Subtitle: What is there now that the boys would remember?
Strange as it may seem, some BIS (aka FSB) boys have written asking this question and those really concerned have made pilgrimages back to “the Hill” six miles south of Lancaster, Ohio, just to see if they would recognize the place. As much as some boys, like Lester (Bob) Hope who was in the Hocking family cottage in 1918. despised the place, it may be hard for onlookers to believe any former BIS-FSB boy would wonder what is there now that he would want to remember?
- Current SCI campus — much of old BIS-FSB is not in this projection; the road coming in from the left is one where you come through the ”white stone entrance” on BIS Road.
The campus photo above shows the current Southeastern Correctional Institution in a Summer view. Picture provided by Rick Chuvalas, SCI Correction Warden Assistant. This SCI campus photo does not show the entire property when the BIS-FSB was there so the range then (1979 and before) would have included agricultural areas of fruit trees, berry bushes and vegetables which provided the variety of labor useful in the mission statement mentioned in a following paragraph. Only three of the fifteen cottages are still standing; the missing cottages would have been in the upper left-hand and the central area of this photo, the footprint of the BIS-FSB campus has be considerably changed and or re-arranged. There were no razor-wire fences (as shown in the above picture) when the BIS-FSB was in operation–no walls or fences; any boy could “walk off” or “run away” but routinely they would be found and had a stay in the ANNEX for whatever length was appropriate for running away.
Specifically it is necessary to address the question, “What buildings are left standing?” Checking with Mike Tharp, former FSB Barber Shop School instructor, we have come up with the following list:
1. CATHOLIC CHAPEL – Formerly Auglaize Cottage – 1889
2. MAUMEE COTTAGE - 1931
3. MUSKINGUM COTTAGE – 1880 [Muskingum-Hocking]
4. DIXON HONOR DORM – (Early Supt. Residence – 1889)
5. ADMINISTRATION BUILDING – 1904
6. REMEELIN SCHOOL – 1869 (also called Consolidated)
7. LAUNDRY SHOP – 1901
8. VOCATIONAL BUILDING
9. GREENHOUSE (WEST) – 1904
10. VOCATIONAL AUTO BODY SHOP
11. ANNEX – 1958
12. VOCATIONS AND MAINTENANCE CARPENTRY SHOPS
13. POWER PLANT – 1928, 1960 (Remodeled)
14. DAIRY BARN – 1905
15 CALF BARN – 1917
16. DRILL HALL (Armory or Jennings Hall) – 1896
This is the Muskingum-Hocking Cottage, still standing.
The above photo shows the Maumee Cottage, still standing.
The Dixon Honor Dorm, above, was the Superintendent’s Residence
in early years of the Boys Industrial School (This is still standing,
although time has taken its toll on this fine old mansion.)
The above list constitutes what buildings are still standing that were there as late as 1979 before the State of Ohio began their change-over to an adult prison facility. Sixteen buildings may seem like a substantial group of still-standing buildings but when you consider the immense number of shops, schools and apartment buildings the number of buildings razed to change the campus to become the South Central Institution could be itemized in acres to say the campus was made up of 137 acres; however specifically records indicates there were only 6.82 acres of buildings. As stats go, this seems to say, “If you stacked all the buildings in a group, however wide or square and high your group would need to contain, the buildings would fill slightly less than 7 acres of ground.” It is more practical to this compiler to accept the basic fact: The campus was made up of 137 acres. Now, what is the total acreage of the BIS-FSB, including the 137 acre campus? The answer to that is 1,687 acres.
What was the “form and function” of the campus of the BIS-FSB? Lifting the quote of the mission statement oft mentioned in reports, we find: “The institution was founded to educate, reform, train and rehabilitate boys committed by the courts.” How big would the campus need to be? A breakdown of land went like this:
Cultivated 408 acres
Wooded 876 acres
Pasture 231 acres
Recreation 15 acres
Then the campus (buildings and ground) figure was listed as 137 acres. You don’t stack buildings on top of one another so that 6.82 figure is a little jaded or unclear. Before the grand demolition project there were 78 (seventy-eight) buildings at the BIS-FSB so any boy making a pilgrimage to the BIS-FSB Campus would only find roughly 20% (16) of the buildings left standing.
There were eight (8) education buildings; ten (10) agriculture related buildings; one administration building; six (6) recreation buildings; nineteen (19) residences; ten (10) service buildings; and twenty-three (23) storage buildings.
The following photos show what casual visitors would see today. If you hang around too long you may be approached by a guard who will inform you that you are trespassing — treat him (her) nice and you may be able to stick around longer. The corner or identifying stones from the old cottages have been used to make up a MEMORIAL WALL as shown below; listed in this display are names of former employees (teachers, instructors and other personnel). (The former lily pond is “to the right below and behind” where this wall stands and the Dixon Honor Dorm is to the left of this wall.)
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THANKS to “the boys” who spent some time at the BIS-FSB who wrote, asking about “the Hill”.
THE WORDWRIGHT – “THANKS for the memories, huh?”