Athens History- 'The Ridges'

     Most students who attend Ohio University can tell you a little about Athens' mental health center, the Ridges, but there's a lot more than meets the eye. We have all heard the ghost stories and the awful "treatments" that were performed at some of the facilities at the Ridges, but it wasn't all bad. The Ridges opened on January 9, 1874 and was originally called Athens Lunatic Asylum. Built in the homey Kirkbride style, this massive building took six years to build and was erected for Civil War veterans who were experiencing what we now call post-traumatic stress disorder from the war. The building style was intended to be therapeutic by creating an institution resembling a home. The Ridges created a comfortable facility where patients were treated like normal human beings as opposed to the inhumane approaches of other facilities. While other insane asylums were bleeding and freezing patients as well as allowing kicks to the head to "shock" the illness from them, the Ridges encouraged socialization to help patients getting used to human contact.

   
     The land for this institution was purchased from farmers and contained more than 1000 acres of land originally. The idea of this purchase was to keep the asylum almost self-sufficient where employees and patients would work together farming the land and orchards. Around the time of the building process the surrounding town's economy boomed and the mental health facility was part of that reason. The facility showed real care for their patients and proved to be one of the better asylums of the time, rehabilitating many people. In fact, this was the Ridges' downfall.

     Soon after the Ridges had gained recognition for their superior care-taking skills, many elderly citizens began showing up at the doorstep. Families who could not afford to take care of their elderly parents or grandparents began to drop their family members off to be taken care of. After they began taking these elderly patients in, many of the homeless population from the town went for a place to stay too. The asylum was soon holding more patients than it could, causing more than the recommended number of people staying in the same rooms which soon turned to an over abundance of "mentally ill". Yes many of the patients were in much need of assistance but others just needed a place to stay. This began the downfall of the institution where less care was given to patients, and more inhumane approaches to helping patients were reconsidered and practiced.
     Haunted mysteries and ghost stories are always fun to talk about, but I wanted to share the history of the origin of Athens' very own mental health center and the importance of its very existence. 

Colton Creal

Source:
The Ridges, Athens Mental Health Center; http://www.forgottenoh.com/Ridges/ridges.html