MANSFIELD — The Bissman Building on North Main Street adds a unique, albeit eerie, element to downtown.
Engineered and constructed by the same contractors as the Ohio State Reformatory in 1886, the Gothic Romantic structure was home to the Bissman family’s wholesale grocery distribution center up until the mid 1970s.
Now the 130-year-old building serves as the headquarters of Pirate Printing, a Bissman family-owned printing and embroidery business.
It’s also host to history tours and ghost walks, giving visitors the chance to hear hair-raising stories of the past while moving about the 50,000 square-foot edifice.
History
The Bissman family traveled by steam ship from Germany to the U.S. in 1853, ultimately settling in Mifflin.
Peter Bissman, son of Michael Bissman, worked at The Tracy and Avery Company as a boy and later decided to open his own wholesale grocery business where the Richland Carrousel Park is currently located. In 1886, the Bissman Company moved to where it stands today at 193 N. Main St.
Since the Bissmans were in the business of receiving, warehousing, and distributing groceries, the building was built at an angle near the railroad tracks.
For about 90 years, the Bissman Company supplied the greater Mansfield area with various grocery products, including Bissman’s Red Band Coffee, hand rolled Cuban cigars, private labeled canned goods, and a wide array of alcoholic beverages.
Read Tim McKee’s Then and Now piece.
The Bissman Company ended its successful run as a grocery distributor in 1976 but remained in the beer distribution business into the early 2000s.
Benjamin Franklin Bissman IV currently owns the building with his wife Amber and they have two sons, Ben and Bob, to carry on their legacy.
“I was involved in the business as a young boy doing chores and was given more responsibilities as I got older,” Ben Bissman said.
His first “official” job was emptying his grandfather’s spittoon.
He fondly remembers making deliveries with some of the employees and getting to hear stories about his ancestors.
“I remember playing hide and seek with my buddies when we were young and since the building is so vast, it was really hard to find people,” he recollected.
One of the Bissmans’ main goals today is preservation.
“We’re continually investing in repairs,” Bissman noted.
Hollywood
Without having an exact number in mind, project manager Joe James said the Bissman Building has served as the filming site for hundreds of productions, most notably the cult-classic film, “The Shawshank Redemption.”
A first-floor room was transformed into the “Portland Daily Bugle” editor-in-chief’s office, and the facade of the building was used to portray the Brewer Hotel in the film.
Ben Bissman IV witnessed the filming of the movie and even served as an extra, along with his wife and father.
A team of paranormal investigators known as TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society) visited the historic building to film an episode for Syfy’s “Ghost Hunters.”
The Bissman Building was also featured in the shows “My Ghost Story” and “Ghost Asylum,” the movie “The Dead Matter,” and a music video for Mushroomhead.
Hauntings
It’s not called the “Haunted Bissman Building” for nothing.
Many people have claimed that they sensed a paranormal presence while roaming around the building and some have even taken pictures of what appears to be a ghost. One photo in particular shows what resembles a head lying next to the elevator.
According to James, an employee with the Bissman Company named F.W. Simon was decapitated while riding the elevator down from the fourth floor, where he was floor manager, on his last day of work in 1911.
There’s rumor that a young girl is buried in the basement. Some who support this claim believe it could be Ruthie Bissman, the granddaughter of Peter Bissman.
“About 10 or 15 years ago, a physic visited the building,” James said. “She was standing in the front office and looked up at the stairs and said, ‘There’s a little girl standing at the top of those stairs.’
“So then we started doing some research and a Ruthie Bissman came up. Well, all the Bissmans are buried in the Mansfield Cemetery, except for Ruthie. We can’t even find a death certificate for her. So then some of the older employees came around who said they’ve heard stories of stories that there’s a little girl buried in the basement…”
According to James, many paranormal investigators have attempted to communicate with Ruthie.
“The weird thing is, through the paranormal investigations, a lot of interesting EVPs (electronic voice phenomena) have come out of it,” he said.
To experience the Bissman Building for yourself, take a daytime tour or attend one of the special events. There will be a public paranormal investigation on Saturday, Oct. 29 and the Ghost Walk Food Drive on Saturday, Nov. 5. For more information about these events, visit www.hauntedbissmanbuilding.com.
