POPE'S VISIT CAUSING HAVOC WITH BUSINESSES JUST OUTSIDE THE MASS ZONE
PHILADELPHIA >> In the 21 years Eastern State Penitentiary has held its haunted prison, Terror Behind the Walls, it has only closed for two days, and that was because of Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
It’s not bad weather, but Pope Francis visit that will lock the doors.
Starting Friday afternoon, Eastern State will shut down through Monday and reopen Tuesday. Terror Behind the Walls, however, won’t have another show again for two weeks, starting back up again Oct. 2.
“We take very seriously our mission to make the building available to the public and we’re committed 361 of the year,” said Sean Kelley, Senior Vice President and Director of Interpretation at Eastern State. “We never close and try to show up through anything. For the Halloween event, we closed the whole weekend and that’s really a concern for financial reasons. We’ve run that event in a blizzard one year and in driving rainstorms. Visitors who come out in crazy weather say they have a blast. We just can’t get our staff there and we can’t get our visitors there.”