Today, the facility houses an art museum and university offices and the old tuberculosis ward is no longer standing—but that doesn't stop students and visitors alike from daring to explore the place known for several paranormal sightings and the beginning of the infamous lobotomy procedure.
Patients of the former insane asylum were buried on the facility's grounds, and their restless spirits are left to wander to property. Most of the graves are without names, and merely display the number of the former mental patient buried beneath. Ohio In Your Inbox spinner.
Thank you! Construction of the facility began in and the hospital opened on January 9, The designs of the buildings and grounds were influenced by Dr. Thomas Story Kirkbride, a 19th century physician who authored an influential treatise on hospital design, On the Construction, Organization and General Arrangements of Hospitals for the Insane.
Kirkbride buildings are most recognizably characterized by their "bat wing" floor plan and often lavish Victorian-era architecture. Haerlin also based his designs on Kirkbride's plans that stated extensive grounds with parks, lakes, and farmland were beneficial to the success of an asylum. For many years, the hospital was Athens, Ohio's largest employer. The state hospital was eventually decommissioned and, in a land swap between the Department of Mental Health and Ohio University, the hospital's property was deeded to Ohio University.
With the original Athens Lunatic Asylum situated on a hill south of the Hocking River and the newer hospital on the north bank of the river, the two facilities are still within sight of each other. The history of the hospital documents some of the now-discredited theories of the causes of mental illness, as well as the practice of harmful treatments, such as lobotomy.
The leading cause of insanity among the male patients was masturbation, according to the annual report of The second-most common cause of insanity, as recorded in the first annual report, was intemperance and dissipation. In the hospital's first three years of operation, eighty-one men and one woman were diagnosed as having their insanity caused by masturbation. Fifty-six men and one woman were diagnosed as having their insanity caused by intemperance and dissipation during this same period of time.
For the female patients hospitalized during these first three years of the asylum's operation, the three leading causes of insanity are recorded as "puerperal condition" 51 women , "change of life" 32 women , and "menstrual derangements" 29 women. Epilepsy was also considered a major cause of insanity and reason for admission to the hospital in the early years.
The Columbus State Hospital was demolished in the early s to make way for state office buildings, which today share the site with the remaining hospital cemeteries. In one of them lie the remains of Caroline Conner, a victim of the fire. You must be logged in to post a comment. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. The asylum was to provide a quiet place outside the city where healthy, moral living habits could be learned although management of disturbed patients then also included seclusion, cuffs, straps, strait-jackets, and cribs.
The hospital was run by a 5-member Board of Trustees appointed by the governor, with Dr. In its first years, the hospital had 21 different superintendents; the last, Dr. William Grover, served for 18 years. In its early years, the hospital had a homelike atmosphere; patients and staff usually dined together.
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