Four Young Entrepreneurs Spend a Night in Cornwall Jail

Cornwall, ON – The youthful team behind Canada’s fastest growing escape room company, ‘Escape Manor’, spent a night behind bars at the Cornwall Jail this past Monday, March, 27th.

The four business partners (also best friends) from Ottawa were onsite to create their latest experience, ‘Escape the Cornwall Jail’, (opening May 11th), when they decided to get a real feel for the 165-year-old prison by watching Shawshank Redemption in the courthouse followed by sleeping in the actual prison cells. After lots of laughs and little sleep, the boys were up and back at it creating their most interactive and immersive escape experience yet.

Escape the Cornwall Jail takes place in the (still functioning) courthouse, the Warden’s private quarters, and the Historic SDG prison itself. The one hour escape experience runs from May till November and features live actors immersed throughout the entire interactive engagement.

Incorporating history of the very storied facility, the escape scenario will play off of the true story of the Fenians escape from the jail in 1867. “It’s a unique experience people are going to want to try, said SDG Warden Jim Bancroft.  It’s a fantastic way to bring attention to the region and get people talking about Stormont, Dundas, and Glengarry as a visitor destination.”

“Escape rooms have become very popular tourist attractions worldwide and the Historic SDG Jail is the perfect location for participants to experience what it is like to be locked up behind bars in an authentic jail cell”, said Shauna Baggs, SDG Tourism Coordinator.  “We are hoping this new initiative will encourage participants to enjoy other SDG attractions.”

“Having recreated a prison cell as one of our first (and most popular) rooms back in 2014, we jumped at the chance to lock folks up in a real physical jail. Visiting the historic facility gave us all goosebumps. Imagining that feeling of confinement coupled with the excitement and exhilaration of an escape makes us giddy with excitement. This will be next level fun for folks from Cornwall, Ottawa, Montreal, & Massena”, said Steve Wilson, Co-Owner of Escape Manor.

Escape Manor has enjoyed symbiotic successes in partnering with Museums and historic facilities such as The Canadian Museum of Nature as well as The Diefenbunker, Canada’s Cold War Museum. The partnership at the Diefenbunker celebrated its one-year anniversary this month, is up for an Ottawa Tourism Award, and is lobbying Prime Minister Trudeau to follow his father’s footsteps with a visit (as Trudeau Sr. visited the facility in March of 1977).

‘Escape the Cornwall Jail’ is poised to open Thursdays through Sundays, starting this May 11th, and folks can learn more or reserve in advance at www.escapemanor.com