Athens Lunatic Asylum

Athens Lunatic Asylum

By: Daniel Murtha and Kristen Dittmar

Athens, Ohio is well known for being the home to Ohio University. Though, many people do not realize that it was also famous for having one of the best mental hospitals in the world. The Athens Lunatic Asylum, also known as “The Ridges,” is a historic part of Athens that still remains today. On January 9th, 1874 the federal government purchased 1,000 acres of land from The Coates family. The great complex took six years to build. The Lunatic Asylum opened shortly after the civil war. This was no coincidence the hospitals purpose was to treat war veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. Eventually, the Asylum opened its doors to people with multiple mental issues. Daniel Fremau was the first patient to enter the hospital. He believed himself to be the second coming of Jesus Christ. This shows what kind of patients the Asylum had to deal with.

The Asylum performed many treatments which today are no longer used. The most common was the lobotomy. Also, patients were often submerged into ice cold water for long periods of time and received electric shocks to the temples. To say the least patients were not treated very well.

Many people believe that the torture that took place at The Lunatic Asylum is the prime reason Ohio University is a “haunted campus”. There have been multiple events that are believed to be linked to The Asylum. For example, there was a suicide that took place in Wilson Hall. The story goes that the student was being haunted by the spirit of a patient from the asylum.

Athens has a lot more history to it than we may know, so go check it out!