Manfield Reformatory's Resident Family
Mr. Theodore (Ted) Glattke is the youngest son of the “infamous” Superintendent Glattke, and his wife Helen who lived in the Mansfield Reformatory during the period from the late 1930s to the 1950’s. In December of 2003, I opened my E-mail with a message in my in-box from a “Theodore Glattke”. The message read as follows;
"I have recently found pictures attributed to Becky Shott on the Creepy Cleveland web site. If you are the person who submitted them and would like to receive some accurate information about the residence area of the Mansfield Reformatory, please let me know."
I replied immediately expressing my apologies for posting the information (incorrect) that I learned, and accepted Ted Glattke’s offer to work together and shed a more accurate light of the Glattke Family and the Mansfield Reformatory. It is important that the truth is told. For the past two years, Ted and I have exchanged numerous E-mails. He has been kind enough to answer all of my questions and share as many stories as possible about the Glattke Family and his life as a child. Some stories are personal and I cannot appreciate Ted giving me as much time as he has as well as the respect, trust and friendship that has grown between us.
Rebecca (Shott) Muller & Theodore Glattke, Mansfield Reformatory
9/17/2005.
(c) www.rebeccashott.com
Currently Ted is a professor at the University of Arizona in the Speech, Language and Hearing Departments. In the fall of 2005, he will also be team teaching Biology of Sensation and Anatomy & Physiology of the Auditory and Vestibular Systems.
Ted invited me to personally meet him at the Mansfield Reformatory on September 17th, and I was told by Ted to bring a tape recorder and note everything we discuss as we have a VIP tour of the facility. Meeting “Ted” at the Mansfield Reformatory for a personal interview and a four-hour long private VIP tour of the Living Quarters and other locations throughout the facility is one of my highlights of 2005.
With all due respect, I give you a personal look into the life of Mr. Theodore Glattke, the Glattke Family and the Mansfield Reformatory!
History of Arthur and Helen Glattke
Before taking the stairs to the second level Ted conveyed some history on his parents to us. Arthur Sr. and Helen met in 1930 while working on an editorial campaign for the Governor of Ohio, Martin Davey. Governor Davey appointed Arthur Sr. as Superintendent. The title “Superintendent” was used rather than Warden, because at the time the Glattkes lived at the Mansfield Reformatory it was an all young boys’ detention-like center with a mission to reform those who have done wrong. It was not considered a prison until after the Glattke Family was no longer in residence. (*Note: Ted cannot verify that the nature of the place changed after the Glattkes departed. He thought it always was a “reformatory” for 16-30 year-old first offenders, even though it always has been a rather forbidding structure.)
Ted’s Mother, Helen, was Catholic, and Superintendent Glattke was Jewish when they married in the 1930s. Few guests attended due to the differences in religion. The Glattke children were raised Catholic. Arthur and Helen Glattke are buried in a small Catholic cemetery in Toledo, Ohio. Arthur’s parents, two of his brothers and other family members are buried in a Jewish cemetery across the Maumee river east of Toledo, Ohio.
Tour of the Living Quarters
The general design of the living quarters followed Victorian style, in that the ceilings and windows were tallest on the ground floor, smaller (lower ceiling) on the second floor and smallest (lowest) on the third floor.
Main Entrance
When entering the Living Quarters there are two sets of doors. The large wooden doors were left wide open except in the worst weather and in the little porch area between the sets of doors is where the Glattke children (Arthur Jr. and Ted) kept their toys. The second set of doors with large glass windows were what the Glattkes used as their main entrance. Walking into the newly renovated main hallway, Ted told a story of how the neighborhood children would gather to play, perform plays and have dance recitals.
In the duration of the Glattkes’ stay at the Mansfield Reformatory, Ted was only aware of one elevator that was located was not in use in the Living Quarters. He thought that the elevator did not work and cannot remember if it were ever used. Next to the elevator door sat their telephone, a 1940’s style phone, which was unique for the time period. The Glattkes also had operating short-wave radios in the 1940’s, which they listened to often, another trait that put the family ahead of the times.
Floor One
The first room inside the hallway, where the Gift Shop is currently located, was the Glattke’s living room. Ted spoke of how they had such a huge Christmas tree in the northwest corner of the room which fell over one year! A piano, some pieces of furniture and a lovely fire place made the room a comfortable Living area.
Past the living room is the dining room. Attached to the dining room are two small “closets” used for storage by the MRPS today, but the larger of the two was the kitchen. Ted pointed out where the appliances once stood. The smaller room was the pantry, which is connected to the kitchen by a door that the MRPS staff keeps locked. Ted told stories of how the trustee inmates who worked in the residence stored the dinnerware, dishes and served the food from the pantry. He also laughed as he spoke about coming down to “raid the kitchen” as any other child when he became hungry during the night.
Mrs. Helen Glattke did cook many dinners and the family enjoyed eating them seated around the large dining room table. Mrs. Glattke loved to preserve food. Because of the amount of pickling and canning she did, an entire room was reserved for her in the basement. I was told that for years after she passed away, there was enough of her pickled and stored food to provide treats for Arthur Sr., Arthur Jr. and Ted.
The room directly to the right when walking through the main entrance was the Glattke’s television room. On the south end of the room, where the two high windows face out to the grand front porch, the television set sat between them. After the “tree falling incident” in the living room, the Glattke Family decided on two smaller trees in each of the front windows on both sides of the TV. There was a “Mansfield Reformatory” sign outside of the front door that can now be seen in this particular room of the museum.
Through the TV room, which is now part of the museum where many artifacts, photos and autographed pictures of movie stars that visited the prison hang, was the library. Now, part of the museum, a replica of “Old Sparky” sits enclosed in a glass box, as do many other artifacts, weapons and utensils made and used by the inmates and guards at the Mansfield Reformatory. Ted remembers this room as having green wallpaper. Chuckling, he told us a story of when he was playing baseball at a young age out in the parking lot and broke one of the windows (curved glass) in the bay area facing the parking lot.
Ted was surprised when he noticed there was no longer a fireplace in the “library”. Keeping in mind that many renovations have taken place since the original structure was built, Ted described where the fireplace should have been and where it has been covered up to make a smooth wall in a renovation years ago. A couple of MRPS staff members joined us on the tour with Ted and no one was aware of the fact that there used to be a fireplace where there used to be, so that renovation took place at least 15 years or so ago.
The last room newly renovated past the library and “Old Sparky” was what the Glattkes considered their utility room. Ted showed us where pipes extracted from the floor and explained how a big utility bathtub was once in along the south wall of the room. Here, he explained, is where their large family dogs were bathed. The Glattkes often had at two large dogs at a time. The turrets in the room were used for nothing but storage. Later in years, he heard that this particular room was then used for a
Floor Two
From the stairs on the second floor is an elevator on the right. As far as we know, this was the only working elevator that Ted was aware of during his time at the Reformatory.
Immediately to the left is Arthur Sr. and Helen's bathroom. All of the fixtures have been removed. Ted specifically remembered a shower stall because a MRPS member with us asked if the shower stall was in the turret. Instead of a shower stall, Helen Glattke stored beer, what she called "Buckeye Beer". Looking out the bathroom window is a plain view of the East Cell Block and one of the parking areas. Along the exterior of the Living Quarters and the East Cell Block, where there is an open parking area close to the buildings, you can see the remnants of where the original parking garage once stood.
The first bedroom on the East side of the hallway after Superintendent and Helen’s bathroom is Ted’s room. Where the small kitchen is located currently is where the bathroom used to be when the bedroom belonged to Ted. He described the bathroom as the tub being where the sink is, the toilet was by the window and the sink was straight across from the bathtub.
His bed was planted right next to the bathroom door. The walls of the bedroom were painted blue. The windows allow a nice view and a lot of natural sunlight to pour into the room. Where the fireplace is located now, Ted had a religious shrine set up and prayed often as expected with his Catholic upbringing.
The next bedroom, located at the “front” of the Living Quarters on the southeast corner of the hallway is Superintendent Arthur and Helen Glattke’s bedroom. The Glattkes preferred separate beds; Arthur Glattke Sr.’s bed stood next to the closet door where Mrs. Glattke’s was near the front of the bedroom coming out from the side wall.
It is in this bedroom where the infamous stories of Mrs. Helen Glattke’s unfortunate death began. As told by Ted himself, the family was preparing for Sunday morning mass at approximately 7:00am on November 5, 1950 when Helen reached up in her closet knocking a loaded gun off of the top shelf. When the gun hit the floor, Helen was accidentally shot. She called for Art Jr., whose bedroom was directly across from Arthur Sr. and Helen’s bedroom, who then ran to find his Father. Helen was taken away by ambulance and spent two days at the Mansfield General Hospital. Two days later on November 7th Helen passed. Internal bleeding and loss of blood which would be a simple problems to mend today, were responsible for the loss of Helen’s life.
Directly across the south end of the hallway from the “master bedroom” was Art Jr.’s bedroom. It was and still is indeed a large size. It is not hard to imagine all of the adventures that were created with the amount of room and windows that could have been used for all sorts of imagery. Ted commented about how his brother had “cowboy” wallpaper on the walls of his bedroom. The group of us examined closely and found a very small, less than a cubic-foot of cowboy paper that had somehow been salvaged after the many coats of paints on top of it. One of the MRPS members decided to take the wallpaper and save it to display at the MRPS museum on the first floor of the Living Quarters.
