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Public media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

Coming up.

Do you recognize this spooky spot from central Ohio in Sandusky?

A coven of witches brings their brooms to dance, and Apollo's fire lights a flame beneath a pair of arias.

If you want Hello, and welcome to applause, my friends.

Im Ideastreams Kabir Bhatia.

Wanna here a spookie story?

In 1896, in the very scary city of Mansfield, the Ohio State Reformatory opened its prison cells for the very first time.

You might know this terrifying place from the 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption.

Based on a tale by the master of horror, Stephen King.

While the prison closed decades ago, today, it's a museum for all who dare.

Some go for the architecture, some for the history, and others for the ghosts.

now it says to laugh maniacally.

That costs extra.

The building has its own kind of essence.

It has this aura and this feeling about it.

It kind of breathes.

You drive up and you just get this feeling.

And it's what Levi Schofield was intending.

You just get this all inspired feeling where you were just swept away by the building itself.

Levi Schofield was a Cleveland architect, born in Cleveland, did a lot of work around the state of Ohio, including the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Cleveland.

So the building relied pretty heavily on three different architectural styles.

Richard Soni and Romanesque, Gothic and Queen Anne Richardson, and Romanesque uses rough hewn stonework.

Queen Anne has the deeply pitched roof, and the wraparound porch is, and then Gothic has the curved arches and the stained glass windows.

We have gorgeous stained glass windows here at the reformatory, and they actually are the originals.

Levi Schofield designed this prison to be something that was all inspiring.

He wanted to give the gentleman who were sent here a feeling of hope and inspiration.

The west cell block was our first cell completed.

It is made primarily of stone and mortar, so it's easier to heat, easier to cool.

And then the east cell block is all steel construction.

The inmates actually worked on that after the first hundred and 50 inmates were moved in.

It is the tallest standing steel cell block in the world at six years high.

I just love the building.

It like called me outside.

It's all about the architecture.

When I came into the building, it was all about the paranormal.

When you're working with the paranormal, you're coming in to see the history behind it.

Arthur Black, he was our longest serving warden.

He actually had no background in corrections.

He was an educator, which, considering we were trying to reform these inmates, was actually a great background to come from.

He actually met his wife while he was working here.

They got married, lived here, raised their children here.

They had two young sons that grew up in the prison as well.

Now there is tragedy that did follow this family.

And the tragedy first started with Helen.

In the 1950s, Helen was getting ready for, we think, church, and she reached up into the closet to find her hatbox.

But now she reached up for it.

Art's pistol was on top of it and it fell, discharged and struck her in the long.

She was taken to Mansfield Hospital, where she died three days later.

Helen died in 1950.

Ark continued as the warden here.

There was a lot of stress involved with the families living here on property and as a result of the stress, had a massive heart attack in his office that did end his life.

We have experienced their energy here in this building.

Helen used to make a rose water perfume.

The very first time that I was here, I was taking a tour and I smelled roses coming down the second floor.

To where her bedroom was.

Now, I heard he used to smoke a cherry pipe tobacco.

And there are occasions when you're walking around, you make a dead stop because you smell cherry pipe tobacco.

We have some paranormal hotspots within the building that are actually well known for being active.

Hey, guys.

Hope you're doing good today.

Coming for a little visit.

We are in the West attic, one of the most haunted spots in the prison.

The west attic was actually used to house inmates back in 1930.

There was a huge fire that took place at the Ohio State Penitentiary, and they needed to house 250 plus inmates in a different location.

And the Mansfield Reformatory was the location that they chose.

Now the story goes that they were placed up here.

Now, keeping in mind the inmates that were coming from the Ohio Penitentiary were the worst of the worst.

This area was used to house those inmates.

And as you say, it's completely open.

There's no windows.

I'm sure they locked the door.

And what happened?

I guess it's inside these walls and behind those doors.

But I'm sure it wasn't pretty.

One of the things that I can say, as far as hauntings that take place here in the attic, is the smell of smoke.

I attribute that to when the inmates came from the Ohio Penitentiary and their clothing had smoke smells on them and any bedding or anything that they brought with them.

I don't smell the smoke as strong as it was earlier today.

There.

So this is a cherry room, and this chair does move up by itself on occasion.

It will also, when you're sitting in it in the dark, it may vibrate.

You might hear voices, and you might see lights.

There's all kinds of things that can happen.

So the challenge is you come in here with no lights.

You sit in the chair with the lights off for 15 minutes, and you just wait and see what happens.

By 1930, things had really changed here at the reformatory, starting with some overcrowding that was a result of the Great Depression and prohibition, as well as the Ohio Penn Fire down in Columbus.

We were never supposed to house more than 1900 inmates.

At our worst, we were closer to 3500.

By the 1960s, things had gotten so bad here that it was starting to turn into a maximum security prison.

By, 1978, a lawsuit was brought against us by 1200 inmates who were kept here, that we were keeping them in cruel, inhumane and brutalizing conditions.

And we certainly were.

So by 1990, the reformatory was closed to operations.

Even Apollo was a member of the Ohio Film Commission, and she played a vital role in getting Shawshank Redemption to the reformatory.

And she really championed getting Frank Darabont and his production crew here to check out the location.

He climbed all over this place like it was playground equipment.

A direct quote from him was that the building is going to be the biggest character in the movie, so it has to be perfect.

And when Castle Rock showed up to film the first morning, the wrecking ball was actually standing outside of the prison.

There is a very good chance that if they had not selected the Ohio State Reformatory as their filming location, that the building would not be here today.

The building itself is a very unique architectural marvel.

You're not going to see a lot of castles in the state of Ohio, or even the United States for that matter.

The architecture is something that deserves to remain standing.

When I became the paranormal program manager three years ago, it was one of the best moves that I made.

I'm going to be here until they kick me out.

Who knows, I might be here after I go.

The Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield offers guided tours and ghost hunts year round.

Double, double, toil and trouble.

From ghosts to witches.

We go.

This next group of witches wouldn't dare to scare.

They just want to boogie.

Trust me, you'll get it in a second.

At the annual Witches Walk in Sandusky, covens from all over the world went for the record of most witches in costume and dancing in one place.

me And today you attempted to break two Guinness World Records titles.

What I love about this record attempt is it's not just something they came up with out of a hat.

Right.

This is something they've been doing for 14 or 15 years.

It's part of the Sandusky community.

So to do what they normally do, this giant witches walk, this giant party, and then to do two Guinness World Records attempts was really cool.

I've always loved dressing up.

Watching other people dress up.

I scared at Cedar Point for a while because of my job.

I can't do that anymore.

But I love doing this.

Well, I wish I could remember that.

He told me I'll make a good witch.

So every Halloween, that dress up as a went with 970 participants.

You set a new Guinness World Record for the largest decrease a times.

What I loved about this attempt and the crowd here, is that everyone is so into it, right?

Like no one is here just randomly.

They're here because they want to be at this event.

That's.

Not some sort of script any longer.

It's not a a lot of the girls from our group go every year, and we get a group, a big group of all of our friends and get together for a few days, make a lot of laughs and memories and dress up and let your hair down and forget about regular everyday life and be a kid and have fun.

It was just make memories with our friends.

It's great.

We have a great time.

Actually, I'm from Brazil.

We don't have Halloween in Brazil.

When I moved, I was my favorite like Halloween outfit to wear, which.

And then we start a big group and then we start dancing.

And then this band.

Maybe 12 years now, like us.

Five years?

Yes.

Today you have a total in Sandusky of 727, which means it's your second Guinness World Records title.

Once again, Sandusky, which is like you are.

This is amazing.

You didn't sign that you were.

let's give it up for those 727 witches dancing, setting the Guinness World Record as well as their other record for largest witches costume contest.

Well done.

Witches.

Thank you.

Oh, hi.

I'm just here in the newsroom enjoying a beverage.

And, you know, this is how we used to find out what's going on.

You'd get one of these newspapers, you'd get newsprint all over your fingers.

You check out the crossword puzzle, you try to remember who was the host of solid Gold because it's seven down.

Well, what's an eight letter word for fun?

It's the to do list.

Our free weekly list of what there is to do in Northeast Ohio.

You can sign up to get it at Arts Dot ideas stream dot org with us So you remember that architect mentioned in the Shawshank Prison story earlier?

His name is Levi Schofield, who, as we learned, also is the architect for the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in downtown Cleveland.

That monument is open year round for tours, but there's another special tour lurking just below the surface in Public Square.

Hi, my name is Greg Palumbo.

I'm the executive director of the Cuyahoga County Soldiers and Sailors Monument.

We are a monument to Civil War veterans.

We were dedicated July 4th, 1894, almost 30 years after the Civil War.

And underneath the monument, we have tons.

People often ask us, are they connected to other tunnels?

Where can I go to with those tunnels?

What were they used for?

Why are they there?

We open the tunnels once a year, and we call those our tunnel tours.

I think why people really like the tunnels is it's first something you don't get to see all the time.

The tunnels were actually built in the construction of the monument, and they only go around the base of the monument.

So follow me.

It's very tight.

So this is the entrance to the tunnels.

As you come through, you'll see low archways.

Got to make sure that we duck.

As we come through.

We've run into our first statue.

So this is the statue on our east side.

The artillery statue.

We have two types of tunnels that run underneath the monument.

Under the outside that.

We have tunnels that hold up the decking, and they're made of archways and walls.

So we have walls.

And then the arch holds up every seam of the big stone slabs that make up our, what we call the upper Esplanade.

So we have those that make these concentric circles around the outside of the monument.

And then we have what's called what we call our inner tunnels.

And they're made of barrel vaults of.

That's a Roman style vault, that is an archway that pushes on to a thin wall, that pushes on to the next archway, and that holds up everything we see on the inside of the monument.

This is the side of the statuary which, if you went to pace it off, is a lot larger than the statue itself.

It's holding up not only the statue, but the edge of the decking next to the statue.

So we get a lot of those questions.

Was it part of the Underground Railroad?

No.

The Underground Railroad was during the Civil War, and we were built about 30 years after.

There's also all kinds of ghost stories that we've never really been able to have anything that would relate to that.

This is one of the mysteries in the tunnel.

This is the ladder to nowhere.

It may have been used during the construction of the monument before the decking was actually put on, so that guys could get up and down from this point.

It also may have been used, instead of our steps, which we feel were added a little bit later.

It is rusting away slowly, but, we're not really sure if you can tell us why it's there.

We'd love to know.

So that's a lot of the intrigue as to getting down in there to see something that people don't normally get to see a lot of those different, myths or legends.

Those are the things that draw people in.

And then we hope that they'll learn a little bit about the engineering of the monument, and a little bit about what we're here to honor, which are our men on the walls.

Be.

The soldiers and Sailors Monument in downtown Cleveland is open daily for public tours.

The annual tunnel tours, however, take place in the spring, typically in April.

let's move on to the King.

Lincoln Bronzeville, district of Columbus.

It's in this historic black neighborhood where Arthur Norman builds community utilizing his skills as a printmaker.

I would say that I'm a creative.

I mean, the first three letters of my name is Art, so I've always identified as an artist, but I enjoy building space.

And using space to be a bridge to community.

With this space, we want to bring back the original ten siblings, the original baseboard, and just any of those historic components that we can restore.

Unique to this area.

I find a lot of inspiration in, history.

I would say between history and also traveling, and being able to see, like different cultures and just like how they articulate their space.

Historic preservation is like, very important to me.

As we like, tell these stories of, like, what was once here previously.

I think it's important to build upon that.

And we don't always, like, take care of our history.

But being able to, like, expound on what was once before is something that's important to being for sure.

We're currently sitting in Brownsville.

For those of you who aren't familiar, historically black black neighborhood.

The building is about 100 years old.

And as we purchased or as we went through that process of purchasing the building, I sat with the owner for about an hour.

Just talking about the history of the neighborhood.

And we talked about how Jewish and black people work together in this neighborhood.

A lot of times the Jewish people were on the buildings, and black people would operate the businesses that were in the building.

And that relationship helped to kind of stand up.

This neighborhood.

The beginning process is a lot of conversation, just understanding, like what either the client wants or what I want to get out of the project.

Just a lot of conversation around ideation.

What does it look like?

Once we kind of have those conversations and flesh out like the direction that we want to go, moving into like mood boards and look and feel overall esthetic.

And then from there we're jumping into like overall design.

What kind of finishes, what kind of logo touches, do we want to do.

So it really depends on the project.

That kind of guides like how we approach it.

But I would say conversation is, is like that first step.

Besides, you're coming into this space.

We're using all of the surfaces as storage, but also as creative expression.

But as you're looking at the wall, it's a mixture of both.

Some of them are gifts that people have given us.

Some of them are artists work from the community.

Some of them are posters from just my travel.

I'm like infatuated with, like, print, having printed material, being able to touch and feel.

So when I travel, I'm looking for books, business cards and posters.

And so when somebody walks into this space, I want them to, like, feel like, okay, I can create in here.

The barber shop.

A friend is like, I'm coming here to get a trim.

I want to feel attractive or handsome after I leave here.

So when you walk in, those are the kind of feelings that we want people to have.

Reconnecting to musical roots.

On the next applause, a Cleveland punk rocker rediscovers his Latin American heritage through the music of cumbia, and we explore the life and work of an Akron artist with some very famous fans.

All that and more on the next round of applause our time together is almost at an end, my friends.

Thanks for joining me.

I'm Ideastreams Kabir Bhatia.

and for this round of applause as we bid adieu, here's a French aria from Apollo's Fire, featuring an incredible performance by tenor Jonathan Pierce Rhodes, and he follows it up with an encore of Mozart.

If you want some peace, maybe we should call the bomb maker.

But when the blood.

In this really low blood.

We know it is your phone.

The phone goes in before you.

Know.

Anything.

Although there's no ever.

If it.

All make your more of it.

Made this more of.

Ministry.

All other.

I need you, me?

Any dope for a test?

You can only do with harm.

What's your take, Don Giovanni?

Nonchalantly or gorgeous Andre de la padre.

They don't under the invoice the cars I what whatever they it in Madrid already.

Records of hard rock history never been produced on he have I'm because he probably for.

Was even the youth one well all.

Who.

Beat me all too.

Want to come home?

The other room for to school.

And going to be on the journey 100.

You know, ushering up the other to.

Oh, me.

Us up.

Let go!

Up.

Let the ocean gonna get excited, boys.

Up.

And before your hard up, Production of applause and ideastream.

Public media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.