Eastern State Penitentiary

Eastern State Penitentiary dominates its corner of Fairmount with thirty-foot-tall stone walls that look like a medieval fortress. When it opened in eighteen twenty-nine, the building was the largest and most expensive public project in the young United States. Architect John Haviland designed it with a revolutionary radial floor plan, featuring seven cell blocks that extended outward from a central surveillance hub like the spokes of a wheel.