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- Mansfield, Ohio - Ohio State Reformatory Tours
The Mansfield Reformatory, prime choice for movie prison location shooting, offers three exciting tours:
- Tower Tour - Explore the East Cell Block, then wind your way to the top of a guard tower. Visit the Catholic Chapel high up in the Central Block.
- Dungeon Tour - Venture into the dark and dingy "Hole" in the detention wing. Wander through strange and narrow basement corridors. Check out the mysterious "Hot Box." Hear the story of the seven-foot Jesus.
- Hollywood Tour - See the Shawshank Warden's Office and Andy Dufresne's escape tunnels. Hazard a trip into the sinister "Hole". View the 1886 West Cell Block used as a Russian prison in Air Force One.
All tours get to view the replica Electric Chair and visit the museum and gift shop. More info at: www.mrps.org
[Roadsideamerica.com Team, 04/04/2004]Mansfield Reformatory: Shawshank Redemption Prison:RoadsideAmerica.com Team Field Report
- Address:
- 100 Reformatory Rd, Mansfield, OH
- Directions:
- Historic Ohio State Reformatory. North of town. I-71 exit 176 onto US 30 west. After about three miles, exit north onto Hwy 545/Olivesburg Rd. The Reformatory is just over the hill on the left hand side, on a side street named Reformatory Rd.
- Hours:
- Gates open April-Sep. Th-Su 11-4 (Call to verify) Local health policies may affect hours and access.
- Phone:
- 419-522-2644
- Admission:
- Adults $15.
- RA Rates:
- Major Fun
Prisons Just Keep On Giving To America's Towns
Mansfield, OH, has launched a $1.5 million community fund-raising drive to turn its prison into a tourist attraction. The 100-year-old Mansfield Reformatory was closed in 1990 and houses the world's largest free-standing steel cellblock. The Shawshank Redemption was filmed there, but Hollywood can make only so many prison movies, and Mansfield apparently needs cash now.
Mansfield is also home to another attraction only a few blocks away -- the superlative Living Bible Museum. And to conjure a complete civic image, remember this is the same town where in 1959 and 1963 witnesses reported a luminous, green-eyed, seven-foot-tall seemingly armless humanoid came out of Charles Mill Lake and left behind "tracks that resembled the footgear worn by divers."
[07/07/2001]- Mansfield, Ohio - Ohio State Reformatory - more info
The 1976 movie "Harry & Walter go to New York", starring James Caan, was the first movie filmed at the reformatory. Last year, the band Godsmack filmed a music video for the song "Awake" at the reformatory.
[Brett Barnett, 01/07/2001] Closed by the state in 1990, it was slated to be torn down. A group of concerned, history-minded citizens took it upon themselves to save the gothic castle-like building. Movies like Shawshank Redemption, Tango and Cash, Air Force One, have been filmed there. There are a few Hollywood props still on the grounds. Guided tours run from May to October, Sundays from 1pm til 4pm. All proceeds from admission price go directly to the restoration of the building...
[Ken, 09/20/2000]Scary old jail launches new career as spook house
The 100-year-old Mansfield, OH, Reformatory - which closed in 1990 - is reopening for Halloween tours each Thursday, Friday and Saturday in October. People who visit the prison will find themselves "sentenced" by a ghoulish judge who will order them to the Reformatory's freestanding, six-story cellblock (the only one in the world). Mansfield Reformatory was used as the set for the film The Shawshank Redemption and is only a couple of blocks from the Living Bible Museum - another very scary place.
A group that's working to restore the old prison has announced that proceeds from the tour will benefit their efforts to convert the jail into a museum and office complex.
[10/25/1998]
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It's only a few blocks from the fabulous Living Bible Museum.