The Ridges

The complex known today as The Ridges opened in 1874 as the Athens Lunatic Asylum, overlooking the Hocking River in Athens, Ohio. Its main building was designed on the Kirkbride plan, a 19th-century model of asylum architecture that favoured long, staggered wings, natural light and extensive grounds as part of a philosophy of "moral treatment". Over more than a century the institution grew into a largely self-sufficient community with farms and workshops, and its patient population and treatments changed with evolving, sometimes troubling, ideas about mental health care before it closed in 1993.

Because of its history, the site has attracted a strong reputation for the uncanny, much of it centred on the story of a patient whose body left a stain on a ward floor after she died there in the 1970s. Visitors and students sometimes report unease, unexplained sounds and figures at windows. Such accounts are subjective and are not supported by verifiable evidence.

The more meaningful story of The Ridges is a sober one about how society has cared for, and at times failed, vulnerable people. Now owned by Ohio University, the buildings and cemeteries stand as a place for reflection, research and remembrance rather than spectacle.

The Ridges is owned by Ohio University, and its grounds, trails and historic cemeteries are open to the public, with the Kennedy Museum of Art housed in part of the former asylum. Many interior spaces are used for university offices, classrooms and labs and are not generally accessible without arrangement.

Guided historical walking tours are offered periodically, and visitors are asked to keep to public paths, respect the cemeteries and the memory of those buried there, and follow university guidance. Check the university's website for current access, tour availability and any restrictions.