It’s All in The Turn
Rebecca McKinnell – Archivist
Architect Levi Scofield’s design for the Ohio State Reformatory was a stark contrast in materials. The back of the prison may have been filled with iron bars and steel locks but the transitional room, the Central Guard Room, married steel bars with Gothic marble arches. Once you moved to the front of the building which housed both administrative offices and staff living quarters, attention was paid to the tiniest detail: the doorknobs.
In his specifications, Scofield called for a brass doorknob which was to have “the state coat of arms on the front” or as we could call it today, the seal of the State of Ohio.
These beautiful, solid brass doorknobs with ornate face plates were put on plaques and given to retiring corrections officers.
They were also an attractive to steal ironically in a prison. Through oral histories, I’ve been told that both inmates and guards would steal the knobs to be sold and melted down for the brass. It might be more be easier to believe a guard may have taken them only because of easier access but in a prison, one never knows! By the 1960’s, a psychologist working at OSR told me he saw guards being sent around the administrative areas removing the doorknobs for safekeeping. The doorknobs and face plates were put into boxes and ended up at ManCi after OSR closed.
When Frank Darabont, director of the movie Shawshank Redemption, and his production crew arrived at OSR to begin filming they needed doorknobs for the doors in the movie shots.
Hollywood, ever resourceful, were able to get one of the original doorknobs and created molds from which doorknobs made of resin were produced and placed on the doors. So, when you watch Shawshank Redemption the next time, see if you can tell the real doorknob from the resin ones.
For a simple doorknob, it was a real turn of events.
