Mansfield, OH - June 12, 2013
As we prepare to
move on toward Cleveland, Kathy tells us that we can’t be “movie people” and
miss a chance to visit the Ohio State Penitentiary in Mansfield, the prison
where most of The Shawshank Redemption
was shot in 1993. I vaguely remember reading about it in Empire magazine years
ago, but didn’t realize it would be less than twenty minutes out of our path.
Kathy has a friend who works there, and she calls up to arrange a comped tour
for us in connection with The Weekender.
I’m liking this journalist gig more and more.
The prison is incredible, the closest thing to a castle I’ve ever been in (other than Le Château Frontenac).
We document our experience in the same issue of The Weekender as our Cedar Point article, which you can read here. (pages 12 & 13)
One thing we
don’t mention in the article is that our guide is a firm believer in the
paranormal, and says he has heard supernatural noises and even seen “shadow
people” walking the halls. He tells us the last warden to live at the reformatory in 1951 lost his wife when she was accidentally shot by a gun falling off the closet shelf. Ten years later the husband suffered a heart attack and died in the same hospital as his wife. Our guide tells us her rose perfume still lingers in their bedroom, along with the smell of cherry tobacco her husband loved.
If it seems a little sensationalist, this building is the perfect stage for it. The idea of being here after dark, especially alone, is absolutely terrifying.
But here’s food for thought: The prison was operational from 1880 until 1990, when the state built a new facility and moved all the prisoners over to it. When they closed the old building, they left the doors open, expecting to just demolish it at some point. In 1993, production of The Shawshank Redemption took it over during shooting, and when that was done concerned locals founded a non-profit to preserve it, buying it from the state for a dollar.
So for three years - from 1990 to 1993 - it just sat there, empty and unguarded. Somewhere in the world, I am certain there are people who as teenagers rode their bikes up and down the cell blocks during that magic window, or dared each other to spend the night in solitary, or maybe played laser tag. Somebody's got some stories.
Kinda wish I could have been one of them.
If it seems a little sensationalist, this building is the perfect stage for it. The idea of being here after dark, especially alone, is absolutely terrifying.
But here’s food for thought: The prison was operational from 1880 until 1990, when the state built a new facility and moved all the prisoners over to it. When they closed the old building, they left the doors open, expecting to just demolish it at some point. In 1993, production of The Shawshank Redemption took it over during shooting, and when that was done concerned locals founded a non-profit to preserve it, buying it from the state for a dollar.
So for three years - from 1990 to 1993 - it just sat there, empty and unguarded. Somewhere in the world, I am certain there are people who as teenagers rode their bikes up and down the cell blocks during that magic window, or dared each other to spend the night in solitary, or maybe played laser tag. Somebody's got some stories.
Kinda wish I could have been one of them.
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