Bissman Building
Phone:800-642-8282 (CVB) for information
Address:
193 N. Main St.
Mansfield, OH 44902
Shawshank Redemption Trail: The Bissman Building was the site of the Brewer Hotel where Brooks, actor James Whitmore, went to stay and hung himself soon after being paroled from The Shawshank Prison.
The building was also utilized in the film as the front office of the building for the set of the Portland Daily Bugle.
The structure was built in 1886 where Peter Bissman's expanded wholesale grocery still stands today, but not in operation. In the early 1930s the twenty smokestacks on the north and south sides of the Bissman's filled the early morning air with the rich aroma of coffee, as its own brands Red Ban Java Blend, Steel Cut and Acme were prepared fresh each day. Downtown residents would wake to the scent of roasting coffee beans and return home at workday's end to the fragrance of roasting peanuts.
The building has an early Romantic Gothic styling and shares a haunting similarity with the Historic Ohio State Reformatory since they were both built in the same year by the same architect.
In 2007 the building was leased to a major film production company, the Midnight Syndicate, for the production of The Dead Matter, a vampire movie to be released in October of 2008.
The Bissman building, nicknamed as Dead Souls Studio, has a long history of haunted activities and has hosted ghost hunters from all directions including a recent visit from English ghost hunter Ellis Byrd of Gussethunters Paranormal.
This building is on private property and is not available for tours. Visitors can take photos of the outside of the building.
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