I liked the perspective of this pic

The nicer cell block

The second cell block was a little newer and considered the Hilton by comparison. Inmates with good behavior could eventually move there.

I really enjoyed the pretty architecture

Imagine being a guard and having to climb the tight spiral staircase for six floors in an emergency!?

Comfy place to call home…?!

Perspective from the inside of a few cells.

A thousand or so inmates per side…

Two sides per cell bock, two cell bocks…. That's a lot of cells!  At times they were overload by almost 2x too!

Some cells with beds…

…some without…!

The view down each side of one of the two cell blocks

Tallest free-standing iron cell blocks in the world…

Not sure those are great bragging rights, but it sure made for a cool view six floor down!!

From the chapel, we headed out to the cell blocks

Thick iron doors, heavy iron bars. Quite the cheery place…

The chapel!

Wow, this was cool looking.  In just good enough shape to imagine what it once looked like, yet enough dilapidation to add to the eeriness of the scene…

This might have been one of the coolest features…

The building was designed so the light from the windows in these rooms would shine through the doors and intersect at the exact center of the entire building!  They had it laser measured and found it to be accurate down to a fraction of an inch!  Pretty spectacular work for the late 1800's!

A pretty nice place to have lunch!

This was the warden's dining room!  It also severed as a place you could eat your snack or have a coffee from the cafe in the next room.  Beautiful!

So beautiful and well done for a prison❣️

We liked seeing how they'd designed the stained glass windows, heavy wood trim, and multi-arched ceilings.  It was especially pretty with the sun pouring in the windows on such a nice day.

Late 1800’s architecture and decoration!

We really enjoyed browsing through the property at the former Ohio State Reformatory!  Well worth the trip to see the stone, pillars, stair cases, and even the door knobs (notice the great seal of Ohio?).  Highly recommend you take a guided tour and leave time to explore after. 

A cool place to visit in Ohio!

You're gonna have a few days of highlights from the trip Julie and I recently took to Mansfield!  Enjoy!