Remembering the real people of The Ridges: A new perspective on its haunted past

Photo via: Dan Keck from Ohio, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Ohio University is filled with haunted lore, so much so that the campus is often cited as the most haunted college in the world. Some even consider Athens to be one of the most haunted cities in America. This can be attributed to the stories of haunted buildings like Wilson Hall Room 428 and, most of all, the Athens Lunatic Asylum which overlooks the campus. 

Ohio U students know of the old mental hospital, but few know the history behind it, other than the supernatural aspect. It is essential that students and visitors to Ohio U understand the historical significance of what is now known as The Ridges. The Victorian building that looks over campus represents more than just a creepy old building. Every patient there had their own story. Many times it was a story of suffering. If students recognize the historical significance of the building, we can start to rebuild it and turn it into a space of community instead of what it once was. 

According to Asylum on the Hill by Katherine Ziff, in 1867, Dr. William Parker Johnson, a representative from Athens, worked to ensure the new asylum would be placed in Athens, Ohio. After hearing of the possibility that the asylum could be built in their town, Athens locals worked together to raise money to donate the land to the Ohio government. 

In 1868, the ground was broken. The building design was created by Levi Scofield, who also designed the Ohio State Reformatory, which has frequently been on lists of the most haunted buildings in Ohio as well. The hospital was designed with the ideas of Thomas Story Kirkbride in mind. He changed how doctors treated mental illness in the 19th century after the publishing of his book, On the Construction, Organization and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane. 

Previously, people with mental illness were locked in basements or confined to jail cells. Kirkbride’s plan, often called moral treatment, consisted of long wings of rooms with large windows. Rooms were designed to only comfortably fit one person, in order to discourage placing more than one patient in a room. Kirkbride emphasized the importance of nature and shaping care so that it mirrored what a Victorian household would look like. Patients were responsible for chores around the asylum’s campus and were encouraged to spend time outside. 

The 18.5 million bricks used to build the Athens Lunatic Asylum were made by hand using clay from the site. Construction finally ended and the building opened to patients in 1874. Athens locals celebrated with a parade when the Asylum opened. It brought lots of promise to the rural area by providing many jobs. Although the promise of jobs was great for the area, many of these people were unskilled and not equipped to work with the mentally ill. 

The first patient admitted was a young girl whose parents thought she was possessed, when, in reality, she suffered from a form of epilepsy. Children were regularly admitted to the asylum. The asylum at its opening saw a large surge of patients because the Columbus asylum, also using the Kirkbride model, suffered a fire. Many patients were transferred to the Athens location while the structure in Columbus was repaired. Though the building was built to accommodate only 250 patients, in its inaugural year it housed more than double that. 

At its height in 1950, the building was treating 1,800 patients. The building was built to accommodate a small number of patients because the Kirkbride plan called for more personal care between caregivers and patients. Unfortunately, this was never possible, as more people were sent to the hospital. 

In many instances, judges court ordered people to go to the asylum for countless  reasons. Other times, family members brought their own to the asylum because they were no longer able to take care of them in their homes. The building opened only a little over a decade after the Civil War ended. A large number of patients who were admitted had symptoms of what is now known as PTSD.

In 1903, instead of the moral treatment model pioneered by Thomas Story Kirkbride. This treatment focused more on science and research. This unfortunately meant many horrible treatments were allowed in the name of research. This included lobotomies, hydrotherapy and electroshock therapy. 

At the time, lobotomies involved using a tool through the eye socket to sever connections in the brain. Then people believed this could help cure mental disorders, such as schizophrenia or OCD. Unfortunately, this was not the case, as many patients suffered immensely after the procedure or even died. There wasn’t a resident doctor who could perform the lobotomies, so when a doctor who could perform them came into town, the patients were lined up to receive them. The process was done very quickly and sometimes could take less than ten minutes. Patients were not under anesthesia. 

Hydrotherapy included placing patients in hot baths, sometimes even boiling water, for long periods, sometimes even days. Patients subjected to electroshock therapy were held down by attendants while currents of electricity were sent through their brains. 

There are 1,930 people buried across three cemeteries on the asylum grounds. The graves are marked with a headstone with only a number. Many more died at the hospital, but their bodies were transported back to their families. Because of the stigma of mental illness at the time, once many families were notified of their loved one’s death, they did not want the body back. 

Many times, after people moved into the hospital, their families forgot about them and moved on. Though each grave marker is only identified with a number, each of these people had a family and a life outside the asylum. The Athens Chapter of the National Alliance for Mental Illness has worked on identifying these numbers and putting them with a name. There has also been an effort to identify which markers are of a veteran and have been marked appropriately with a flag.

In the mid-1980s, the facility was renamed The Ridges, as we know it today. After the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act, patients began to be transported to the Appalachian Behavioral Health Care facility, which was better equipped to handle their needs. In 1993, the last patients were transferred. Now, Ohio U owns the property and the land it occupies. 

The building is now home to the Kennedy Museum of Art, a preschool, academic buildings and the Ohio University Police Department. Though some of the buildings have been redone to accommodate these facilities, much of the back half of the building has not been touched in decades. There is old equipment still in the halls. The site remains cherished by the community, as many locals had family members who were patients or staff there.

Though it can be fun to think about how the building is haunted and mull over the haunted lore that has been passed down generations, real people suffered immensely at this building. It is important for us as students in a new age to recognize the horrors and perhaps advocate for change and the reconstruction of the building. 

The reality of the building has been long forgotten and the lives of the people there have been demonized.  We might think about how to honor the memories of those who were affected and explore ways to re-purpose or reconstruct the building as a form of respectful remembrance. Too often, the reality of this building has faded from collective memory, and the lives of those who suffered have been simplified into ghostly caricatures. 

By addressing these uncomfortable truths, we can prevent further distortion of their stories and promote a more respectful approach to our shared history. Rather than spreading rumors of hauntings, we should be promoting remembrance and advocating for the well-being and dignity of those affected by mental illness today. 

The history of The Ridges is rich and incredibly interesting. The Ohio U Libraries Digital Archive Collection offers numerous resources that reveal the personal stories of individuals, reminding us that each person there had a unique life and was far more than just a patient number. I would invite you to look further into the history and reflect on how we can properly memorialize the people who spent their lives at The Athens Lunatic Asylum.