Haunted Ohio-Athens Asylum
A little about the Asylum:
From 1874 to 1993, the Athens Asylum provided a safe
haven for those with mental disabilities. It was originally built on
land acquired from a local farmer, Arthur Coates.
The hospital was renamed within two years of its opening as
the Athens Hospital for the Insane. Later the hospital would be called the
Athens Asylum for the Insane, the Athens State Hospital, the Southeastern
Ohio Mental Health Center, the Athens Mental Health Center, the Athens
Mental Health and Mental Retardation Center, the Athens Mental Health and
Developmental Center, and then (again) the Athens Mental Health Center.
After the hospital's original structure closed, Ohio University acquired the
property and renamed the area, The Ridges. However, the state hospital
continued to function in Athens, with patients and staff relocating to a
newly constructed facility on the north bank of the Hocking River. At the
time of the transition in 1993, the new facility was called the Southeast
Psychiatric Hospital.
The original hospital was in operation from
1874 to 1993. Although not a self-sustaining facility, the
hospital for many years had livestock, farm fields and
gardens, an orchard, greenhouses, a dairy, a physical plant
to generate steam heat, and even a carriage shop in the
early years. The architect for the original building was
Levi T. Scofield of Cleveland. Construction of the facility
began in 1868 and the hospital opened on January 9, 1874.
The designs of the buildings and grounds were
influenced by Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride, a 19th century
physician who authored an influential treatise on hospital
design, On the Construction, Organization and General
Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane. Kirkbride
buildings are most recognizably characterized by their "bat
wing" floor plan and often lavish Victorian-era
architecture.
The history of the hospital
documents some of the now discredited theories of the causes
of mental illness, as well as the practice of harmful
treatments, such as lobotomy. Disappointments, religious
excitement, lightning strikes, PMS, and seduction are listed
as causes of insanity in the early annual reports of the
hospital. The leading cause of insanity among the male
patients was masturbation, according to the annual report of
1876. In the first three years of the hospital, eighty-one
men and one woman were diagnosed as having their insanity
caused by masturbation.
When the hospital first
opened, many patients there were Civil War Veterans
suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome.
Children who would have
today been diagnosed with ADD/ADHD would also have been
committed by their parents because they were too much for
them to handle.
Mothers with large
families were known to commit themselves for a couple weeks
just so they could take a break.
- During the 1950s,
Walter Jackson Freeman, M.D., Ph.D.,
"The Father of the Transorbital
Lobotomy," performed over 200 lobotomies
on patients. Although now discredited as
a treatment for mental illness, the
surgery on the brain was an accepted
medical procedure at the time.
- Multiple personality
and convicted rapist, Billy Milligan
(made famous in Daniel Keyes' book, "The
Minds of Billy Milligan") was a patient
at the hospital in the 1970s.
- The stain left by the
decaying body of a 54-year-old female
patient has fueled the speculation of
those who believe in haunted places. She
was found dead in an unused ward early
in 1979, after she had been missing for
six weeks.
- Interior images of
The Ridges served as the visual setting
for "How To Make Your Movie: An
Interactive Film School", an interactive
CD-ROM that was produced by Athens, Ohio
based multimedia company Electronic
Vision in conjunction with film director
Rajko Grlic and the Ohio University Film
School. [2]
- The Ridges was shown
on Fox Family Channel's television show
"Scariest Places on Earth" and claimed
Athens, Ohio as the 13th most haunted
place on earth. **
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