Abandoned century-old Ontario prison has sat rotting and forgotten for decades

An old Ontario prison built in the early 1900s has spent the better part of the last quarter-century abandoned and decaying — a deteriorating relic from a harsh bygone era of corrections in the province.

The Guelph Correctional Centre opened in 1910 as the Ontario Reformatory, and saw prisoners pass through its gates for almost a century before it was closed down in 2002. 

The prison was constructed by the very population it would eventually house, with the first inmates constructing cell blocks from stone quarried on the correctional centre's grounds. 

Guelph's corrections castle was the brainchild of Ontario politician William John Hanna (1862–1919), who championed reforms for what was then a rather archaic prison system in the province. The Ontario Reformatory would ultimately be the crown jewel of Hanna's push for prison reform, in both form and function.

A grand structure would come to dominate the surrounding pastoral landscape along the Eramosa River, built in the Beaux Arts style of architecture popular in the early 20th century, and seen elsewhere in the province in beloved landmarks like Toronto's Union Station and Princes' Gates.

As the name implies, the reformatory intended to rehabilitate prisoners for reintegration into society. At the time, this was a pretty forward-thinking approach to corrections, though some aspects of prison life in the early 20th century would seem archaic today.

Among them, the use of prisoner labour seems outmoded by today's standards, though it proved instrumental in establishing the facility.

Within a few years of the prison's groundbreaking, inmate work groups had gone from mining quarries and building foundations to residing within a modern (for the time) facility, operating a self-sustaining farm and industrial facility on site. 

By 1916, the prison was the largest in Ontario, housing more than 650 inmates, though this population would grow in the years that followed as wounded soldiers returned from overseas service. The prison was temporarily shut down in 1917 and converted into the Guelph Military Convalescent Hospital, allowing more than 900 wounded veterans to recover from injuries sustained during World War I. The still relatively new prison complex would return to its intended purpose in 1921.

Despite a shift towards a harsher approach to corrections in the years following World War II, the prison remained true to its roots as a model of productivity. Its inmate population worked the on-site farm to produce enough food to supply the entire provincial prison system, and its stone quarry remained productive in the postwar years.

Forty years after construction started, Guelph's prison softened its iron grip on inmate life, though this may have backfired a couple of years later, when a July 1952 riot swept the complex, shaping future prison control methods in the province.

Life gradually improved in the decades that followed, with the introduction of new amenities and services for inmates, culminating in the privatization of the prison's operations and closure of its on-site farm in 1972 as the site entered its next phase of life as the Guelph Correctional Centre.

However, the building continued to show its age in the latter years of the 20th century and was finally decommissioned in 2002.

Now, 24 years later, the grounds are abandoned and overgrown, and a popular — though illegal — spot for urban explorers. However, if you'd like to safely explore the exterior of the prison for yourself, you can experience guided tours of the grounds hosted by Guelph Urbex Walking Tours.

In 2016, Infrastructure Ontario completed an environmental remediation with the intention to sell off the property, though this never materialized, and the former reformatory lands are now used for public recreation and environmental education.

The City of Guelph has since advanced exploratory plans to establish a heritage conservation district, which would see the aging prison buildings preserved.

Though nature continues to reclaim the site, the complex has been given a new life as a filming location for major productions, including a recent stint on Prime's streaming series, The Boys.

Guelph's abandoned prison is clearly a major draw for superhero franchises in general and was also used as a filming location in the HBO Max series Titans, portraying Arkham Asylum from the DC Comics universe.

But superheroes or not, the one common thread in the prison's post-corrections on-screen appearances is the facility playing…well, prisons. Films like Cell 213 and series like Y: The Last Man have all taken advantage of the prison's imposing architecture and abandoned aesthetic.

The Guelph Correctional Centre is located at 785 York Rd., Guelph, Ont.