LIMA, Ohio - It opened in 1915 as a state hospital for the criminally insane - a hulking fortress considered the second largest poured concrete structure in the world. The Pentagon is first.

Lima State Hospital - and, after 1982, Lima Correctional Institution - was at times in its nearly 90 years the world's largest institution for the criminally insane, a place of horrific treatment by ignorant employees, the cause of a landmark 1974 lawsuit that mandated badly needed changes, the filming location for a TV movie on the Attica prison riot, a steady and welcome employer in the Lima community, and the site of a brutal murder of a young social worker by inmates.

The 2,200-inmate prison is now empty.

The doors were to be locked this morning after the last remaining employee, a payroll clerk, finished out the final payroll period.

Despite an aggressive year-long fight by local and state representatives to keep the prison open, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction officially "de-commissioned" the prison last week - a move intended to save the state $25 million a year.

The last inmates were moved to other Ohio prisons April 14. Workers have dispersed to other prisons, other jobs, or early retirement.

With the closure went 500 full-time employees, $300,000 a year in city income taxes, $100,000 in city water bills, and a community spirit that for decades has embraced the generally unpopular business of running prisons.

Even with the loss of Lima Correctional, the city still is home to Allen Correctional Institution, a medium-security prison for men, and Oakwood Correctional Facility, the state's only prison for psychiatric patients.

"There never has been a reluctance in Lima for that to be there," said Mayor David Berger. "I think that's part of what has been so stunning in this closure is there has been such a level of support for so long for the DRC and its predecessors that I think people were really astounded that we took what was in effect the biggest hit of any single community in Ohio as the state balanced its budget."

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While former Lima Correctional workers are sentimental about their years at the medium-security men's prison, people like Robert Mihlbaugh know the prison wasn't always a well-run lock-up.

The Lima attorney grew up hearing guards from the state hospital brag and laugh about how they beat and abused patients. Decades later, Mr. Mihlbaugh took then-Ohio Attorney General William J. Brown to Lima State for an unannounced visit.

The two were shocked at the conditions.

Through an open slot in a door, they found an elderly woman locked day and night in a shower room where, they were told, cleaning up her messes was easier.

They went upstairs to the now-infamous "Ward 21" where patients were ordered to sit all day long in heavy wood chairs without moving or speaking.

"The totality of the whole thing was just beyond belief," Mr. Mihlbaugh said. "I knew it was a very bad place."

A subsequent investigation by the attorney general's office and the Ohio Highway Patrol ultimately lead to the indictment of dozens of employees and a long list of mandated changes at the institution.

Today, Lima State's predecessor, Oakwood Correctional is a fully accredited psychiatric hospital.

Mr. Mihlbaugh, who still practices law in Lima, is glad he did the right thing. It helped, he said, to have the support of state officials, including Gov. John J. Gilligan, but, "It was no picnic. A few threats on my life and all that."

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The pale blue halls of the massive prison are now eerily quiet, surprisingly not as clean, workers say, as when inmates filled the cellblocks and dorms.

"This is probably the worst shape it's ever been in," Thomas Haithcock said quietly as he walked the empty halls one day last week.

"These floors used to shine," added Cynthia Zwiebel, a 16-year employee.

Mr. Haithcock was working in the kitchen at the state hospital in the late 1970s when filmmakers came to town to film the ABC TV movie Attica in the prison's inner courtyard. The filmmaker recreated the famous New York Attica prison riot there, saying it had a startling similarity to the one at Attica.

The venture brought an estimated $750,000 to the city.

"I remember the extras and the extra food I got," Mr. Haithcock said with a laugh.

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Rumors abound about what might happen to Lima Correctional, but Andrea Dean, spokesman for the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, insists no decision has been made about its future.

"We haven't talked about any plans for the prison at this point. There haven't been any discussions at all," she said. "We are mothballing the facility right now because we don't have any plans."

Mayor Berger said he has asked ODNR Director Reginald Wilkinson to meet with him this fall to talk about the possibilities for the empty prison. It's too large for a single user, he said, but could be leased by a variety of users. He's not sure who that might be.

"It is in good shape," the mayor said. "There is just no question the state maintained it well and rather than just allow it to deteriorate through mothballing, I think we ought to be thinking about how its various components can be used."

In recent years, the state has invested some $40 million in improvements at the prison, Ms. Dean said, including a new gymnasium, a vocational training building, a new segregation unit, a new entrance building, and new windows.

Some of the improvements, she said, came in the aftermath of the Aug. 6, 1996, murder of Bonita Haynes.

Ms. Haynes, a 29-year-old social worker at Lima Correctional, was found in a bathroom at the prison with her throat slashed. Two inmates were convicted in the murder.

It was a difficult time, former employees say, but the prison came out of it a better, safer place.

"It did bring about some changes - good changes that needed to be in place," said Carmen White, who now works as secretary to the warden at Oakwood.

Three plaques paying tribute to Ms. Haynes hang just inside the prison walls. They're one of the last things visitors see before leaving.

For employees who say the prison was simply a good place to work, it's been a long and difficult good-bye. Even in the toughest economic times, working at Lima Correctional has meant a stable, recession-proof paycheck, and many employees had been there for decades.

"This place was more like family than any other place," said Jeff Leonard of Alger, Ohio. "We had each other's backs all the time - we were together for so long."

Contact Jennifer Feehan at: jfeehan@theblade.com or 419-353-5972.

First Published June 27, 2004, 11:59 a.m.