SPRINGER FAMILY PHOTOS

CEMETERY AT THE RIDGESThe Ridges (formerly known as the Athens Lunatic Asylum) opened in 1874 and finally closed its doors in 1993. Since then, almost all of the buildings have been renovated and are used as classrooms and offices for The Ohio University. When I was a freshman at OU, we visited The Ridges at night during Halloween. This was before most of the buildings had undergone any type of work (except the art museum). It had an eerie feel to it and you could see carvings outside some of the windows through the bars and a lot of the rooms still had the curtains up. Through the basement windows, you could see shackles hanging on the walls! One class I was in even took a field trip there and we got to take a tour of the inside of the hospital. It was very disturbing to hear about the types of treatments that were routinely done and to see so many of the rooms left just the way they once were. The patients who died at the hospital were buried in the cemetery on the grounds and only given a numbered grave. Over 2,000 patients were buried here and the cemetery is said to be haunted. In fact, The Ridges were featured on Fox Family Channel's television show, "Scariest Places on Earth." I know when I was up there with my friends ten years ago in the dark, it was pretty freakin' scary!!

(More pictures to follow)