The Shawshank Trail: A Photographic Journey

If I had to explain why I first began to travel seeking ghosts and ghost stories,  the answer would be wrapped up in my passion for beautiful places with tragic histories and interesting stories.  It would speak of my love for strange, old buildings and history that people only whisper about in shadowy corners.   It would speak of my love of horror stories and old movies that draw me into worlds I have never lived in.  The Shawshank Trail offered me all of these things this week.   Slowly,  I'm going to go over the history of each building I visited this week and their haunting histories.   Most of the places I visited had amazing ghost stories and I will do a post on all of them.  But for today, here is a brief overview of everything I saw in pictures.   The picture above is a photograph of the shattered remains of the tree Red found his money at.   

The Haunted Bissman Building.  In The Shawshank Redemption, this was where Brooks ended his life.  In real life, the building is filled with lonely ghosts.  It should be featured on My Ghost Story tonight.

The Wyandot County Courthouse where all the court scenes from The Shawshank Redemption were shot.  This building was so beautiful it took my breath away.

The town got together and reinacted the scene from The Shawshank Redemption in which Red was mesmerized by a Mozart aria for us.  It was beautiful.

 

 The haunted and beautiful Ohio Reformatory was amazing.   This was the primary location for The Shawshank Redemption.

I caught an interesting orb in this photograph of the room in which the parole board sat.

We went to several eateries which had Shawshank related food items for us to try.  

 

 The Renaissance Theater is where The Shawshank Redemption premiered.  It also houses its own dark and ghostly histories.

The Pugh Cabin where Andy dreamt of killing his wife.

To learn more about The Shawshank Trail,  you can go to their wonderful website at http://www.shawshanktrail.com/

The Ohio State Reformatory

With Halloween behind me this week,  I'll be going on a unique trip to The Ohio State Reformatory.  I will join a group of people going on The Shawshank Trail and visiting many of the locations from one of my favorite movies, The Shawshank Redemption.   For me, The Ohio State Reformatory will be the highlight of my journey.  This century old Gothic structure houses a long history filled with sorrow.  I visited their website and this is the little bit of history I was able to gather from the site.

"The cornerstone laid on November 4, 1886 evolved into this magnificent Chateauesque structure. Cleveland architect Levi T. Scofield designed the Ohio State Reformatory using a combination of three architectural styles; Victorian Gothic, Richardsonian Romanesque and Queen Anne. This was done to encourage inmates back to a "rebirth" of their spiritual lives. The architecture itself inspired them to turn away from their sinful lifestyle, and toward repentance. This grand structure is comprised of more than 250,000 square feet and houses the world's largest free-standing steel cell block.  The Reformatory doors were opened to its first 150 young offenders in September 1896. After housing over 155,000 men in its lifetime, the doors to the prison closed December 31, 1990."

Since the closing of this beautiful building, stories of ghosts and hauntings have proliferated.   The administration wing is believed to be haunted by the ghosts of Helen and Warden Glattke.   Helen was Warden Glattke's wife and it is believed that she accidentally shot herself in the chest  in the administration wing.   Darker stories about her death say that Helen was shot by Glattke and he got away with it.   He died ten years later in the same building.   Regardless of whether or not Helen's death was accidental,  reports of Helen and her husband's ghosts have filled this portion of the prison.  Helen has been seen by visitors in her pink bathrobe and the scent of her perfume is said to linger in the corners and come with a cold breeze.

Other ghosts fill the old reformatory as well.  Helen and Warden Glattke are not alone.  The chapel is said to be one of the most haunted portions of the reformatory.  The chapel is believed to have once been an execution rooms and the ghosts of those who died in this now holy place have built up like dust in an old attic. Visitors have seen many spirits wandering this lonely room and photographs are filled with orbs and specters.  

The entire reformatory is filled with ghost stories.   My hope is, that after I visit the prison,  I will be able to write posts about each section of the prison and the hauntings in these portions.   I hope I can learn more about each area's tragic history and maybe even feel a whisper of the things that haunt the reformatory.  I'll have more to do in Mansfield, Ohio and more to write about, so I'm hoping this will be an eventful week filled with stories and pictures from the The Shawshank Trail.