No Glamour in the Slammer
DESIGN / PHOTOGRAPHY / LOCATION, ARCHITECTURE & INTERIOR REFERENCE
The Ohio State Reformatory (OSR) is a Romanesque style brick and stone structure that was designed by Levi T. Scofield and built between 1886 and 1910 in Mansfield, Ohio. It housed a maximum-security prison until it was closed by court order in 1990. The reformatory’s eastern cellblock remains the largest freestanding steel cell structure in the world at six tiers high.
Twenty unheated Ohio winters and salvage-hunting squatters have wreaked havoc on the interior. However, peeling lead paint, general disrepair and alleged paranormal “hotspots” aside, it makes for a worthwhile few-hours visit.
OSR sits alone behind a chain-link and razor wire fence on a lot adjacent to its modern correctional facility replacement, an inmate cemetery and untended farmland in the distance. It’s a place that exudes melancholy, and is a once-impressive building that is now broken, sad and oddly fascinating.
Hollywood has come and gone, dressing it up in a last hurrah for the on-location production and shoot of The Shawhank Redemption in 1993.
I took these photos in the summer of 2010.
All photographs © Markus Horak, 2010
GREAT photos, Mark. What an interesting place.
Great Photo’s
The photo’s are amazing. Thanks for sharing.