At night, Western Penitentiary is a dark and looming presence along the eastern bank of the Ohio River in the Marshall-Shadeland area of the North Side. The former prison’s 40-foot-high walls once housed more than 2,500 souls and in its nearly 140-year history, was a place of mundane routine, violence, redemption, despair, rehabilitation, terror, daring escapes and occasional riots. It closed in 2017 and has fallen silent, refusing to even whisper of it history.

These pictures were shot on an iPhone between 9:20 and 10 p.m. on Monday, April 24.

A television lights up a small building used by security guards. (Steve Mellon/Pittsburgh Union Progress)
A water tower looms above the prison near the Ohio River. (Steve Mellon/Pittsburgh Union Progress)
A partial moon rises above the prison. (Steve Mellon/Pittsburgh Union Progress)
Streetlights cast shadows on an eastern wall. (Steve Mellon/Pittsburgh Union Progress)
Steve Mellon

Steve is a photojournalist and writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he is currently on strike and working as a Union Progress co-editor. Reach him at smellon@unionprogress.com.

Steve Mellon

Steve is a photojournalist and writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he is currently on strike and working as a Union Progress co-editor. Reach him at smellon@unionprogress.com.