OhioStateReformatory

Ohio State
Reformatory

We took to the highway in April 2005 to pay a visit to
Mansfield, Ohio for a chance to explore the Ohio State
Reformatory. We found this enormous structure to be in bad
need of repair. Understandably so, being over a century old.
Ceilings were leaking, and paint was falling off the walls. The
building itself is absolutely breathtaking. It is currently, and
slowly, being restored thanks to donations and the MRPS.

This location was home to the Civil War’s Camp Bartley, prior
to construction of the reformatory. OSR opened its doors in
1896 and served as a home to middle of the road criminals,
and for young men that were too old for the Boys Industrial
School. The reformatory closed on December 31, 1990, and
has since served as a filming location for several movies;
such as The Shawshank Redemption, Tango and Cash, and
Air Force One. A few music videos have been shot there,
too, including Godsmack's "Awake".

We researched much of the history of the reformatory and
found out much once we arrived there, too. Its history
includes an inmate burning himself to death, and another
hanging himself. There is a rumor of two prisoners being put
into solitary confinement together, only to have one come
out, leaving the other stuffed under the bunk. The Warden's
wife "accidentally" shot herself to death when she knocked a
gun onto the floor from a top shelf of a closet in her
bedroom. And the Warden himself suffered a heart attack in
his office at the prison, and later died.

After our initial introduction, we were taken on a tour of the
building before begining our investigation. We spent as
much time as we could in the many different areas that had
activity reported. We especially focused on the chapel and
library. As usual, our standard investigation included taking
many till pictures, video, and audio recordings for EVP as we
explored the vast darkness of this monstrous building.

The Warden's Quarters provided a particularly interesting
experience. We were excited about the "pink bathroom",
because of the different accounts we knew of that happened
there. But, it was closed off the night we were there, and out
of respect for the Mansfield Reformatory Preservation
Society (MRPS), we fully obeyed their wishes for us not to
enter any areas there were off limit. However, the Warden's
Quarters is the one area where Tom felt a little "uneasy".
Bill, our most skeptical member, also thought he saw
something in the stairwell, although photos and video
revealed nothing. Heidi, while in one of the bedrooms
photographing the closet area, felt a tug on the back of her
sweater. She immediately turned around and snapped
several pictures, but we did not catch any anomalies in any of
them. Tom, who had been standing a few feet away from
Heidi just outside the bedroom door, was taking a picture in
that direction the same time it had happened. He noticed her
reaction and snapped a few photos of his own. However, we
did not capture anything on those pictures either. We
encountered no anomalous temperature reading, or any EMF
spikes during our stay.

The rest of the night was rather uneventful for us, with the
exception of Pete getting separated from the group at the
end of the investigation once we wrapped up. He ended up
back in the solitary confinement area alone, in the dark.
While he was walking forward past the cells, he felt
something brush up the back of his neck and forward over
his head. Now he couldn't have walked through something,
such as a spider web, because it would have brushed in the
opposite direction. This isn’t anything we can really count as
evidence, but for Pete, it was another interesting experience
for him. The Ohio State Reformatory is a remarkable
structure and something definitely worth preserving. So, if
you’re ever near Mansfield, Ohio, stop by. Maybe you’ll be
lucky to walk away with some evidence of paranormal activity.