When planning the trip, we wanted a “major” stop each
day. As I began researching things to do
in Ohio, I wanted to find something that was on the bucket list. I narrowed it
down to several choices and let the hubby decide. He said the Prison sounded
cool. The Prison is the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield also known as
Shawshank Prison from the movie Shawshank
Redemption which is one of my favorite movies.
After leaving the Smucker Store, we headed to Mansfield to
tour the prison. You can tour the prison any day of the year except major
holidays. It is a self-guided tour. On Sundays, you can take several guided
tours along with the self-guided tour. It is only $9 a person for the
self-guided tour. The guided tour is $14 per tour. I had a Groupon deal so we
ended up paying less than $9 for both of us. If you are Shawshank fan, there is also a self-guided driving tour available
throughout Mansfield. Also available are those tour wands that let you listen
to more details about the prison at various spots through the museum. It’s like
a guided tour without the guide. Each wand costs $5. We did decide to get one
but we rarely used it.
The prison itself was built in 1896 and was used until the
1980s before it was deemed unsafe. It is a grand stone building. When it first
opened, the prisoners helped build the stone walls that kept the prisoners
within the grounds. In the early years, visitors and gawkers would picnic on
the ground and try to catch a glimpse of these criminals.
The first part of the tour takes through the Warden’s living
quarters. Imagine a Prison Warden living at the prison today! Many of the rooms
were under repairs and this is where the wand came in handy. Throughout the tour, were cutouts of Red,
Andy, and other characters from Shawshank
that you could pose with. Of course, I
had to take selfies with all of them.
There were several movie references in the main section of the
prison…there was the parole room, Brooks’ room, and even the Jesus Room. I
don’t recall the Jesus room in the movie.
After touring the Main Building of the prison, the tour took
you to the cell blocks. You actually
start at the top tier of the West Cell Block and had to walk down to the tier
1. The hubby couldn’t handle the heights. I wasn’t very fond of it either probably
because the cell block looked like it was falling apart. I went down 1 tier and
took some pictures before turning back to find the hubby. He got a few rooms ahead of me and I was
thinking I lost him in this falling down, haunted prison.
The hubby was able to find an alternate route to the cell
blocks so we could still tour the cell blocks. There was a guide in the cell
blocks to help explain things. Even though the cell blocks looked falling down
and scary, they were still very cool to see and imagine what it was like to be
housed in a 6 tier cell block.
This is one of those must see things to do if you are in the
area. It is fun to walk around a piece of history and a piece of Hollywood.
It’s not every day that you can tour an old Movie Set.
Hollywood Props -- Andy's tunnel
Hollywood Prop -- The sewer pipe Andy crawled through
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