the public.

We received suspect readings with our EMF detectors almost immediately after turning them on. The readings varied between 6.2 to 8.6 milligauss. The next logical thing to do was to access if the fields that we were detecting were man made or were they emanating from some of the old antiques that were on display. It was difficult to determine if the fields were man made due to the lack of information concerning the location of the power lines in the building. However we were able to determine that they were static in nature and not moving.

Once again we had a mirror/reflection problem when it came to photography. The flash on the camera can create a false target on film if the light from the flash is reflected back onto the camera’s lens. We compensated as best as possible but we were unable to solve this problem completely. It is definitely something that needs to be taken into consideration on a follow up investigation. we were also unable to do any “IR” work due to the nature and conditions of our visit.

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Jean Baptiste LeComte II received Spanish and French lad grants in the mid-1700s. Buildings began to erect in the 1800s. However it wasn’t until 1830 Magnolia Plantation saw it’s first residents. Jean’s son Ambroise and his wife Julia Buard and began turning the property in to large-scale cotton production. Using slave labor, they converted 2,000 acres wooded area in to huge cotton crops. Their profits allowed them to expand to three plantations using Magnolia as their home base. Most of Magnolia’s structures which include a blacksmith shop, a plantation store, a former slave hospital, eight brick cabins and a gin barn date between 1835 to 1850. The slave hospital housed the owners when the main house was burned by retreating Union soldiers during the Civil War in 1897. The house that stands today is a recreation of the original.

Magnolia remained a source for cotton for over a century. It was considered exceptional because of the farming technology, such as the cotton picker tractors and two cotton gins (both steam- and animal-powered) and a rare 11 by 30-foot wooden screw cotton press. Ambroise and Julia’s daughter Ursula and her husband Matthew took over the plantation shortly after their marriage in 1852.

The plantation was the center of a community of Creoles of color and blacks who lived and worked on the plantation as tenant farmers and laborers. However, treatment of the slave laborers was not always good. The basement was used for curing meat. In the 19th Century, a slave overseer brought slaves there to punish and torture them. Some rebelled, killing and curing him. No one knows if he was ever served to his compatriots. Leg stocks still stand on the property as a reminder of the humiliations, starvations and public punishments. Escaped slaves were allegedly hunted down. The eight brick cabins were a rare masonry slave village. Two slave families lived in each building, sometimes up to 10 people in each unit. During the Civil War, the slave quarters were used to house Confederate prisoners, up to twenty-five in each. Some soldiers died from suffocation.

Many ghosts are said to plague the property. Neighbors say they still hear the murdered overseer’s screams and feel his icy presence. Enslaved blacksmiths would incorporate hidden voodoo symbols on Christian crosses used as LeComte grave markers. The slaves often casted evil wishes on their oppressive masters using voodoo. In the main house, there is a room dubbed “The Dying Room”. It is said that many of Magnolia’s residents went to this room to die. This room also housed a Union Major who was slowly poisoned and driven to madness by his Confederate prisoners. Eyewitnesses have reported seeing a man’s distorted face appear in the window and during full moons, the kitchen door opens and misty things crawls around on their hands and knees.

Confederate soldiers who died in the slave cabins are said to be buried in shallow graves surrounding them though no one has ever did a thorough search. It is believed they whisper the names of the living. Sometimes even attempts to possess them in order to get the revenge they seek. Other ghostly apparitions and disembodied voices are often seen and heard on the property. Motion detectors are often triggered without a known reason.

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La Purisima Mission State Park

Founded in 1787, the La Purisima Mission land holdings once covered nearly 470 square miles. Bordered by the Santa Maria River in the North and the Gaviota coastline in the South, the land was home to the Chumash people and Spanish settlers. The mission was best known for its hides and blankets, and at its peak inhabitants herded as many as 24,000 cattle and sheep.

Today, history lives at La Purisima. The most extensively restored mission in the state, La Purisima hosts over 200,000 visitors each year for recreation and a chance to explore California’s heritage.

We are open nearly every day for self-guided tours, and frequently the park provides a re-creation of life here during the 1820’s, when the residents engaged in weaving, pottery making, candle making, blacksmithing, livestock production, and leatherwork.

In addition to the restored original buildings, the nearly 2,000 acre park is home to 25 miles of hiking trails, a modern Visitor Center and Exhibit Hall, and livestock.

This website is presented by Prelado de los Tesoros de la Purisima. Our name, loosely translated, means “Keepers of the Treasures of La Purisima.”

Prelado is a non-profit, volunteer organization that assists the staff at La Purisima Mission State Historic Park preserve history and provide quality educational programs for park visitors.

Mision La Purisima Concepcion de Maria Santisima was founded on December 8, 1787 by Franciscan Padre Presidente Fermin Francisco Lasuen. La Purisima was the eleventh mission of the twenty-one Spanish Missions established in what later became the state of California.

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Most Haunted Places in America: Castillo de San Marcos

As the Nation’s oldest city the town of St. Augustine in Florida was secured as a fort by the Spanish empire between the years of 1672 and 1695 after being destroyed by Sir Frances Drake in 1586 and English Pirate Robert Searles in 1668. Built from a type of shell stone called coquina it made the fort practically untouchable. It was around 1672 when the fort was built once again, again with the coquina and this time named Castillo.

It took 23 years to build Castillo and the coquina was brought from Cuba to construct this massive fort. During the hundred years before Castillo the town of St. Augustine was defended by nine wooden forts. While the British was in control it was known as Fort St. Mark between 1763 and 1784 and then as Fort Marion between 1821 and 1942.

One of the most famous legends of the Castillo de San Marcos is that of Colonel Garcia Martis, what happened to his wife Dolores, and his chief officer Captain Manuel Abela. It is said that Captain Abela and Dolores were involved in a torrid love affair in which the Colonel caught them by smelling his wife’s perfume on the captain. Both, the Captain and Dolores suddenly disappeared although the Colonel could give excuses as to where they went, Dolores supposedly went home to Mexico and the Captain was supposedly reassigned back in Spain.

Years later in a hidden room in the dungeon ashes and bones were discovered, they are believed to be the ashes and bones of Captain Abela and his lover Dolores. When people have toured this room, they have felt sudden cold spots and have smelt the sweet perfume that was Dolores’ own special scent, the scent that caused her to lose her life and the life of her lover.

There is also said that if you place your ear up again the wall of the fort that you can hear screams and fighting as if you are listening to the war and death that occurred at that place. The watch tower light is almost always being lit as sunset, or as it is rising, although there is no power to that particular area. Apparently the soldiers are still keeping the light burning for their comrades that are coming to the fort from Spain and are needing the light to guide their paths.

Is this the only phenomenon at the Castillo de San Marco, I am sure it is not, but who knows for sure, aside from those who experience the sightings and feelings of death, dread and wonderment that just seemed to ooze from every crevice of the fort. It is said that you can see apparitions, orbs, cold spots and the feeling of being touched by an unseen hand.

They do offer tours of the fort daily until 4:30 in the afternoon, and the grounds around the fort are open aside from the hours of midnight to 5:30 in the morning. Everyone is encouraged to add their story of their visit of the Castillo de San Marco, if you visit and feel or sense something very strange, or if you see something that shouldn’t have been there, then you can say you have had an experience at one of the most haunted places in America.

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In 1890, the 230 acre parcel of land where the Preston Castle stands was purchased from the Ione Coal & Iron Company for $30 per acre with 100 acres donated. The land was purchased to house the Preston School of Industry, established by the State Legislature as a progressive action toward rehabilitating, rather than simply imprisoning, juvenile offenders.

Building of the Preston School of Industry started right away. The bricks for the building were made at San Quentin and Folsom prisons using sandstone that was quarried six miles from Ione. The bricks were then delivered by rail at 6,000 bricks per car. The cornerstone was laid on December 23, 1890 with 2,500 people in attendance.

The plans for the school were ambitious with the original plans showing 77 rooms on five floors. The building would be the most significant example of Romanesque Revival architecture in the Mother Lode.

The first floor would house a reception and Director’s room, general office with a walk in vault, reception room, sitting room, a butler’s pantry, a dining room, employee lavatory, physician office, pharmacy, clerk’s office plus three additional offices. The first floor annex would include a dining room. The second floor would include a reading room, library, twelve chambers, a school room, coat and hat room, men’s water closet and women’s lavatory. The second floor annex would hold a dormitory, a locker room, and a linen room.

A mezzanine level was to provide two bathrooms with three bathtubs. The third and fourth floors would remain unfinished. The third floor would contain twelve rooms and the fourth floor was designed to have six rooms. The basement would include a play room, water closet (long urinal and nine toilets), laundry, lavatory with foot bath, shower room and plunge bath, hall, kitchen, pantry, furnace room, fuel storage room, and a water closet with two toilets. The basement annex would hold a bakery, fuel storage room, kitchen, pantry, storeroom, and the employee’s laundry and lavatory.

On June 13, 1894, the first wards were accepted at the Preston School of Industry, and the school was proclaimed officially opened on July 1, 1894. The next year, electricity was installed by way of a water wheel powered dynamos for incandescent and arc lights.

The Preston School of Industry remained open until 1960 when new facilities for the school were completed. The building remained vacant and fading into disrepair until September 10, 2001 when The Preston Castle Foundation received a fifty-year lease for the property. The Preston Castle has also been named a California State Historical Landmark (#867) and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NPS-75000422).

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The Castle has seen its share of death. Seventeen boys lost their lives in the hospital to diseases such as tuberculosis and typhoid fever. Sam Goins was shot in the back by a prison guard in 1922 during his third escape attempt. He was only 20. Starvation, isolation, and public paddling and lashings, severe strategies were common at Preston. In 1950, Anna Corbin, a former head housekeeper, was found locked in a store room off the executive kitchen bludgeoned to death. One of the castle’s black children, Eugene Monroe was tried twice for this crime, but the jury was hung each time. To this day, no one has been convicted for her murder. Her spirit is believed to still walk the halls of Preston Castle. Many have witnessed slamming doors, falling objects, disembodied voices, and physical contact by unseen people. During Ghost Trackers investigation, they collected photos of alleged orbs and shadows and EVPs, including a male humming. The Ghost Adventures team began their second season at the castle. They experienced female screams, knocking, sounds of eggs frying in a pan, and electronic malfunctions. Three scratches appeared on Aaron’s leg and Zak was allegedly possessed for a period of time. They captured several EVPs, mist and orbs on camera.

Preston Castle is not open to the public but does offer tours, including ghost tours and overnight stays, for a price. To spend the night in this haunted castle, it’ll cost $100 per person. The cost includes pizza for dinner and soda/water for the night. You must bring your own sleeping bag, pillows, clothing, toiletries, and any kind of investigative equipment you plan to use during the night. The only areas open for investigations are the grounds inside the fence and around the castle, the visitor’s center, the garage/old solitary confinement area, the castle’s basement, 1st floor and 2nd floor. The upper floors are too dangerous. To ensure your safety, each group will be accompanied by a Ghost Trackers Paranormal Research group member. All money goes to the continuing restoration of the castle.

Zak Bagans all this adds a new momentum that should see.