Pennsylvania Grant To Help Preserve Eastern State Penitentiary
By John McDevitt
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A historic landmark in Fairmount is getting a half-of-a-million dollar state grant to help with it's preservation.
Eastern State Penitentiary works on fundraising all year round. The biggest effort is going on now with its Halloween time "Terror Behind the Walls" haunted house.
The former prison is nearly 200 years old and is one of Philadelphia's top tourist attractions with 300,000 visitors a year.
The site is getting some help from the state with a $500,000 economic growth grant.
"But this state money, which we have to match by the way, one to one, we have to raise mostly through our Halloween event," says Sean Kelley, Senior Vice President, Director of Public Programming. "We have to raise another half-million (dollars) to match it. But that million dollars will really be the last dollars we will need to preserve the building for our children, for our grand children, for our great grand children."
The preservation of the old prison has been a fifteen year labor of love, costing approximately $10-million, with the vast bulk raised through non-governmental revenue.
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