During its operation, it housed several well-known inmates, including General John H. Morgan, George "Bugs" Moran, O. Henry, Chester Himes, and Sam Sheppard.

[1] The prison was completed in 1815, replacing a more primitive one constructed by the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas a mile south in Franklinton.

Other squads took up vantage points in guard towers and by this time 500 soldiers from Fort Hayes, a local military post, were on the scene.

A troop of National Guardsmen soon augmented the regulars, and 30 minutes after the fire started the prison was completely surrounded.

Historians have disputed the veracity of this allegation, suggesting it was a means to divert attention from poor management of the fire.

[12] The incident was the subject of then-inmate Chester Himes' story "To What Red Hell", published in Esquire in 1934, as well as his 1952 novel Cast the First Stone, republished unabridged in 1998 as Yesterday Will Make You Cry.

[16] This case raised many ethical concerns, as many believe that it violated the bioethical principles of informed consent, non-maleficence, and beneficence.

[17] By 1979, the penitentiary had been renamed to the Columbus Correctional Facility, and was operating under a federal consent decree that mandated that it be closed by December 1983.

The building also served as the setting for the 1985 made-for-TV movie Love on the Run, starring Stephanie Zimbalist and Alec Baldwin.

[19] Before demolition was approved, the Columbus mayor at the time, Buck Rinehart, personally took a wrecking ball to a portion of the building prematurely, and was ordered to have the damage patched.