Athens Lunatic Asylum

Athens Lunatic Asylum is a red brick psychiatric hospital in Athens, Ohio, built in Gothic Revival style following the Kirkbride Plan. The building over 850 feet long sits on a hill above the Hocking River and consists of a central administrative wing with symmetrical patient pavilions on both sides.

The complex opened in 1874 under architect Levi Scofield and originally admitted Civil War veterans, children, and adults with mental conditions. The facility closed in 1993 after more than a century of operation and passed into Ohio University administration.

The common name Athens Lunatic Asylum remained in use until closure, when the facility became known as Southeastern Ohio Mental Health Center. Visitors today can walk through the Kennedy Museum, which occupies former administrative spaces and reception halls, while the long corridors show the original floor plan.

The Kennedy Museum of Art in the main building displays rotating exhibitions and is open to visitors on weekdays. The rest of the complex serves as university office and classroom space and is not open to the public.

Three cemeteries on the grounds hold around 2,000 graves of former patients, whose markers placed before 1943 showed only numbers instead of names. The underground tunnels connecting all building sections once carried supplies and staff during bad weather.

Location: Ohio

Founders: William Parker Johnson

GPS coordinates: 39.32032,-82.10920

Latest update: December 17, 2025 09:29