The Arena District: A Neighborhood 170 Years in the Making

-The Ohio Penitentiary was opened as a source of civic pride with 189 prisoners in 1834, and closed 150 years later in 1984. 

-It was located on a 22-acre plot on West Spring Street between West Street and Neil Avenue (former Dennison Avenue). 

-Built in limestone in an ornate style, the administration building occupied nearly the length of Spring Street and a 24-foot wall surrounded the site. 

-An additional floor and new facade featuring a heavy masonry cornice were added in 1877. 

-The Pen was built at a cost of more than $93,000, including an estimated $78,000 of inmate labor.

-Historian Martin Fornshell described the Pen as standing alone “in the imposing and massive grandeur of its severe and stately front---a silent and frowning warning to the observer of the majesty of the law and the consequences which are sure to follow and overtake those who indult or violate its imperial dignity and sovereign mandates.”

-The stone and steel structure of the Ohio Pen was referred as an “acre of sorrow” by an account in 1908 because of many sad incidences such as the 1849 cholera epidemic that claimed one quarter of the prison’s 423 inmates. 

-Although the practice of whipping was abolished in 1844, punishment by dunking, time in the “sweatbox” and electrical shock were still employed.

-The Ohio Pen gained a national reputation as a model prison in the late 1880s.

-The 1930 Easter Monday Fire was the worst prison fire in U.S. history, which killed 322 inmates.  

-The fire started in New Hall, the present site of the Neil Avenue parking garage.

-New Hall was built in walls of stone and a wooden roof covered with slate.

-The fire was caused by three inmates who touched a candle flame to oily rags. Two later committed suicide.

-Guards were not trained to deal with fire, leading to the fatal delay in freeing the prisoners.

-A total of 315 persons, including three women were executed at the Pen.

Reference

Nationwide Reality Investors. (2006). The Arena District: A Neighborhood 170 Years in the Making. Columbus, OH: Michelle Chippas.