Category Archives: Ohio

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.

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In downtown Fremont behind the Sandusky County Courthouse is an old sandstone building. From the front, it looks like a Victorian-Romanesque style house. From the side, an additional three story wing comes off the rear and has bars on the window. They are there because the old structure at one time served as the county jail and sheriff’s residence. When it was dedicated in 1890, the keynote speaker was former United States President Rutherford B. Hayes, who was a resident of Fremont.

President Hayes was an advocate for prison reform, and at the time the jail was built, it was a modern facility with cells designed with prisoner safety in mind. What lies underneath the building was far from safe and humane for early prisoners of Sandusky County. In the 1840s, during the beginning of Sandusky County, log cabins with iron bars on the windows were used to confine people who broke the law. The primitive building did not serve its intended purpose well because it had dirt floors and a few prisoners dug down under the wall and escaped. After a few years, it was evident that some other form of incarceration was needed. Instead of building up, they went down and dug a dungeon lined with stone walls. The prisoners were held in dank cells poorly illuminated by kerosene lamps.

The Dungeon was used for over a decade until a new jail was built on top of it. The old jail finally closed in the 1990s after a new jail, to meet current standards, was constructed. There was talk about razing the old building, but it was decided to use it as office space for the county. Over the years, people have noticed strange things happening in the old building. They have heard strange sounds and footsteps of people who were not there. In the middle of the night, the motion detectors will go off when nothing is on the video surveillance. I can’t say for sure if the old jail is haunted, but there were some tragic events that took place within its walls. One inmate in the old dungeon who had been arrested for murder had a visitor slip him a razorblade. He used it to commit suicide in his cell. On the third floor is an old gallows that was used to hang prisoners sentenced to death. The last hanging was done in 1883. John W. Radford was hanged for shooting and killing his wife.

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