Philadelphia Ghost Busting

With Philadelphia's history, it should come as no surprise that more ghosts may populate the city today as founding fathers did 235 years ago.  The city has the history, the stories and the sites.  You just need to bring your imagination to the following locations, and "ghost busting" might begin to rival tailgating as a Philly tradition.
Eastern State Penitentiary
              Eastern State Penitentiary (ESP), at 2027 Fairmount Avenue, harbors as much history as alleged spectral activity.  Opened in 1829 as part of a controversial movement to change the behavior of inmates through "confinement in solitude with labor," the world's first true "penitentiary" was designed to inspire penitence in the hearts (and minds) of convicts.  Inmates wore hoods to prevent interaction with other prisoners during infrequent trips outside their cells, which were equipped with feed doors and solitary exercise yards to further minimize human contact.
            Upon visiting in 1842, Charles Dickens wrote, "The system is rigid, strict and hopeless solitary confinement, and I believe it, in its effects, to be cruel and wrong ...... I hold this slow and daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain to be immeasurably worse than any torture of the body...."
            The prison's external, menacing facade still intimates punishment within.  But cell blocks boast 30-foot, barrel vaulted hallways, tall arched windows and skylights.  Not until 1956, when Death Row-----cellblock 15------- was built did corporal punishment commence.  Still, during its 149 years, ESP was the focal point in the lives and deaths of numerous prisoners, guards, wardens and visitors.
            Consequently, visitors and museum staff  have described hearing laughter, seeing shadowy figures and feeling grasped by an unseen hand as they walked through corridors and renovated cell blocks.  (Capitalizing on this, ESP hosts a haunted house known as "Terror behind the Walls" every October.)
Fort Mifflin
           Fort Mifflin, located on Mud Island (on the banks of the Delaware River off Island Avenue) and built in 1771 by the British, sustained the largest bombardment that America has ever witnessed during the witnessed during the Revolutionary War in 1777.  Over 10,000 cannon balls inundated the fort and killed 150 Continental soldiers garrisoned there.
          The "Valiant Defender of the Delaware" remained commissioned until the Korean War, having served again as a garrison in the War of 1812, a Confederate prison during both world wars.
          Visitors have reported encountering the ghost of Elizabeth Pratt, the wife of an officer stationed at the fort, who hanged herself after her daughter's death by typhoid fever.  Visitors have reported hearing screams from the officers quarters, the site of her death.  Also, British revolutionary general William Howe allegedly appears as a faceless figure in the casements where prisoners were kept.
Washington Square
          Reputed to be the most haunted site in the city, Washington Square on Walnut Street between Sixth and Seventh streets is one of the original five squares that were laid out in 1682 by William Penn.  For nearly all of the 18th century it was used as the city's "potter's field," a burial ground for the indigent and unclaimed .  During the Revolutionary War, soldiers were buried on top of one another along Seventh Street.  Later along Sixth Street, officials mass buried victims of the 1793 yellow fever epidemic.  Estimates have put the number of bodies interred over 100-plus years in Washington Square at 10,000.
         After a decade of renovations, the burial ground opened as a public park in 1825 and was named after George Washington.  The city located the Tomb of the disinterring several sets of remains.  The square is said to be haunted by, among others, Leah, a  Quaker woman who patrolled the cemetery to protect the deceased from grave robbers.
The Powel house
          In the heart of Old City, the Powel House at 321 South Fourth Street was the home of Samuel Powel, final colonial and first independent city mayor.  Built in 1765, Powel's home was the societal hub of Revolution-era Philadelphia after he married Elizabeth Willing in 1769.
         Forty-five years ago, respected historian Edwin Moore recounted seeing General Lafayette and several other ghosts of Continental Army officers ascending the home's central mahogany staircase.  Moore's wife reported frequently seeing the ghost of Peggy Shippen (Benedict Arnold's wife) in the drawing room wearing a beige and lavender gown.
         An internet search on "paranormal Philadelphia" will conjure up links to more haunted sites, local paranormal investigation societies and numerous tour companies, all ready to help you meet, greet and maybe bust a Philly ghost (or two).