Category Archives: Buildings

The town of Athens, Ohio was chosen by the state for a facility to house mentally ill patients of southern Ohio. Built in 1867, the Athens Lunatic Asylum’s design and layout was influenced by Dr. Thomas Kirkbride. A prominent physician in the field of mental health, he had published a book on the proper design for mental hospitals. Several buildings around the country followed his concepts and some remain standing today. The massive complex in Athens could provide rooms for 572 patients along with housing for doctors and staff. The hospital also had barns for livestock and land for patients to grow food and garden as part of their therapy. It was not meant to be completely self-sufficient, but it did give patients the ability to work outside and help improve their living conditions.

To outsiders, it looked like an idyllic place to be treated with ornate Victorian style buildings and landscaped grounds for patients to relax. The hospital in the early years was far from what we consider a place of healing. The patients were overcrowded, and the population was more than double the capacity of what was originally designed. The staff also practiced cruel forms of treatments such as lobotomies, water or hydro therapy and electroshock therapy. In the early years of the hospital, many patients were sent to live at the facility for ailments such as alcohol addiction, menopause, and tuberculosis. People suffering from epilepsy were sent to the hospital because the disease was not understood back then and they were thought to be insane or possessed by a demon. As time passed, the hospital did change the way it treated patients and changed names several times. The hospital closed in 1993; at that time it was called the Athens Mental Health and Development Center, reflecting a more compassionate name than insane asylum. After the facility closed, it was given over to Ohio University and renovated for use as campus buildings. After a naming contest to give the facility a more appealing title, it is now known as The Ridges.

Because of the large numbers of people who died at the asylum, three cemeteries were created on the grounds surrounding the hospital. In the early years, graves were marked by a simple small stone with a number carved into it. By the 1940s, the hospital had begun carving names and dates into the headstones. There are nearly two thousand people buried at the cemeteries and many of them are only known by a number. Some of them were Civil War and World War 1 veterans. The cemeteries sit on the side of a hill near the Water Tower Road that leads to the observatory. Rows of headstones stand on the steep hill with the veterans’ graves marked by small American flags. In the woods nearby are a row of old headstones. A nature trail winds its way past them, and they stand as an eerie reminder of past lives at the asylum. I have visited numerous old cemeteries and had never gotten the creeps, but this one was a little different. Knowing its tragic history and the old worn headstones surrounded by the tall grass while I was there as the sun was setting gave it a spooky feeling. I turned around to see a woman walking out of the woods on the hiking trail. She was not an apparition, but nonetheless, it scared me for a second.

Thank you for Subscribing to Lost In The States, If you have not subscribed yet, It would mean a lot to me if you did.