Toto, I don't think we're in Columbus anymore.

In fact, I know we're not in Columbus.

We're in Scioto County, headed for the historic city of Portsmouth, an important port on the Ohio River through much of its history.

It was the terminus of the Ohioan area canal starting in the 1830s, and that opened up trade to the interior of the state, and made Portsmouth an important transshipment point.

The problem was the Ohio River tended to flood, and in 1937 in particular was a very devastating flood.

But within six years, the federal government had built flood walls to protect the city.

The flood wall was very important to have to protect this city, but it was not a great piece of architecture or a great piece of art for that matter.

But local effort resulted in the creation of about 50 murals depicting a 2,000-year stretch of history in the Ohio Valley.

We'll make a quick stop to take a look at these murals before we go on and see some other interesting things here in Portsmouth.

Wow, these are amazing.

Look at the size of these murals.

The level of detail is really amazing.

Ohio and Erie Canal, that was really important to Portsmouth, and here's a scene along the canal.

1825 to 1913, it was that flood in 1913 that took out the canal prior to that 1937 flood that was so important in Portsmouth's history.

And here's the map of the canal route that came down to Portsmouth.

Here's a stone quarry, local industry.

And then down here a brick plant.

You don't see these here anymore.

These are historic industries.

Things have changed in Portsmouth.

It was known for a long time for shoe production.

The history of the place has been so well recorded in these murals.

A Civil War scene fighting for the Union depicted in amazing detail.

And then a memorial to the 56th Infantry.

A lot of monuments to the Civil War.

You can find them all around Ohio.

It just goes on and on.

I mean, this must go for close to a half mile.

It's definitely worth coming to Portsmouth to see these murals.

But I do have other places to go, so I think I'd better get on a move.

>>> Jeff.

>>> Hi Mark.

>>> Welcome to Portsmouth and the Southern Ohio Museum.

Thank you so much, I'm glad to be here.

My, what a space, what great building this is.

Tell me about it.

>>> Well, this building started out as a bank in 1919, the Security Central Bank, and in 1979, it was repurposed into the space you see now, the Southern Ohio Museum.

You see in the upper areas of the bank, classical elements, the columns, in the roundels, you'll see evidence that this was a bank.

There's a Lincoln penny and a Mercury dime, and Mr. Selby, who started the bank is pictured up there as well.

>>> Well, I thought I noticed that.

That looked like a coin in my pocket up there on that particular one.

>>> Probably is, but we kept that when we remodeled the building and kept the classical elements as much as we possibly can, but made it into a usable, wide-open museum.

Well this is a terrific space for exhibitions and that sort of thing.

Can I see some other places in the building?

You certainly may.

Should we go have a look?

Yes.

Oh, goodness, look at this.

Well, I thought you'd like this, Jeff.

Oh yea.

This is a real artifact from the original building.

Boy, it really is.

The original safe for the Security Central Bank.

It was left in place for obvious reasons.

It weighs several tons, and it would have been difficult to get it out of here.

But yeah, we kept it, and we don't keep money in it anymore.

But valuables.

Valuables and it's a piece of sculpture in itself.

So it's a piece of sculpture itself.

So it is a work vault.

Yep, working.

How do you open it?

Well, spin that wheel.

Like I'm steering a ship.

Steering a ship?

Ok, OK. Go like that.

Okay, right about there, and then... And then pulling on the handle all right there's a handle so obviously oh here it goes.

I can't believe how heavy this is.

Yeah we've never weighed it but it's got to be many tons Many tons, I would have to say.

Well, look at that mechanism, Plenty more.

So these are your permanent exhibit spaces, is that right?

This is permanent collection galleries, we on a rotating basis bring out things from our permanent collection, of which we have 25,000 objects, and install them in these galleries that we're walking through right now.

Well, I can see the collections quite varied.

There are paintings, and there are artifacts and camera collection.

We have two large camera collections, as it turns out.

We have prehistoric artifacts over there in the gallery behind us.

We have a large collection of documentary photographs from this area.

We have other things that we do here as well, though.

We are a cultural center, and we have performances in our theater, concerts, and a new addition that we're going to be building onto the museum.

We're building an outdoor performance space.

And as it turn out, we also have a circus school.

A circus, actually training people.

Training, basically movement.

It's based on a Cirque du Soleil model.

It's movement classes for toddlers up through adults.

They put on several performances a year.

They performed at the Governor's Awards a number of times.

So they're well known throughout the state.

Well, that's pretty innovative for a museum.

How do people visit your museum?

Well, they can find out about our hours and our programs and what our other offerings are most economically by going to our website.

Our hours are posted there, and they just have to get in their car and make the trek to Portsmouth.

Great.

Is there an admission fee?

There's no admission fee, we're always free.

That's always good news.

Well, I'm reluctant to leave, but I have other places to visit.

Thank you so much.

Please come back.

I would love to.

We'd love to have you.

Thank you.

Dr. Braun, good to see you.

Good to see.

Dr. Feight.

Good to you.

Thanks for coming out today.

Tell me about the history of the building.

Well, it was built in 1894 by Sanford and Varner and Company.

This is in the Gilded Age, right, so Portsmouth was booming you could say.

You had large manufacturing of steel, you had shoe factories, but there also were a lot of small manufacturers and this building here was a clothing manufacturing factory as well as a showroom.

So this space here would have been where the finished products were being displayed and upstairs would be where the manufacturing was taking place.

Well, look at that mechanism, that's gorgeous.

It's a piece of sculpture in and of itself.

It is just gorgeous.

All-hand machine, probably.

Oh yeah, yeah.

Steel, brass, glass.

It's just beautiful.

Well, this is an incredible piece of metalwork.

And this has really been fun, unexpected.

But there must be more you can show me.

Plenty more.

So these are your permanent exhibit spaces, is that right?

This is permanent collection galleries, we on a rotating basis bring out things from our permanent collection, of which we have 25,000 objects, and install them in these galleries that we're walking through right now.

Well, I can see the collections quite varied.

There are paintings, and there are artifacts and camera collection.

We have two large camera collections, as it turns out.

We have prehistoric artifacts over there in the gallery behind us.

We have a large collection of documentary photographs from this area.

We have other things that we do here as well, though.

We are a cultural center, and we have performances in our theater, concerts, and a new addition that we're going to be building onto the museum.

We're building an outdoor performance space.

And as it turn out, we also have a circus school.

A circus, actually training people.

Training, basically movement.

It's based on a Cirque du Soleil model.

It's movement classes for toddlers up through adults.

They put on several performances a year.

They performed at the Governor's Awards a number of times.

So they're well known throughout the state.

Good old brick building.

Here we are with Garrett Davis, who's the director of the accelerator program.

Well, hi, Garrett.

Hello, how are you doing today?

Fine, thanks, good to meet you.

So tell me, what's Accelerator mean?

So the goal of the Level of Accelerators program is to build a new industry hotspot here in Portsmouth.

And there's a few reasons why we think this is an amazing place to do it.

We've got a top seven games program here at Shawnee State.

We've triple AAA studio space that you're currently sitting in.

And the gaming industry right now sorely needs a place that has a cost of living that makes game development sustainable.

And that's our goal here.

Yep, absolutely.

This is not the Portsmouth I knew 30 or 40 years ago.

No, so we're really looking to boost economic development and take care of some industry issues right here in Portsmouth, Ohio.

Well, it sounds like you have the right facility and the right people in the right place at the right time.

That's a lot of rights.

And I have one more thing to show you, which is upstairs, and that's gonna be our new gaming e-sports arena and AAA Studio Space.

Let's see that as well.

Welcome to the future of the Level Up Accelerator and our new eSports arena here at Shawnee State University.

This is where you see the bones of a building and man, this is just wonderful.

Look at these trusses.

It's a very beautiful space.

So we're gonna make sure that those stay uncovered and keep the nice brick facing this room.

And it'll look like a high-tech, you know, AAA studio.

This will also be a shared space between our university e-sports team here at Shawnee State.

But we wanted to make sure that those are something we kept here in this building.

And it really speaks to the history of Portsmouth and this building and the industry that was here while still being a forward-thinking, innovative, you know new industry we're trying to build out here in the games and tech space.

Well, I have had such a great visit.

I can't imagine you can't be just so pleased to be involved with this.

And thank you for just a wonderful trip to Portsmouth.

Absolutely, come back any time.