was built in 1886 where Peter Bissman's expanded wholesale grocery still stands today, but not in operation. In the early 1930s the twenty smokestacks on the north and south sides of the Bissman's filled the early morning air with the rich aroma of coffee, as its own brands Red Ban Java Blend, Steel Cut and Acme were prepared fresh each day. Downtown residents would wake to the scent of roasting coffee beans and return home at workday's end to the fragrance of roasting peanuts.

The building has an early Romantic Gothic styling and shares a haunting similarity with the Historic Ohio State Reformatory since they were both built in the same year by the same architect.

In 2007 the bissman building was leased out to a film crew to make a movie called The Dead Matter it's a vampire/zombie movie.

There have been movies like Shawshank Redemption filmed there.The Bissman Building was never a hotel building it was a grocery store back in the day in Shawshank Redemption you see Brooks walking out the door of the Bissman Building.

Please Check Out The Official Website For The Bissman Building

In the history of the building, it has been a meeting house, a jail, Masonic temple, and a school. The third floor is occupied by a theater. The ghost is that of a man who didn’t want the theater incorporated into the building. He often shows himself when there are no activities taking place.

From this picture i didn’t see a third floor on this building i am not sure if this the original building or not i will have to do more investigating.If anyone knows what happened to the real Bellville Opera House please let me know

Known as the ugliest man who ever lived, Tom Lyons is said to haunt the park. He was an Indian who wore a necklace made of 99 tongues of white men. He vowed to get the one hundredth tongue before he died. He was killed on the stagecoach road and thrown into Killbuck Swamp before he could get his last tongue. His ghost now roams the park with an axe, looking for his last tongue.