Shawshank Prison Gets Joliet Visit

JOLIET, IL - One of the biggest projects underway at Joliet's City Hall and the Joliet Area Historical Museum involves the restoration of the Old Joliet Prison. Later this summer, Joliet hopes to start allowing tourists into the prison grounds for limited bus tours. A major fund-raising event for the Old Joliet Prison including live music acts, is set for August. But Joliet has no experience operating a historic prison as a tourism magnet despite the best of intentions. So, in late April, a number of city officials, along with representatives of the Joliet Chamber of Commerce and the Route 66 museum, made a one-day trip to Ohio.

There, they toured the Ohio State Reformatory, the prison that now serves as a popular Midwest tourism draw. It's the prison better known as Shawshank State Prison, the backdrop for one of the all-time great movies. The 1994 film, based on the Stephen King novella called "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption," starred actors Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins.

On Friday afternoon, Joliet Patch interviewed Greg Peerbolte, executive director of the Joliet museum, to get his insight on his visit Shawshank prison.

"We were generously approached by (Joliet businessman) Terry D'Arcy who offered to fly a few of us from the Chamber and the city and the museum out to the site just to talk to their administrative team to explore the pitfalls and the possibilities that they've encountered," Peerbolte explained.

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"Certainly the Shawshank prison has a really notable reputation in pop culture ... pretty much the majority of what they're doing, and they have a multi-million dollar budget, is coming off just earned income from tours, which is incredible. They said they get visitors from (around) the country. They primarily draw from the major cities in Ohio. I felt they felt we were very poised for success with our proximity to Chicago, with the Route 66 corridor .... It was a very valuable exercise."

What else did he learn?

"They've done kind of a remodel in one of their administrative areas that they've turned into a gallery type space with artifacts. And I asked them 'Well, what was the capital campaign like?' And there was no capital campaign," he laughed. "They funded that off income. They also let us know that they don't really pursue grants at all. They don't have a formal relationship with an entity. The non-profit that owns the property owns it lock stock and barrel outright."

There are some key differences between Shawshank Prison in Ohio and the Old Joliet Prison made famous by the Blues Brothers, a limestone facility that dates back to the 1850s.

"They did not have the neglect factor that we had for fifteen years and the destruction factor," Peerbolte noted.

"And I noticed you had a lot of areas they were still working on. They've been out there for 20 years, and there are still areas that are roped off, under construction. There's no paint on the walls, there's exposed ceiling beams, so 20 years later to know that they're still putting resources into the buildings ... I think is telling that this is a long game and a long-term project. And that's OK. That's working for them, and I think that will work for us too."

Joliet Patch asked Peerbolte what's practical for the short-term.

"The name of the game is secure and stabilize right now," he said. "We're not going to remodel and offer the whole site for visitors. It's going to start as probably primarily a path tour within the walls. We hope we're able to open up a couple buildings to people and from there as we earn tour revenue, we expand it out, we identify other buildings we want ... we just target buildings, a multi-month, multi-year plan.

"This summer I think we just want to meet that immediate demand of getting people behind those walls to see what we all have in there, which is a lot. I don't think a lot of people know you're talking over two dozen buildings inside the walls alone."

Patch asked Peerbolte whether it was realistic to expect the prison tours will start this coming summer.

"I believe so, I believe so," he repeated.

Main image and other images of Shawshank Prison via Steve Jones, city of Joliet economic development director