Big House Lost, History Executed
A Brief Tour of the "Ohio Pen"
These are a sample of my photos of the doomed Ohio Penitentiary. (All photos
copyright © Kevin B. Coleman.)
The facade along Spring Street,
as viewed through the chain-link fence securing the property.
Someone left an artificial
wreath on the fence.
A fragment of another old and unique and destroyed Columbus
architectural treasure, Union Station arch, is viewed through an alley among
the Ohio Pen buildings.
A cross atop the chapel and
a ventilation tower for the jail blocks rise before the skyscrapers of the
downtown.
East Hall Joins New Hall, contrasting the different building materials.
Sheltered by later additions, the original front entrance shed paint
in the humid atmosphere.
Steel cages inside a masonry box - the jail cells.
Bars and air separated the felons from freedom.
The outside stood separate from the inside. The roof was a series
of steel trusses above the tops of the cell blocks.
A view from the hospital roof shows the couryard behind the front
buildings, with the guard tower in the center.
A former home for criminals.
A former home for really bad criminals.
Inside the "Death House" - the execution chamber.
The death house was a lowly one-story building at the end of East
Hall.
It's hard to see in this bad scan, but these bricks are stamped "convict
made" at the Ohio Penitentiary.
Rubble of the limestone wall that used to surround the complex lies
in a heap.
Old Death Row - prisoners awaited the ultimate penalty at the west
end of New Hall.
A view from one of the industrial buildings shows the courtyard.
My pocket knife notes the scale for these paving blocks used in the
walls of the hospital.