COMMUNITY
Rumors of
THE PAST
What once served as a towering multilevel balcony entrance to the Athens Insane Asylum is now the front of the Kennedy Museum of Art in Athens, Ohio, on March 2, 2021.
From ghost stories to actual sightings, it seems like the campus still has hints of the paranormal engraved in its bricks.
T
BY CAROLINE GILLEN | PHOTOS BY DYLAN BENEDICT | DESIGN BY DREW FOLLMER
he students whisper among themselves while pointing at the large insane asylum on top of the hill overlooking Ohio University’s campus. The boarded up windows keep curious students away from the stain that still lingers on the floor, but these characteristics call attention to the building’s history. The stories from The Ridges are passed along through generations, each story taking a life of its own. Despite the eerie nature of the building’s presence, OU students still form connections through hearing about the rumors of the past. Mya Smith, a sophomore at OU studying pre-law, has heard her fair share of paranormal stories when she was growing up in the Athens area. “I’ve heard about how Athens has five cemeteries that are shaped like a pentagram and in the middle, there is a dorm where a student had passed away in,” Smith says. Hannah Beckman, an OU sophomore studying communication science and disorder, heard a similar story. “Someone told me that there is a boarded-off dorm room in Wilson Hall because a couple of really strange things have happened there,” Beckman says. Both Smith and Beckman are strong believers in the paranormal.
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“I personally do believe ghosts exist,” Smith says. “Whether it is because of unfulfilled souls who haven’t moved onto whatever comes next, or the souls of those were wronged and want revenge.” Beckman’s belief comes from a paranormal experience she had as a child. “I live in a house out in the country and when I was about four years old, I started seeing this figure at the end of my bed. I couldn’t make anything out besides the white of its eyes and the white of its teeth,” Beckman says. “Every time this happened, I would sprint to my parents’ room.” Beckman never thought too much about what happened with the glowing figure until her parents got spooked by something. To this day, they never told her what it was. “My mom called a family friend who was a medium to come and talk to me. She said she got in contact with a little boy’s spirit and afterwards she cleansed the house,” Beckman says. “I never saw the boy again after that. I think he just wanted to play but I hadn’t understood that at the time.” Of the many ghost stories that travel around the campus, stories about The Ridges are the most popular. “In high school, I watched a documentary on The Ridges and why it’s haunted,” Smith says. “Supposedly,
there is a woman who haunts one of the wings in particular and there is a blood stain left on the floor that they can’t get rid of.” Beckman also heard stories about the asylum and the deaths that took place there. “I heard that a bunch of people died there through unethical procedures,” Beckman says. “But honestly, I believe a place like Athens that has so much history is certainly bound to have some active spiritual areas.” According to Ghosthunting Ohio, a book written by John B. Kachuba, an OU alumnus and professor, modern psychic researchers believe that Athens is a portal between our world and the spirit world. The portal allows spirits to easily travel between worlds. One night, Athens resident John Koons supposedly crossed paths with a spirit who informed him all eight of his children would be gifted mediums. Koons embraced this concept and built a small room on top of Mount Neb, the highest peak in the region. There, in the small room, the Koons family would perform seances. The Koons Family Spirit Room is considered to be a big reason why the paranormal seems to attach itself to Athens. The Director of Development and Outreach at the Southeast Ohio History Center, Tom O’Grady, has
