The Middle Ages-style architecture of Moyamensing Prison

Moyamensing Prison was located in the South Philadelphia neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Designed by Thomas Ustick Walter, the prison served from 1835 until 1963 and was demolished in 1968. For nearly 140 years, the prison dominated the southwest corner of the intersection of Passyunk Avenue and Reed Street.

The prison originally comprised three separate facilities. The County Prison was the first to be built, founded in 1832 and finished in 1835. To its north were the "debtor's apartment" (Debtor's Wing), finished in 1836, and a structure founded in 1837 and finished in 1838 that was originally called the "vagrant's apartment".

The facade of the prison consisted of a central building of 53 feet in width, with receding wings on either side of 50 feet, flanked by massive octagonal towers. The whole exterior was composed of a blue syenite obtained from Quincy, Massachusetts. The style of architecture is that of the castles of the Middle Ages, and its decorations are in the perpendicular or Tudor style of English Gothic.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons