Memorial Day Weekend: Preservation Fest

As the world’s first penitentiary, Eastern State’s architectural design served as a model for over 300 prisons across the globe. Now a historic site and museum, today Eastern State staff carefully navigate the complex and rewarding task of preserving a National Historic Landmark while interpreting the history and impact of the criminal justice system inside its cellblocks.

This Memorial Day Weekend, go beyond the typical tour and learn more about historic preservation at Eastern State by taking part in pop-up talks, watching live demonstrations, and engaging in interactive, family-friendly activities—all included with admission.

This program has been funded in part by a grant from the National Trust Preservation Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Special Programming

• Justice 101: Philly Saves: Adaptive Reuse of Sites of Memory and Community
  May 21, 2026 5:30 to 8:00 pm.
  Philadelphia is a city layered with history: stories of freedom and democracy alongside legacies of incarceration, displacement, and injustice. Many of the physical spaces that carry these memories are deteriorating or at risk of being lost. How should these sites and their memories be preserved and how can they be reclaimed, adapted, and reimagined as places of civic dialogue, cultural vitality, and community gathering. What stories do we tell?

  We’ll be joined by Michael Coard, J.D. (Criminal Defense Attorney; Founding Member, Avenging the Ancestors Coalition), Kathryn Ott Lovell (President and CEO, Philadelphia Visitor Center Corporation), and Paul Steinke (Executive Director, Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia) to examine the practice of adaptive reuse and how it has transformed historic structures and landscapes of trauma into spaces that serve new public purposes while honoring their past. Moderated by Kerry Sautner, Ed.D. (President and CEO, Eastern State). It seeks to answer the question: How do we preserve memory while creating new meaning?

• What-IS-It Exhibit and Talk
  Exhibit on view all weekend. Pop-up talks—May 23, 11:30 am and 1:30 pm.
  Discover the mysteries behind everyday objects of the past. Join our archivist to get a closer look at some surprising historic site artifacts and consider what they can tell us about daily life at Eastern State during its years of operation and abandonment.

• Pop-Up Talk - Capone: Wealth, Fame, and Preservation
  All weekend. Various times. Ask any staff member for schedule.
  Al Capone’s Cell has been a fixture at the historic site for decades. Explore long-held beliefs about how Capone’s wealth and notoriety impacted his incarceration in the late 1920s. Then, learn how a 2019 conservation project revealed hidden layers of painted decoration and exposed new archival finds that challenge our perception of the mobster’s “lavish” stay at Eastern State.
   
• Lego radial design competition
  All weekend.
  Put your architectural skills to the test by participating in the Eastern State LEGO Contest. Using the provided guide, compete to see who can most accurately recreate the historic seven-cellblock radial plan using 24 specific bricks.
   
• Masonry Wall — Live Demonstration
  All weekend. Demonstration from 12:00 pm - 4:00 pm ET.
  Graduates from our Preservation Trades Center will lead a demonstration of repointing techniques used on both brick and rubble stone walls. Repointing, or replacing the mortar between stones or bricks, is a common maintenance practice on both new and historic buildings. Learn more about the challenges and rewards of preserving historic buildings like Eastern State from people with firsthand experience!
   
• Self-Guided Scavenger Hunt
  All weekend.
  Explore the cellblocks of one of America’s most historic prisons. This self-guided scavenger hunt will lead you through a mixture of the restored spaces and preserved ruins that make up this National Historic Landmark.