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The Shawshank Trail- Mansfield, OH
I would be remiss if I didn’t follow up my post about The Ohio State Reformatory with an entry regarding The Shawshank Trail. Even as someone who has seen The Shawshank Redemption an obscene number of times, I never knew it was filmed in Ohio. I suppose if I thought about it at all, I would have placed it in Maine. It was written by Stephen King after all. But no, it was filmed for the most part on location in Central Ohio, and you can still visit many of the filming locations. Although a few are far flung, most are an easy drive from the reformatory. After the prison…
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The Ohio State Reformatory- Mansfield, OH
The Ohio State Reformatory is visually stunning. For those who love architecture, the built world, and its eventual decay, it’s a moving study. A once grand building, that had a hard life, much like its former occupants. However, traces of beauty remain, in sharp contrast to the otherwise harsh conditions found at the penitentiary. For photographers, it is a wonderland; a place of contradictions. A place that deserves to be preserved, but also a place where part of its beauty is found in its state of decay. Designed by Cleveland Architect Levi T. Scofield in the Victorian Gothic, Richardson Romanesque, and Queen Anne styles, construction of the massive reformatory started…
