MANSFIELD, Ohio – To be more easily visible to tourists and locals alike, the Mansfield/Richland County Convention and Visitors Bureau on Friday, Aug. 7, added new Shawshank Trail signs to some of the most popular filming locations of “The Shawkshank Redemption.”
The signs, made by Tridico Sign Co., are double-sided, featuring a 2 foot reflective Shawshank Trail logo, and resemble the “Home of Shawshank Trail” welcome signs that lead into Mansfield, said Jodie Snavely, Group Tour and Media Director of the Mansfield/Richland County CVB.
“Right now, the ‘Shawshank’ filming sites have plaques on the sides of their buildings and stickers on their windows to help fans find the locations,” Snavely said. “The purpose of these new signs, which look like street signs, is to allow ‘Shawshank’ fans, visitors, and even local people, who don’t know where the sites are, to easily identify the locations.”
The Bissman Building, the Ohio State Reformatory, the Renaissance Theatre, and Malabar Farm State Park all had the new signs erected on Friday. The CVB hopes to eventually have signs at all 14 locations, according to Snavely.
The first site to receive a sign was the Bissman Building, located at 193 N. Main St. It was at the Bissman Building where Brooks Hatlen, a character from the film, checked into the Brewer Hotel after being released from Shawshank Prison.
“(The Brewer Hotel) was a boarding house,” said Ben Bissman, who was a fifth-generation owner of the Bissman Building. The building is now owned by Willis G. and Sherri L. Prout.
“James Whitmore (who plays Brooks Hatlen) actually filmed his scene in front of the building,” Bissman said.
Bissman went on to explain that the main office of the building was converted into the Portland Daily Bugle, a fictional newspaper from the film, by Castle Rock Entertainment.
“They spent $30,000 in the building with props and construction,” Bissman said of the production company. “And then they shot about a two-second scene for the movie – so that just shows you how much it can cost to do just one small scene.”
The ability for visitors to more easily recognize the filming locations, according to Bissman, will give the Shawshank Trail more of a “Hollywood look.”
“The Convention and Visitors Bureau has done such a good job getting the Shawshank tour on a national map that, without them, it wouldn’t be the same,” he said. “It’s all their good promoting and their professionalism that’s really made it come together to make us look good, and it has helped Mansfield dramatically.”
The Shawshank Trail was founded approximately eight years ago when the promoters of the “Shawshank” sites in Upper Sandusky, where the courthouse and wood shop scenes were filmed, contacted the Mansfield/Richland County CVB about creating an itinerary of the sites.
“Then we developed a brochure because fans were coming in and wanting to know where the tree was, where the reformatory was, where the Bissman Building was, so we put together the brochure to help them find all the locations,” Snavely said.
After the brochure came the website, www.shawshanktrail.com, and then a Facebook page, which has more than 61,000 followers.
“It’s really taken off over the years, and it’s become more popular because it’s out there and easier for them to find how to navigate from one location to another,” Snavely said.
Part of the trail’s popularity, according to Snavely, is the ability for fans to stand in “real locations and experience the movie for themselves.”
“This is a movie about hope and friendship, and for them to come and experience that in real life is amazing,” she added.
For information on the Shawshank Trail, visit www.shawshanktrail.com or www.mansfieldtourism.com.
