Humanities at the Ridges

The Athens Asylum and its Many Names

Built according to the Kirkbride plan, the 53,000-square-foot Administration Building was constructed between 1868 and 1873. It opened its doors to patients in 1874 as the Athens Lunatic Asylum. The hospital at its Ridges location has been known by 11 names since its inception. The state hospital has in fact never closed since the day it opened its doors to patients in Southeast Ohio in 1874. In 1993, the hospital “came down from the hill” to its new campus across the Hocking River near O’Bleness. Today, its name is Appalachian Behavioral Healthcare. 

Innovative in the late 19th century, the original Administration Building was designed to give patients access to light, air and natural environments. The central section housed administrative offices and living quarters for many of the employees. The two long wings to either side of the central section housed male and female patients, women on the right and men on the left. The hospital grounds were used as a park by the community, and events in the hospital’s auditorium, which included piano recitals, poetry readings, and films, were often open to the community. The hospital also had its own newspaper, Green Hill News, which included patient poems, essays and artwork. By the mid-20th century, some of Ohio University’s academic departments were connected with the hospital as a site for student field experiences in psychology, music therapy, medicine, and plant biology. 

The Dairy Farm

In 1877, James Bower established a dairy farm in Athens County and won the contract to supply milk to the neighboring Athens State Hospital. The hospital bought his land in 1912 and constructed the current Dairy Barn structure two years later at a cost of $10,000. It originally housed a herd of 80 cows, though the hospital grounds served as pasturage for over 200 by the mid-1930s. For decades, the Dairy Barn employed dozens of patients to care for the cows and also produce feed for the other animal operations on the hospital grounds. By 1977, however, changing farming and patient treatment practices meant that the Dairy Barn stood unused and dilapidated. The Hocking Valley Arts Council stepped in to renovate the building and save it from demolition. It has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places as the Athens State Hospital Cow Barn since 1978; the Dairy Barn Arts Center opened to the public that same year.

Ohio University takes over the Ridges complex

Ohio University began taking responsibility for the hospital grounds and buildings in 1982, while what was then known as the Athens Mental Health Center was still in operation on-site. In 1984, the Athens County Community Urban Redevelopment Corp. sponsored a contest to rename the sprawling thousand-acre complex — “The Ridges” was the winning entry. After the state transferred the hospital complex to Ohio University in the 1980s, the Administrative Building was renamed Lin Hall in honor of Henry Lin, a ceramicist who served as Dean of the College of Fine Arts from 1972-1984. Henry and his wife Julia, also Ohio University faculty, are parents to architect/sculptor Maya Lin. In this same period, the central section was renovated to house the Kennedy Museum of Art, named in honor of Edwin Kennedy and Ruth Zimmerman Kennedy. These facilities have served as venues for guest lectures in the arts and humanities, including workshops for high school teachers sponsored by the Charles J. Ping Institute for the Teaching of the Humanities. One such summer institute featured Katherine Ziff’s book Asylum on the Hill: History of a Healing Landscape (opens in a new window).