"Brooks was Here...so was Red"
Ohio State Reformatory MRPS
Mansfield, OH
August 7th, 2015
A shot inside the historic Ohio State Reformatory. You might recognize this room from The Shawshank Redemption. Yup, this was Brooks' room from the movie.
Some info on the character in the movie:
"Brooks Hatlen was an inmate at Shawshank State Prison from 1905 to 1954. He was the librarian of the prison starting in 1912, and was friends with Andy.
Brooks is portrayed by James Whitmore.
1940s
Brooks found a small crow named Jake who had fallen out of a nest near the license plate shop, and was caring for it. Andy sat next to him, and noticed a maggot in his breakfast. Brooks asked for it, and Andy thought Brooks might eat it, but is relieved when he opens his sweater and instead feeds it to the crow. Later that year, Brooks was instrumental in getting Andy his rock hammer. After it is brought in through the laundry, Red places it into Brooks's rolling book cart, and pays him six cigarettes for postage. He wheels it down to Andy, who discreetly takes it.
In 1949, after Andy assisted Captain Hadley in avoiding paying his inheritance tax, Warden Norton appoints him the assistant librarian. Andy finds this surprising as Brooks has never had an assistant in his 37 years as librarian. Brooks shows him around the dilapidated library, comprised of nothing more than some old books and magazines. A prison guard named Dekins comes to Andy asking for help to start a trust fund for his children. Brooks is surprised by Andy's professionalism and later jokes about it with the gang. When Andy talks to Brooks about getting funds for a better library from the prison, Brooks is incredulous and thinks it is not possible to do so.
1950s
In 1952, Brooks is seen as Andy's assistant (along with Red) as he works as the accountant for the guards of the prison.
In 1954, Floyd tells Andy and Red that Brooks is holding a knife to Heywood's throat. Andy manages to calm him down, but he is distraught. They later learn that Brooks has been paroled, and that killing Heywood would have been his way to stay in prison. The gang discusses 'Brooks, and Red says that Brooks has been in prison so long that he is institutionalized.
As he leaves, he lets Jake go free. The prison doors open, and Brooks steps out and takes a bus to his new home. He is astounded by the changes in the world since he was free, and complains that everyone got themselves in a hurry. The parole board got him into a halfway house called The Brewer, and a job bagging groceries at the Food-Way. Brooks hates working there and considers robbing the store and killing the Food-Way (as a bonus) to go back to prison. He decides that he is too old to do that.
He writes a letter back to his friends at the prison, in which he expresses his difficulties adjusting to the outside world, including holding up a job at a grocery store as a bagger, living in constant fear, and longing to break his parole so they'd send him back home. He decides that he's tired of being afraid, and, deciding not to stay, gets up on a table and carves 'Brooks was here into the ceiling beam. He ties a rope around the beam, and puts a noose around his neck. He rocks the table, and it falls. He commits suicide then the camera zooms out on the rope spinning around.
After his death, Andy starts to build the Brooks Hatlen Memorial Library."
SOURCE: shawshank.wikia.com/wiki/Brooks_Hatlen
Tags: Mansfield Ohio United States Ohio State Reformatory Mansfield Reformatory haunted paranormal legend tripping ghost hunting reformatory prison historic history Victorian Gothic Victorian gothic Richardsonian Romanesque Queen Anne architecture repentance Shawshank Redemption Ohio penitentiary Ohio State Penn ghosts HDR high dynamic range photography Frank C. Grace Trig Photography rehabilitation Nikon D810 Shawshank reform urbex urban exploration decay peeling paint rusty crusty Chateauesque Levi T. Scofield inmates prisoners Brooks Hatlen
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The History of the Ohio State Reformatory:
"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
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.
Today the Ohio State Reformatory Historic Site receives visitors from all over the world. Every year tourists, movie buffs, thrill seekers and paranormal investigators walk through the halls of this majestic structure.
SOURCE: www.mrps.org/
Tags: Ohio Mansfield Ohio State Reformatory Mansfield Reformatory haunted paranormal legend tripping ghost hunting reformatory prison historic history Victorian Gothic Victorian gothic Richardsonian Romanesque Queen Anne architecture repentance Shawshank Redemption Ohio penitentiary Ohio State Penn ghosts HDR high dynamic range photography Frank C. Grace Trig Photography rehabilitation Nikon D810 Shawshank reform urbex urban exploration decay peeling paint rusty crusty Chateauesque Levi T. Scofield inmates prisoners United States
© All Rights Reserved
"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
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.
Today the Ohio State Reformatory Historic Site receives visitors from all over the world. Every year tourists, movie buffs, thrill seekers and paranormal investigators walk through the halls of this majestic structure.
SOURCE: www.mrps.org/
Tags: Mansfield Ohio United States Ohio State Reformatory Mansfield Reformatory haunted paranormal legend tripping ghost hunting reformatory prison historic history Victorian Gothic Victorian gothic Richardsonian Romanesque Queen Anne architecture repentance Shawshank Redemption Ohio penitentiary Ohio State Penn ghosts HDR high dynamic range photography Frank C. Grace Trig Photography rehabilitation Nikon D810 Shawshank reform urbex urban exploration decay peeling paint rusty crusty Chateauesque Levi T. Scofield inmates prisoners
© All Rights Reserved
The History of the Ohio State Reformatory:
"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
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.
Today the Ohio State Reformatory Historic Site receives visitors from all over the world. Every year tourists, movie buffs, thrill seekers and paranormal investigators walk through the halls of this majestic structure.
SOURCE: www.mrps.org/
Ghostly History of OSR
As reported by News Channel 4, Columbus, Ohio 1997
Stone walls and iron bars they're still here, but what of the humanity, if you can call it that, of the old Ohio State Reformatory at Mansfield. What of the 154,000 inmates who passed through it's gates in it's 94 years as a working prison. Not to mention their keepers, the Wardens, and the Guards, the gravediggers, and the rest, what of them remains? As it turns out, more than you might think. No matter what their crime, some sent to Mansfield have never left. They rest unclaimed in a cheerless graveyard just outside the fence. 215 numbered markers laid out row on row. Most were victims of disease, influenza, tuberculosis, but some died of less natural causes; From the violence, that is all to common inside any prison and was far from unknown in this one. And the worst of it occurred well away from the main cell block with their rows of cages stacked tier on tier, and inmates, one or two to a cell. There were too many eyes, too many witnesses here, no the worst of it was reserved for a far lonelier place, deep beneath the prison ground. A place called local control, or solitary, by some, known by everyone else as the hole. Near total isolation can crack all but the toughest of cons, but none was so alone that there wasn't room for death. At least one inmate managed to hang himself, another set himself on fire, once two men left too long in a single tomb like cell, only one walked out, leaving his cellmate's body behind, stuffed beneath a bunk. Could there be other similar surprises? Or words left over from the days before the prison closed? Even when they're empty, some swear something walks these halls. It isn't enough for contemporary visitors not to wonder off alone while sight seeing, what‘s become one of Mansfield's more popular tourist attractions. But the bloodiest single incident in the old prison's history occurred outside it's walls. In July 1948, when the Reformatory's farm boss, his wife and daughter were kidnapped and shot to death by two parolees bent on revenge. A six state manhunt for the so called mad-dog killers ended in a shootout that left Robert Daniels of Columbus in custody and his partner, James West dead. "I'll get the Chair" Daniels told police as he signed the confession. And on January 3rd, 1949, he did. A year later in 1950 disaster struck again. This time, here in the living quarters of the Warden himself. The Warden's wife, removing a jewelry box from a closet shelf dislodged a pistol from it's hiding place. When it hit the floor, the gun went off inflicting a fatal wound. And within the decade, even more bad luck. The Warden, hard at work in his office, suffered a heart attack and died. All this was nearly 40 years ago and more, how then to explain the voices shaken tour guides swear they hear today? Man and woman talking, to faint to understand, to persistent to ignore and chilling to listeners who think they're alone, only to find themselves apparently eavesdropping on the warden and his wife locked forever in an endless conversation from beyond the grave.
SOURCE: www.mrps.org/learn/history/ghostly-history-of-osr
Tags: Ohio Mansfield Ohio State Reformatory Mansfield Reformatory haunted paranormal legend tripping ghost hunting reformatory prison historic history Victorian Gothic Victorian gothic Richardsonian Romanesque Queen Anne architecture repentance Shawshank Redemption Ohio penitentiary Ohio State Penn ghosts HDR high dynamic range photography Frank C. Grace Trig Photography rehabilitation Nikon D810 Shawshank reform urbex urban exploration decay peeling paint rusty crusty Chateauesque Levi T. Scofield inmates prisoners United States
© All Rights Reserved
The History of the Ohio State Reformatory:
"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
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.
Today the Ohio State Reformatory Historic Site receives visitors from all over the world. Every year tourists, movie buffs, thrill seekers and paranormal investigators walk through the halls of this majestic structure.
SOURCE: www.mrps.org/
Ghostly History of OSR
As reported by News Channel 4, Columbus, Ohio 1997
Stone walls and iron bars they're still here, but what of the humanity, if you can call it that, of the old Ohio State Reformatory at Mansfield. What of the 154,000 inmates who passed through it's gates in it's 94 years as a working prison. Not to mention their keepers, the Wardens, and the Guards, the gravediggers, and the rest, what of them remains? As it turns out, more than you might think. No matter what their crime, some sent to Mansfield have never left. They rest unclaimed in a cheerless graveyard just outside the fence. 215 numbered markers laid out row on row. Most were victims of disease, influenza, tuberculosis, but some died of less natural causes; From the violence, that is all to common inside any prison and was far from unknown in this one. And the worst of it occurred well away from the main cell block with their rows of cages stacked tier on tier, and inmates, one or two to a cell. There were too many eyes, too many witnesses here, no the worst of it was reserved for a far lonelier place, deep beneath the prison ground. A place called local control, or solitary, by some, known by everyone else as the hole. Near total isolation can crack all but the toughest of cons, but none was so alone that there wasn't room for death. At least one inmate managed to hang himself, another set himself on fire, once two men left too long in a single tomb like cell, only one walked out, leaving his cellmate's body behind, stuffed beneath a bunk. Could there be other similar surprises? Or words left over from the days before the prison closed? Even when they're empty, some swear something walks these halls. It isn't enough for contemporary visitors not to wonder off alone while sight seeing, what‘s become one of Mansfield's more popular tourist attractions. But the bloodiest single incident in the old prison's history occurred outside it's walls. In July 1948, when the Reformatory's farm boss, his wife and daughter were kidnapped and shot to death by two parolees bent on revenge. A six state manhunt for the so called mad-dog killers ended in a shootout that left Robert Daniels of Columbus in custody and his partner, James West dead. "I'll get the Chair" Daniels told police as he signed the confession. And on January 3rd, 1949, he did. A year later in 1950 disaster struck again. This time, here in the living quarters of the Warden himself. The Warden's wife, removing a jewelry box from a closet shelf dislodged a pistol from it's hiding place. When it hit the floor, the gun went off inflicting a fatal wound. And within the decade, even more bad luck. The Warden, hard at work in his office, suffered a heart attack and died. All this was nearly 40 years ago and more, how then to explain the voices shaken tour guides swear they hear today? Man and woman talking, to faint to understand, to persistent to ignore and chilling to listeners who think they're alone, only to find themselves apparently eavesdropping on the warden and his wife locked forever in an endless conversation from beyond the grave.
SOURCE: www.mrps.org/learn/history/ghostly-history-of-osr
Tags: Ohio Mansfield Ohio State Reformatory Mansfield Reformatory haunted paranormal legend tripping ghost hunting reformatory prison historic history Victorian Gothic Victorian gothic Richardsonian Romanesque Queen Anne architecture repentance Shawshank Redemption Ohio penitentiary Ohio State Penn ghosts HDR high dynamic range photography Frank C. Grace Trig Photography rehabilitation Nikon D810 Shawshank reform urbex urban exploration decay peeling paint rusty crusty Chateauesque Levi T. Scofield inmates prisoners United States
© All Rights Reserved