From insane asylum to art center, Ohio University’s Ridges complex showcases Athens’ past and present

Insane asylum to arts center

Lin Hall, on the campus of Ohio University in Athens, is home to the school's Kennedy Museum of Art. It's part of The Ridges complex on the grounds of the former Athens Lunatic Asylum, designed by Cleveland architect Levi Scofield.

ATHENS, Ohio – Atop a hill just south of town, a sprawling former complex that once housed the Athens Lunatic Asylum is now an art museum, observatory, hiking destination and more.

It’s also an architectural marvel, a massive, ornate cluster of Late Victorian-era buildings designed in the 1860s by Cleveland architect Levi Scofield, a Civil War veteran who also designed the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument in downtown Cleveland and the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield.

The complex, now known as The Ridges, became part of Ohio University in the 1990s, adding more than 700 acres and 700,000 square feet of building space to the campus.

“It’s a tremendous resource,” said Shawna Wolfe, associate vice president of university planning, with plenty of space for both college and community use.

The university has been slowly renovated buildings and completed a master plan of the property in 2014. Even so, much of the property remains vacant, awaiting funding and development plans.

“There’s a list a mile long of ideas,” she said. “I don’t think we’ll fall short on what it can become.”

The complex was initially part of the Kirkbride Plan, a nationwide system of mental asylums conceived by American psychiatrist Thomas Story Kirkbride, who advocated for a more humane, nature-based treatment of mental illness. At its height, more than 100 Kirkbride hospitals existed in the U.S., many with the plan’s trademark central administration building and long residential wings on either side with separate rooms for male and female patients.

The Athens facility held as many as 1,800 patients at its peak in the 1950s. By then, however, the treatment of psychiatric patients had changed – and so had the facility’s name. Over its 100-plus year history, the facility was called the Athens Lunatic Asylum, the Athens Hospital for the Insane, the Athens State Hospital and, finally, the Athens Mental Health Center, which relocated to the center of town in 1993.

In 1996, the Kennedy Museum of Art opened in Lin Hall, the complex’s centerpiece building, with its trademark five-story towers, multi-story porch and mansard roof.

The museum features a rotating mix of exhibits, featuring art from permanent and traveling collections. On exhibit now: “Night Skies: Navajo Textiles Depicting Sandpaintings;” “Representations of Women in KMA Collections,” put together by education interns; and an exhibit highlighting the work of students in the museum studies program, “Merging Concepts VIII, Connections Remembered.”

There’s also an exhibit of recent acquisitions that includes numerous photographs of other Kirkbride properties, including Buffalo State Hospital in New York, Danvers State Hospital in Massachusetts and Kankakee State Hospital in Illinois.

Athens, Ohio

Inside the Kennedy Museum of Art on the campus of Ohio University.

Athens, Ohio

The Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens.

In addition to the Kennedy museum, The Ridges also is home to the Ohio Museum Complexes, an interdisciplinary concept that includes an interactive nature gallery, sculpture garden, hiking trails, virtual tours and more.

The university is in the process of raising money to renovate the ballroom in Lin Hall for additional museum space, according to Wolfe.

The Kennedy Museum and Ohio Museum Complexes are open daily, and admission is free. Information: ohio.edu/museum

Adjacent to The Ridges property is the Dairy Barn Arts Center, now a private nonprofit, but previously part of the asylum complex. Located in a renovated 1914-era barn, the facility functions as an exhibit, educational and event space. Currently on exhibit: “Layered and Stitched: 50 Years of Innovative Art,” featuring 50 art quilts by master artists. Also here: “86 Reasons for Asylum Admission” by Cleveland artist Kimberly Chapman.

The Dairy Barn is also host to the Quilt National, a juried, biennial exhibition of contemporary quilt art that runs in odd years. Information: dairybarn.org

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Athens, Ohio

The former Athens Lunatic Asylum, now part of Ohio University, was designed by Cleveland architect Levi Scofield.

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