Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia (Highsmith, Library of Congress)
Color photograph of the front of Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia by Carol M. Highsmith, dated by the Library of Congress between 1980 and 2006. A modern view of the building where 1929 and 1930 newspapers place Al Capone.
- Date
- 1980/2006
- Kind
- photograph
- Retrieved
- 2026-10-12
- Rights
- Library of Congress rights advisory: "No known restrictions on publication." Photographs in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division; call number LC-HS503-3215, digital file LC-DIG-highsm-14028. This is not a federal work: it comes from a donated photographer's archive, and this archive relies on the Library's no-known-restrictions mark. The copy stored here is a reduced rendition.
The Library’s record titles the photograph “Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,” dates it “between 1980 and 2006,” and notes that the title, date and subject note were provided by the photographer. The subject note says the former prison is located on Fairmount Avenue between Corinthian Avenue and North 22nd Street in the Fairmount section of Philadelphia.
The photograph shows the stone front of the prison in color, with crenellated towers and a long perimeter wall running to a corner tower at left.
It is a modern view, not a period image. The 1929 and 1930 newspaper pages in this archive place Capone in the Eastern Penitentiary from August 1929 to his release on March 17, 1930 (Washington Times, August 22, 1929; March 17, 1930). Nothing in this photograph shows where he was held.
