To generations of Ohio University students, “the Ridges” has been a fixed landmark during their four or five years in Athens.
For a disinterested minority of students at Ohio University, their acquaintance with the old Athens Asylum grounds has been limited to seeing the historic old main building on the ridgetop just across the Hocking River from Ohio University’s Convocation Center and athletic fields on the West Green. Many students, however, have visited The Ridges at least once, both the complex of vintage 19th century buildings and the hundreds of acres that once comprised the asylum grounds and property.
Some OU students visit The Ridges many times while attending college. Some who decide to remain in Athens after graduation return again and again as long as they’re able. Since there’s extremely limited access to the old buildings themselves, other than those still in use, local residents and students are more likely to frequent the outdoor parts of the so-called OHIO Museum Complex, aka the Outdoor Museum. Miles and miles of trails and gravel/dirt lanes are available for hiking, with high pastures, deep ravines, woods, and everything in between.
A Brief History
The Ridges has had several names over the years, including the Athens State Hospital, the Athens Lunatic Asylum, the Athens Asylum and the final name before closing in the early 1990s, the Athens Mental Health Center. Much of the land to the south, west and southeast of the building complex was used to supply the institution with food, including orchards and a dairy barn (now in use as the historic Dairy Barn Arts Center).
The Asylum served the mental health needs of residents of the southeast quadrant of Ohio, hailing from Athens and 14 other counties, from 1874 to 1993. That span of time saw incredible advances in the treatment of mental-health disorders, though it also included treatment eras that seem downright primitive today. The land for the Asylum and its grounds was purchased post-Civil War from the Coates family. Their name still graces the creek (or “run”) that flows through the property and is prone to flooding nearby Richland Avenue after heavy rains.
Many veterans are buried in the three old cemeteries on The Ridges, with their service going back to the Civil War. Today, one can tour all three, though they’re in different stages of maintenance. According to historical records, some 1,930 former patients are buried in the cemeteries, with many of the graves identified only by a number. This doesn’t include patients whose families reclaimed their remains and buried them in their home communities. The Athens chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) has done a lot to restore the old cemeteries, including matching numbers with names on the headstones.
The Walking Tour
For many years, both students and townspeople have had a regular opportunity to tour the outside parts of the old Athens Asylum complex, and learn about the history that it’s steeped in. A paid event, the “Walking Tour of the Historic Athens Asylum,” takes place numerous times each year on The Ridges. George Eberts, a former, longtime Mental Health Center employee, who’s an expert on the place, usually leads the tours of the grounds and buildings. He provides background on the treatment of patients during the Asylum’s 150 years of operation, along with stories and personal insights.
The tour includes a history lesson on the architectural significance of the old building complex. The Athens State Hospital/Asylum was part of the so-called Kirkbride Plan, named for Thomas Kirkbride. A founder of the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane, “Kirkbride promoted a standardized method of asylum construction and mental health treatment…,” according to kirkbridebuildings.com.
Popularly known as the Kirkbride Plan, it “significantly influenced the entire American asylum community during his lifetime.”
The Walking Tour lasts around two hours and begins after registered participants meet at the Kennedy Museum of Art, located on the ground floor of the renovated former Main Administration Building of the Asylum/Mental Health Center. The outdoor tour includes a loop around the grounds, including the cemeteries. Contact the Southeast Ohio History Center in Athens for more information, or just go here.
The Ridges and Haunted Athens
One of the main attractions of the old Asylum grounds is its reputation for ghosts and haunts, especially among Ohio University students. Most of these stories can be linked to real people and real events, with the haunted aspects added later.
During the Asylum tour in October of 2021, according to an article in the OU Post newspaper, George Eberts talked about the late Margaret Schilling, a patient who disappeared for two months in the late 1970s and was finally found deceased in a secluded room, with fluids from her decomposing body forming a stain that reportedly remains there today. Eberts and the university, with encouragement from the local chapter of NAMI, have sought to downplay the “haunted” angle out of respect for Schilling and other former patients who died on The Ridges.