Athens State Hospital

Athens State Hospital is a complex of about twenty brick institutional buildings on hilly, wooded grounds at the edge of Athens, Ohio. Its centerpiece is the large main building of 1868-1873, designed in the High Victorian Italianate style with twin towers and symmetrical wings. It follows the Kirkbride Plan and is one of three such buildings remaining in Ohio. In 1885 the hospital added huge dining rooms that, according to the nomination, were the first of their kind in American asylums. Later buildings include a 1901 Neoclassical auditorium and several Georgian Revival cottages from 1903, designed largely by architect Frank Packard and built by Athens contractor Henry O'Bleness. Brick drives, mature shade trees and old streetlights preserve a turn-of-the-century setting. The original landscaped park was largely destroyed in 1968 when the Hocking River was rerouted and Route 682 extended. Listing recognized the surviving buildings for their architecture and for the hospital's role in mental health care in southeastern Ohio.