Ohio chapter meet, Mansfield Reformatory

D

Dwayne Brooks

The 2010 PCS meet @ the historic Mansfield Reformatory is in the books! This is where they filmed "The Shawshank Redemption", "Air Force 1", and countless other movies & music videos. The place is overwhelming it's so big & dismal yet beautiful in it's own way.
We all had a great time! The tour was excellent, the staff pulled us aside & assigned us 2 guides who took our group on a special tour. The Reformatory was saved from demolition after it was closed & is truly something to see. I believe we had 22 people & 8 procars in attendance. Dinner afterwards was at the Golden Corral, enjoy the pix & hopefully some of you will add your pix you took!

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A few pix of the procars...

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Tony's amazing '66 M-M limo style hearse
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Ron's '66 Superior ambulance
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A few of us slipped in when they opened the gate to claim a spot along the East cell block wall
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Thanks to everyone that came to this meet! We had a great time with our private tour of the prison and the workers really enjoyed looking at our cars. I'll try to post some pics tonight.
 
Thanks everybody for coming out for this. It was great seeing a lot of people we have not seen in a long time like Tony and Nina. Carl Woerner was there, the Tighes', Kemners, Todd Merrifield, Chris, Dwayne,Sarah, Liz, Achilles and his wife and son. Hoping to see all of them next month at the BYOC at Jim and Amy's. Mike Stevens couldn't make it as he was still coming back from where the buffalo roam.
 
Thanks for the pix, Dwayne. That shot of you looking up at the 5-tier cellblock gives a very good idea of what the old place is/was all about. Your daughter really nailed that one. And that maze of stairways has to be tackled to believe it. Hard to imagine that hundreds of inmates were herded thru those twisting confines every day. And, if going thru the solitary confinement dungeon don't put the fear of somethin' in you, nothing will. It felt eerie standing in the same places where Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Bob Gunton ( Warden Norton ) and James Whitmore brought the characters in Stephen King's "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption" to life. Well worth a visit, as the large crowd on hand attested. Don't know how many were there, but was way up in the hundreds, at least. Glad we got there early. Turns out the 1st contingent of our group actually got onto the grounds before opening time by following an employee's vehicle thru the just-opened gate. Timing is evrythin'. Driving a big red-and-white ambulance probably helps too. Sharon and I had a great time, and thank all of you for a wonderful day.
 
Very cool. PCS member Herold Berthy's '47 S&S Cadillac ambulance was the ambulance used in the movie, so it had been there before, too!
 
Lots of pictures!

Here are some of my pics from the meet. You can find the rest of them here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hearsegirl/sets/72157624793499786/

Administration lobby:

Ohio PCS Mansfield Reformatory meet by hearsegirl, on Flickr

West cell block:

Ohio PCS Mansfield Reformatory meet by hearsegirl, on Flickr

Chapel:

Ohio PCS Mansfield Reformatory meet by hearsegirl, on Flickr

Administration wing bathroom:

Ohio PCS Mansfield Reformatory meet by hearsegirl, on Flickr

Solitary confinement / death row cell:

Ohio PCS Mansfield Reformatory meet by hearsegirl, on Flickr

World's largest freestanding steel cell block:

Ohio PCS Mansfield Reformatory meet by hearsegirl, on Flickr

East cell block windows:

Ohio PCS Mansfield Reformatory meet by hearsegirl, on Flickr

Looking at the parking lot from the administration offices:

Ohio PCS Mansfield Reformatory meet by hearsegirl, on Flickr
 
My pictures look pretty much like Sarah's and Dwaynes, except not as good. Looks like the corner of my lens got fogged up from all the weekend moisture.

I'm stealing that picture of me in the chapel, Sarah. (you could have told me to get out of the way).

I missed seeing the electric chair...that would have been cool.
 
Thanks for posting your pictures everyone. It sure looks like a really neat place. It makes me want to watch Shawshank again, not like I haven't seen it a bunch of times, its one of my favorite movies. It would have really been cool to be there in person!
 
Looked like a really good time with a nice turnout of people and cars. Hope to see them all on the showfield next year in Hudson!

Jim, hope the Eagle is everything you hoped it would be. Don't see 18 year-old cars that clean very often.
 
Tony Karsnia said:
Looked like a really good time with a nice turnout of people and cars. Hope to see them all on the showfield next year in Hudson!

Jim, hope the Eagle is everything you hoped it would be. Don't see 18 year-old cars that clean very often.
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I think that car would do well on the show field. I looked it over pretty good and it is pretty nice.
 
That is just one way cool looking place, i will have to put that on the list of the must check out sometime, thanks for the pics.
 
We talked about maybe substituting it for one of our trips for the International, Sarah was looking into it, I don't know if it will be practical or not.
 
Ron Devies said:
We talked about maybe substituting it for one of our trips for the International, Sarah was looking into it, I don't know if it will be practical or not.
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Ron, if Sarah doesn't want to hassle with it I can try to plan a group tour late in the week during the International meet. Typically they are only open on weekends but if we get enough people to commit to it, who knows? Kick it around & if it has enough of interest it can be looked into...
 
I'd love to put it on the meet schedule, but I'm not sure where there's time for it. The daily tour is two hours long and it will be a bit over an hour and a half drive from the hotel, so we really would need at least a five hour block of time for it. I'll see if I can fit it in somewhere, but I'm not sure. I might be able to figure out a tour on the Monday of the meet for those that are interested though.
 
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