BY BETSA MARSH | ENQUIRER CONTRIBUTOR
Take a tour of the old Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, which becomes a haunted prison for Halloween.
If you go
What: The 30-minute Haunted Prison Experience at the Ohio State Reformatory Historic Site
Hours: 7-11 p.m. Thursdays, 7 p.m.-midnight. Fridays and Saturdays, and 7-10 p.m. Sundays through Oct. 29.
Admission: $14; not recommended for children under age 10.
Information: 800-642-8282; www.mrps.org. For more details about the film "Fallen Angels": www.fallenangelsthemovie.com.
Getting there: Mansfield, Ohio is 173 miles from Cincinnati, a drive of just under three hours.
Other packages: Mansfield offers an all-inclusive Affordable Adventure package, starting at $59 for overnight lodging, a meal voucher and some attraction fees. www.mansfieldtourism.com or 800-642-8282.
A misty full moon glowers over the stone turrets, a skirl of chain saws and screams on the frosted air. A perfect night for fright.
And the setting, too, may be one of the best, the old Ohio State Reformatory, a veritable chateau of incarceration when it opened in 1896 in a field outside Mansfield, Ohio. The last inmate checked out in 1990, and, four years later, a local prison preservation group began stabilizing its leaky roofs and leprous walls. Halloween is the relic's time to shine.
In the haunted prison, maniacs with chain saws pop out of dozens of cells and black holes - Texas has nothing on Ohio, apparently, in the Stihl kill count. Cloaked monsters whisper in your ear, "We are the dwellers of the dark." The prison's 970 cells make for a lot of jack-in-the-box heart stoppers. And just as you try to catch your breath, ghoulish inmates on the other side of the cell block rake metal against the bars and spike sparks in your face.
This year's Ghostmania Revolution wanders through the wards and cell blocks of both the east and west wings of this Victorian behemoth. Fearless film buffs may recognize the soaring Central Guard Room from "Air Force One" and "The Shawshank Redemption," and other decrepit sets from "Tango and Cash" and "Harry and Walter Go to New York."
It's a good, wholesome fright, with about the right amount of eviscerated torsos and headless corpses. Plus, plenty of bonus features: dummies of brutalized prisoners handcuffed to pipes and one who met his maker in the state's electric chair, "Old Sparky."
Myron St. John and his wife, Lynne, have organized the fall mayhem for six years, using a mix of animation, animatronics and, this year, 50 actors.
Myron is also a "dweller of the dark," having worked this year as producer, stunt man and "demon" actor for "Fallen Angels," the most recent movie filmed in the reformatory.
The reformatory is already renowned as one of the most haunted places in America, and a crew from Sci-Fi Channel's "Ghost Hunters" has spent nights at the prison.
Psychics put the reformatory on their must-sense list, and, during the popular overnight Ghost Hunts, 100 paranormal investigators pay $50 each to prowl its decaying hallways. Some claim to spot Shadow Man, a full spirit silhouette. Others report seeing an old lady in a green dress, and many pick up on the spirit of a little boy.
Dan Seckel is an architect on the Mansfield Reformatory Preservation Society board, the nonprofit group dedicated to saving the vast building. A nonbeliever in ghosts, he once forgot his flashlight on a tour. "In the corner of the basement, I saw a young boy leaning into a corner like 'The Blair Witch Project.' When I asked a woman to shine her flashlight there, someone else said, 'Oh, did you see him too?'
"This did start as a reformatory for young boys, so it would be common for them to be here," Seckel reasoned, still skeptical. "But if anyone asks me if it's haunted, I say darn straight it is," keen to the money-churning allure of spirits.
MRPS takes a 60 percent cut of the Halloween haul, funneling the money into restoration of the reformatory as a meeting and tour center. The society's mission is not only to save the structure for its sociological and architectural significance but also to spur the old place into doing its part for the local economy just as it did for 94 years as a prison.
First up, MRPS repaired water damage after the heat was turned off and the internal gutters froze and burst. Then, the roof.
"We are 90 percent done with the roofs," said Seckel. "Last year, we spent $50,000 tuck pointing the stone - this is essentially a brick building with a stone veneer.
"The building was heavily compromised in the mid-60s, when the slate roof was taken off, and it lost a lot of masonry detail. But most of the interior can be restored to the 1890s design."
He proudly shows off the restored warden's quarters, open for tours at times other than Halloween. It's been returned to its 1890s heyday, full of Ohio products in every nook of the fireproof building: Zanesville's Encaustic tile on the floors, Cleveland sandstone and Sandusky blue limestone outside. The only flammable trims are walnut and oak.
"It's beautiful," he says in the foyer of the warden's house. "You wouldn't want to lose something like this."
The state, however, had the reformatory set for the chopping block soon after its closing in 1990. Mansfield held a community meeting, gauging support for a lengthy campaign. By 1994, the new reformatory preservation society approached the state to take on the restoration project.
Members were able to save the original administration, warden's quarters and cell block areas. The power plant and workshops, where the prison's original young offenders learned new crafts, were demolished.
With funds from the Halloween haunted prison and Ghost Hunts, the preservation group has stopped the decay and restored sections of the building. In 2000, the Ohio legislature and governor presented the reformatory deed to MRPS.
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