Ohio Penitentiary

At a glance

Overview

The Ohio Penitentiary, "the Pen" to generations of Columbus residents, was the state's main prison for 150 years, a walled town of cell blocks and shops on Spring Street at Neil Avenue. The legislature ordered it built in 1832 to replace a crowded 1813 prison, and convicts moved in at the end of October 1834. It held Confederate raiders, the writer O. Henry and, at its peak in 1955, more than 5,000 men. In 1930 a fire there killed 322 inmates, the worst in American prison history. After a court order the last prisoners left in 1984, and the empty prison became a political football. On August 1, 1990, Mayor Dana G. "Buck" Rinehart took the controls of a wrecking crane and knocked holes in it himself, before the city owned it. The state sold it to the city in 1995, it came down in 1997 and 1998, and Nationwide Arena and the Arena District now stand on the ground. Its younger sister prison in Mansfield, which took its first inmates in 1896, survives; see the Ohio State Reformatory page.

The name

Its legal name was the Ohio Penitentiary, though photographs and postcards often called it the Ohio State Penitentiary. (source) Columbus shortened it to "the Pen," the word the Dispatch used in 1990. (source) Until the 1830s the same title belonged to an earlier prison on a ten-acre lot in the southwest part of town, which later histories call the Old Penitentiary. (source)

Native American history

The Pen stood on ground with a recorded Native past. Alfred E. Lee's 1892 history of Columbus records the belief of Joseph Sullivant that a mound once stood where the Penitentiary was built, used up for earth by pioneers and leaving no trace. (source) Jeremiah Armstrong, a white boy captured in 1794 and adopted by a Native family, wrote that his family camped "near where the Penitentiary now stands" and raised corn on the prairie there. (source) He also wrote that the only war dance he saw was held near the same spot, and that Billy Wyandot and others left there for the Treaty of Greenville in 1795, by which much of present Ohio was ceded. (source) John Brickell, another former captive, had a cabin and ten acres near the later Pen site, and Lee places an old Indian campground, a site of feasts and councils, just above his cabin. (source) The state bought a strip of the prison tract from him for $50 in 1832. (source)

• Mound at the Penitentiary site: mound, Bottom land near the junction of the Scioto and the Olentangy (Whetstone), on the later prison ground, date unknown, destroyed by pioneers
• Indian campground near Brickell's cabin: camp, East bank of the Scioto at the later Penitentiary, 1790s

Stories

The prison before the Pen

The first state prison went up in 1813 on a ten-acre lot fronting Scioto Lane: a three-story brick building 60 by 30 feet with thirteen cells, four dark and nine light, behind a stone wall 15 to 18 feet high. (source) Its convicts worked at blacksmithing, wagonmaking, coopering, shoemaking and weaving, and the prison bartered their goods for lumber, coal and food. (source) The first mile of the Columbus feeder of the Ohio Canal was dug by 45 convicts who signed an agreement to have their punishment commuted to canal work. (source) By 1826 the old prison was overcrowded, its walls were failing, escapes were common, and it lost $3,500 to $7,000 a year. (source)

Building the new prison, 1832-1837

On February 8, 1832, the General Assembly ordered a new penitentiary for 500 convicts "to be confined in separate cells at night," modeled as far as practical on the Connecticut State Prison at Wethersfield and costing no more than $60,000 apart from convict labor. (source) Its directors chose about fifteen acres on the east bank of the Scioto "about half a mile north of Columbus," conveyed to the state free of debt on October 17, 1832. (source) Superintendent Nathaniel Medbery drew a plan with a 400-foot front, 700 cells and a 24-foot wall, and 80 to 100 convicts did the work until cholera halted it in the summer of 1833. (source) Medbery became the first warden on October 27, 1834, and in the next two days the prisoners were moved over from the old prison. (source) A women's department with eleven cells was added in 1837, and the whole prison was complete on December 12 of that year at a cost of $93,370. (source) From 1839 convicts also worked on the new Ohio Statehouse, behind a board fence built to screen them from the street. (source)

Lockstep, the cat and the shower bath

Discipline in the new prison began "very severe," and by 1892 the lockstep and the punishments called the "shower bath" and the "cat" had been abandoned one by one. (source) The Ohio History Connection describes straw mattresses, a diet of cornbread, beans and bacon, and forced work making harnesses, shoes, barrels and brooms. (source) Disease spread fast: in the cholera summer of 1849 the prison counted 116 deaths, 22 of them on July 10 alone. (source) The convicts' labor was hired out to contractors, and Columbus workingmen protested the competition, forming an Anti-Prison Monopoly Association in 1844. (source) A law of March 24, 1884, abolished contract labor, sorted prisoners into three grades with blue, gray and striped suits, and let good conduct shorten a sentence and earn parole. (source) The "ducking tub" was given up on January 1, 1889. (source)

General Morgan goes down the sewer

During the Civil War the Pen served as a federal military prison, and after Confederate Gen. John Hunt Morgan's raiders were captured at Salineville in July 1863 they were brought to Columbus by rail and locked inside. (source) About seventy officers were kept apart from the other prisoners in the two lowest tiers of the east wing's interior cell block, guarded by soldiers and turnkeys. (source) On the night of November 27, 1863, Morgan and six others cut through the stone floors of their cells to an air chamber below, tunneled under the building into the yard, and let themselves down the outer wall on a rope braided from bed ticking and towels. (source) The governor's investigators blamed no prison officer, finding that the military prisoners' cells had not been inspected like convicts' cells, and learned that Morgan had taken a train toward Cincinnati and crossed into Kentucky. (source) By one 2020 account, the only historical marker on the old prison ground today honors Morgan's escape. (source)

Gallows, chair and a growing prison

In 1868 the state bought ten more acres from the Lincoln Goodale estate for $20,000 and in 1871 walled them in 24 feet high. (source) In 1875 the foundations of a new 500-cell building were laid on the old prison cemetery, whose dead were moved near the state quarry. (source) The administration building was heavily remodeled in 1877, its curved front straightened behind a new facade. (source) Date stones from that front read 1876 and 1878, and its cornerstone names the architect J.C. Johnson of Fremont, who also designed the Defiance County Courthouse. (source) A law of April 29, 1885, ordered that every Ohio hanging take place inside the Pen's walls. (source) The electric chair replaced the gallows in 1897, and 315 men and women were electrocuted there before Ohio halted executions in 1963. (source) That chair, "Old Sparky," is now shown at the Ohio Corrections Museum in the Mansfield reformatory, described on the Ohio State Reformatory page. (source)

O. Henry, Himes and other inmates

William Sydney Porter found his pen name, O. Henry, while serving time there in the late 1890s. (source) The Ohio History Connection's list of notable inmates also names Morgan, George "Bugs" Moran, Sam Sheppard and Harry Pierpont, Charles Makley and Russell Clark of John Dillinger's gang. (source) The novelist Chester Himes served time there and survived the 1930 fire. (source) In 1956 inmates were injected with HeLa cancer cells in an experiment now regarded as highly unethical. (source) Women were held at the Pen until 1913, when the Ohio Reformatory for Women opened at Marysville. (source)

The fire of April 21, 1930

The fire broke out in the early evening, just after the men had been locked into their cells, apparently when a candle ignited oily rags on the roof of the West Block, the "Big Block." (source) Some prisoners burned, but others died breathing smoke from burning lumber, and 322 inmates were killed. (source) The block held about 800 men, the fire turned into a riot, and about 500 soldiers from Fort Hayes were called in to restore order. (source) Prison officials blamed three prisoners who, they said, had set the fire as a diversion for an escape; two of the three later killed themselves, while other observers called the fire an accident and accused officials of covering their own poor handling. (source) The prison held twice the number it was built for, and afterward several hundred men were moved to a prison farm at London, Ohio. (source) Another 266 survivors were moved to the reformatory at Mansfield, a story told on the Ohio State Reformatory page. (source) In 1931 the legislature created the Ohio Parole Board, which led to the release of thousands of prisoners. (source)

A ballfield named for O. Henry

The Pen was serious about sports. In 1916 its baseball team got permission to play outside the walls, and in 1926 it won Columbus's Merchants and Manufacturers league, with the governor at the banquet. (source) By 1941 Life magazine called Ohio's prison sports program one of the most comprehensive in the country, and the players had switched to softball because too many hard balls went over the wall. (source) Outside teams came in on weekends to play the Hurricanes on a field named for O. Henry, near the power plant, until visits ended after the riots of 1968. (source) The prison band, the Rogues of Rhythm, once had a weekly radio show, and the Christmas pageant was a sought-after ticket in town. (source)

Riots and the road to closing

The population peaked at 5,235 in April 1955. (source) Postwar reforms did not come fast enough to prevent three riots; the Ohio History Connection dates the worst to June 1968, when buildings were destroyed and five convicts were killed, while Belt Magazine places the deadly standoff in August. (source) (source) The state's investigation led to a decision to replace the prison, and the new Southern Ohio Correctional Facility at Lucasville began taking its prisoners in 1972. (source) A court ordered the Pen closed, with the last prisoner to leave by December 31, 1983; the deadline was extended by eight months. (source) When it closed in 1984, at 150 years old, it was described as the oldest continuously operating inner-city maximum-security prison in the country. (source) Afterward a film crew shot a made-for-TV movie starring Alec Baldwin inside the walls. (source)

"That's a beautiful sound"

Dana G. "Buck" Rinehart, Franklin County treasurer from 1976, won a close mayoral race in 1983 to succeed Tom Moody. (source) On August 1, 1990, shortly after the city gave the state a $100,000 down payment toward buying the site, he called a news conference and jumped behind the controls of a wrecking crane. (source) "That's a beautiful sound," he said as the ball thudded against stone. (source) The target was not the old wall but a one-story administration building added to the Spring Street front, which he called "an ugly dinosaur eyesore" and which photographs suggested might date from the 1890s. (source) With it gone, he said, "people will be able to see the original entrance for the first time in 80 or 100 years," and he wanted the four-story stone facade behind it cleaned and preserved. (source) He argued that the city's agreement let it maintain the site and that "the demolition is maintenance." (source) The state, still the owner, disagreed: a spokeswoman for the Department of Administrative Services called it the sound of the city breaking its hours-old purchase agreement, though the state did not plan to retaliate. (source) The state preservation officer, W. Ray Luce, "was nearly speechless," and the president of the Columbus Landmarks Foundation called the mayor's office to complain. (source) The wrecker, S.G. Loewendick and Sons, donated the work, worth about $25,000; Ralph Loewendick and his father had coveted the 158-year-old Pen as a demolition trophy for 25 years. (source) The demolition was halted the same day, the mayor's office said, to remove asbestos from the basement. (source) In the end, the Dispatch wrote in 2012, the "free" job cost taxpayers almost $1,400 for a fence, the EPA threatened to fine the city, and the state ordered Rinehart to fix the holes. (source)

The arena that was not yet

Even in 1990 the prize was an arena. The 22.5-acre site would cost about $5 million to buy and perhaps $5 million more to clear, and Rinehart suggested offering about 15.5 acres to a developer who would build an arena on about 7. (source) Capitol Corp., a coalition of about 30 businesses led by developer Daniel Galbreath, put up $20,000 of the down payment. (source) Rinehart later talked of making the prison a tourist attraction, but the city council president found it ghoulish to lead crowds through a place where more than 300 people had died in the electric chair. (source) Rinehart left office after his second term, and the WCBE obituary that marked his death in 2015 said he might be best known for the wrecking-ball day. (source) The state finally sold the old prison to the city in 1995. (source) By the mid-1990s the neglected outer walls were crumbling, sometimes dropping debris onto cars in the next-door lots. (source)

Hockey, Nationwide and the end of the walls

In 1997 Columbus won a National Hockey League expansion team, with a deadline of fall 2000 for an arena. (source) The city's ballot issues to pay for one "were repeatedly unsuccessful," so Nationwide Realty Investors, with the Dispatch Printing Company as partner, agreed to finance the arena in its entirety. (source) The city sold the Pen site for $11.7 million, AEP sold a neighboring six acres for $11 million, and the Franklin County Convention Facility Authority took several parking lots by eminent domain. (source) Library photographs follow the demolition from March 12 to December 31, 1997. (source) A 2025 television history dates the end of the demolition to 1998. (source) Many Ohioans asked for a brick from the Pen as a keepsake. (source)

The Arena District

Nationwide Arena opened in September 2000 and drew 1.2 million visitors in its first year; the Blue Jackets played their first game, against the Chicago Blackhawks, that October. (source) Around it Nationwide built a 75-acre district of offices, restaurants, apartments, condominiums, the eight-screen Arena Grand Theatre and a concert pavilion, which by 2007 had 3,600 employees and paid more than $4.4 million a year in property tax. (source) The Pen did not vanish entirely: heavy iron doors from the prison became trellises, and limestone from its walls went into the Arena Grand Theatre, the Burnham Square Condominiums and retaining walls along the paths. (source) The Columbus Metropolitan Library records that Burnham Square and the arena replaced the prison buildings. (source) By 2014 Nationwide's developers counted about $1 billion of building around the arena on what had been a dreary industrial area and a run-down prison. (source)

Stones at the stadium's edge

In September 2019 Columbus Landmarks confirmed that stones saved at the 1997 demolition were lying at the edge of the future Crew stadium site: two date stones of 1876 and 1878, a cornerstone naming the architect, caps, domes, lintels and vermiculated quoins from the upper Spring Street facade and the tower at Neil and Spring. (source) Nationwide Realty Investors, which owned them, gave them to Columbus Landmarks, and a neighboring developer's crew moved and stored the "boulders" while their reuse was planned. (source)

Myths and the record

• "Rinehart took a wrecking ball to the Pen's facade." Later retellings, including a 2015 radio obituary, say so. The Dispatch report of August 2, 1990 says he hit a one-story administration addition and wanted the four-story stone facade preserved.
• "The city had no demolition permit." Later accounts by WCBE and Belt Magazine say so. The 1990 report says only that he lacked the state's permission as landlord.
• "He did it before any deal was signed." The state itself spoke of an hours-old purchase agreement and a $100,000 down payment; the sale closed in 1995.
• "The Pen closed in 1979." One sentence of Ohio History Central says it housed prisoners until 1979, the year a court ordered it closed; the same page says the last prisoners left after an extended 1983 deadline, and the Urban Land Institute gives 1984.
• "The big arch in McFerson Commons came from the Pen." It is the 660-ton Union Station arch, the only remnant of Daniel Burnham's railroad station, moved to the park.
• "Rinehart wanted the whole prison gone." On the day of the swing he spoke of cleaning and keeping the stone front and later floated a tourist attraction; full demolition came under the arena deal.

Timeline

• 1813: The first state prison is built on a ten-acre lot fronting Scioto Lane. (source)
• 1832: On February 8 the General Assembly orders a new penitentiary for 500 convicts; the site is conveyed to the state on October 17. (source)
• 1833: Cholera halts construction for the summer. (source)
• 1834: Nathaniel Medbery becomes the first warden on October 27, and the convicts move in over the next two days. (source)
• 1837: The women's department opens, and the prison is completed on December 12 at a cost of $93,370. (source)
• 1839: Convicts at work on the new Statehouse are screened by a board fence. (source)
• 1849: Cholera kills 116 people inside the prison. (source)
• 1863: Gen. John Hunt Morgan and six others escape on the night of November 27. (source)
• 1868: Ten acres are added from the Goodale estate, walled in 1871. (source)
• 1877: The administration building is remodeled behind a new facade. (source)
• 1884: A March 24 law abolishes contract labor and introduces graded classes and parole. (source)
• 1885: An April 29 law moves all Ohio hangings inside the Pen. (source)
• 1897: The electric chair replaces the gallows. (source)
• 1913: The last women leave for the new Ohio Reformatory for Women at Marysville. (source)
• 1930: Fire on April 21 kills 322 inmates. (source)
• 1931: The legislature creates the Ohio Parole Board. (source)
• 1955: The population peaks at 5,235 in April. (source)
• 1963: The last of 315 electrocutions takes place. (source)
• 1968: The worst riot leaves five convicts dead. (source)
• 1972: Lucasville's Southern Ohio Correctional Facility begins receiving Pen prisoners. (source)
• 1984: The last prisoners leave. (source)
• 1990: On August 1 Mayor Rinehart swings a wrecking ball into the administration addition hours after a $100,000 down payment. (source)
• 1995: The state sells the prison to the City of Columbus. (source)
• 1997: Columbus wins an NHL expansion team with a fall 2000 arena deadline. (source)
• 1997: Demolition of the Pen is photographed from March to December. (source)
• 2000: Nationwide Arena opens in September. (source)
• 2015: Buck Rinehart dies on February 18. (source)
• 2019: Salvaged Pen stones are found at the edge of the future Crew stadium site and given to Columbus Landmarks. (source)

Sources

• archive.org: Alfred E. Lee, History of the City of Columbus, volume 1 (1892)
• archive.org: Alfred E. Lee, History of the City of Columbus, volume 2 (1892)
• web.archive.org: Ohio History Central, Ohio Penitentiary
• web.archive.org: Ohio History Central, Ohio Penitentiary Fire
• dispatch.com: The day the mayor knocked holes in the old Ohio Penitentiary, reprinting Pen Wrecking Ball Raises Ruckus (1990, 2012)
• wcbe.org: Former Columbus Mayor Dana "Buck" Rinehart Dead At 68 (2015)
• beltmag.com: Game Day at the Ohio Pen (2020)
• cwcolumbus.com: Hidden Histories, Ohio's deadliest fire (2025)
• casestudies.uli.org: Urban Land Institute, Arena District, Columbus, Ohio, case C037003 (2007)
• nationwiderealtyinvestors.com: Columbus provides blueprint for how to develop Mellon Arena site (2014)
• columbuslandmarks.org: Ohio Pen Stones Saved For Re-use (2019)
• digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org: Ohio Penitentiary exterior wall along Neil Avenue
• digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org: Ohio State Penitentiary administration building photograph
• digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org: Ohio State Penitentiary administration building
• mrps.org: Ohio Corrections Museum
• wosu.org: Ghost stories of the Shawshank Redemption prison live on in Mansfield (2025)
• digital-collections.columbuslibrary.org: Ohio Penitentiary demolition photographs (1997)