Monday, June 21, 2010

ESP Experiences

- Alaina


“Have you ever had any experiences?” Visitors ask me this every day, and I could tell them about my wedding or the time I fed a giraffe. But I know what they really mean is whether I’ve had any paranormal experiences at ESP.



True, ESP is a different place after-hours. The cavernous cell blocks are empty, and the blackness inside the open cells snags yours eyes as you walk down the silent corridors. But the scariest thing I’ve seen there are some resident night-time bugs. “Well, are you a believer?” visitors want to know. I’ll be honest - it’s hard to parse beliefs about the great beyond when you’ve just finished giving the Escape Tour. I guess I could say that if I ever see a ghost, I’ll believe in it. Of course, I don’t mind if you want to search for ghosts. I just ask the many paranormal investigators I meet to respect the prison’s human history, because if ESP is haunted, then to me, that represents real people’s lives and deaths.

Of course, you may hear strange things and your eyes can play tricks on you in the dark - it’s a matter of how much you want to indulge your imagination. ESP is a large, drafty building where drips echo like footsteps and plaster seems to whisper as it crumbles. At night, I feel safe inside the walls of ESP. If there were any ghosts, I imagine I’d be fond of them. If you see any apparitions when you take my tour, you can let me know….or not.

(Photo by L. Hannah March)

Monday, June 14, 2010

The Results Are In!

Julia, Merchandise Manager


When we create merchandise for Eastern State, we always strive to make it a public process. More often than not, we do our best to poll the public and try and find out what they are looking for in a product.  For our most recent endeavor, we tried using two different approaches to getting our customer’s opinions. The result was a new T-shirt design that will be available in two weeks!



The first part of creating new merchandise is deciding what we need. Our newest design has been selling quite well, but it is only available in women’s sizes.  Our male visitors frequently ask why we don’t have the shirt in men’s sizes.

We wanted to incorporate this design with the retired radial design, a visitor favorite.  On a busy weekend in the Spring we set up a table in the Gatehouse and asked visitors to vote for which design they would like to see available in our store. The results from that poll were convincing, but we decided to poll our online community as well.

By using Eastern State’s new Facebook page, we were able to put our T-shirt poll online.  We gave our fans about a week to vote for their favorite design and the same design proved to be the favorite once again!

We are excited to announce the newest addition to the Eastern State Museum Store. It should be available for purchase in the next two weeks.  Thanks to all of you for voting!