Athens Lunatic Asylum

Athens Lunatic Asylum

The Ridges and the Kennedy Art Museum present day  

By: Jordan Ballinger

The New Appalachian Behavioral Healthcare Center

            In 1868 the corner stone of the Athens Lunatic Asylum, now commonly known as The Ridges was laid on a grand hill looking over the Hocking River and Ohio University.  The Asylum was officially opened January 9, 1874 and soon after housed 633 patients. According to many researchers this asylum is one of the sole reasons for the rapid growth of the city of Athens. The building brought many jobs to the community and gave Athens that economic boost to put it on the map. During its hay-day the asylum was top of its game when it came to therapy for lunatics being home to some of the very first lobotomy procedures.

 The asylum was an acting hospital for the insane from 1874 to 1993. When the asylum closed in 1993 the patients were moved to the new Appalachian Behavioral Healthcare facility.

The Right Wing (Women's Wing)

            The plan for the asylum was that men would be housed in the left wing while women were held in the right wing each with their own dining halls, a way to separate the sexes. The asylum was once almost completely self-sustaining with its own dairy, orchards, greenhouses, even a physical plant to create electricity for the facility, etc. When first built the asylum was to only take 141 acres, this rapidly turned into over 1,000 acres. By the 1950’s, on top of the over 1,000 acres, there were 78 buildings and the asylum housed a total of 1,800 patients.

Birdseye View of The Ridges 

             After the closing of the Athens Lunatic Asylum the facility was bought by Ohio University. This once terrifying asylum that at one point used therapies like water treatment, shock therapy, and lobotomy is now home to the Kennedy Art Museum, Voinovich Center for Leadership and Public Affairs, a mail service building, Konneker Research Facilities, IL GARD and Environmental Studies, etc. The old asylum is also home to several paranormal legends, helping to make Athens and Ohio University one of the most haunted places in the world.

            The asylum really gives a strong sense of history to Athens. All you have to do is look at the building and you will be mesmerized for hours just thinking of all the history that was written right on top of the hill that looks over Athens and Ohio University.

Postcard showing the beauty of the old Athens Lunatic Asylum

For an in-depth look at the history of The Ridges and the Athens Lunatic Asylum visit:
http://cdm15808.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/search/collection/archives/searchterm/Ridges/field/name/mode/all/conn/and
http://www.forgottenoh.com/Ridges/ridges.html
http://www.ohio.edu/athens/greens/theridges.html

Sources:

Alden Library Archives

Ohio.edu

Forgottenoh.com