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The Athens Lunatic Asylum began operation in 1874 in Athens, Ohio. The hospital was renamed within two years of its founding to the Athens Hospital for the Insane. Later the hospital would be called the Athens State Hospital, then the Southeastern Ohio Mental Health Center, then the Southeastern Ohio Mental Health and Retardation Center, then the Athens Mental Health and Development Center, and finally renamed the Athens Mental Health Center.
History
The 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 hospital grounds were designed by Herman Haerlin of Cincinnati, a student of Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect of Central Park in New York. Some of Haerlin's other landscape designs are seen in Cincinnati's Spring Grove Cemetery and the Oval on the campus of Ohio State University in Columbus.
For many years, the hospital was Athens, Ohio's largest employer. The state hospital was eventually decommissioned and the property deeded to Ohio University. Appalachian Behavioral Healthcare now administers a psychiatric hospital in Athens, within view of the original Athens Lunatic Asylum.
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, 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.
Modern History and Present Day
By the early 1990s, many of the original buildings had fallen into disrepair and were no longer used by the hospital. The crumbling buildings, the cemeteries with numbers, instead of names on the gravestones, the notoriety of Billy Milligan, the stigma of mental illness, as well as the stain left by the decaying body of a patient contributed to the cumulative lore of this facility. The old hospital was featured in an episode of the Fox Family Channel television show "Scariest Places On Earth," which claimed Athens, Ohio was the 13th most haunted place on Earth.
The site of the old hospital is now owned by Ohio University and is the developed portion of a much larger parcel of land called The Ridges, which today hosts a nature preserve, an art museum, a biotechnology research center, among other university endeavors.
The presence of a stable funding authority, Ohio University, has ensured restoration of much of the original grounds as envisioned by Haerlin and others. The nature preserve provides habitat for bobcats, deer, fox, hawks, wild turkeys, and an abundance of other wildlife.
Members of the Athens, Ohio chapter of NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness have worked to restore the three graveyards located on the Ridges grounds. Several organizations and individuals have restored a pond on the Ridges and made nature walks on the grounds.*
Interesting Notes
- During the 1940s and 1950s, doctors at the hospital, including Dr. Walter Freeman, "The Father of Lobotomy," performed many 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 1980, after she had been missing for six weeks.
References
- Annual Report of the Trustees of Athens Lunatic Asylum to the Governor of the State of Ohio for the Year Ending Nov. 15, 1872. Columbus: Nevins & Myers, State Printers. 1873.
- Annual Report of the Athens Hospital for the Insane to the Governor of the State of Ohio for the Year 1876. Columbus: Nevins & Myers, State Printers. 1877.
External links
- The Ridges: An Historical Perpective Web page about The Ridges
- Flickr: Athens Lunatic Asylum - The Ridges Photos of The Ridges
- Daniel Keyes Homepage of the author of Minds of Billy Milligan and Milligan Wars.
- Map and Index of The Ridges A map of The Ridges buildings with a description of each building (click on building)
- Kirkbridebuildings.com - Athens State Hospital
1874 establishments | Mental hospitals | Athens County, Ohio | Ohio University
"Athens Lunatic Asylum"