The Ridges and Kennedy Museum of Art

The complex opened in the 1870s as the Athens Lunatic Asylum, built in the sprawling, self-contained style favored for such institutions in that era, with a grand administrative center and long residential wings meant to admit light and air. The idea of the time was that beautiful surroundings, fresh air, and useful work could aid recovery, and the hospital ran its own farms and grounds toward that end.

Over more than a century the institution changed names and purposes as approaches to mental health care shifted, at times growing overcrowded and at times reformed. The hospital finally closed in the 1990s, and the property was transferred to neighboring Ohio University. Renamed the Ridges, it took on new life as museum, office, and campus space, while its history remained an important part of how the community understands the place.

The Kennedy Museum of Art occupies the grand central building of the former hospital, part of Ohio University and open to the public. Its galleries host rotating exhibitions drawn from the university's collections and from visiting shows, spanning contemporary work, prints, and historical pieces, set within the restored rooms of the old administration block.

Among the museum's strengths is a significant collection of Southwest Native American art, including Navajo and other weavings and silver and turquoise jewelry, that gives visitors a window into the artistry of Native peoples of the American Southwest. Seeing this work inside the reclaimed halls of the old hospital is part of what makes a visit to the Ridges so distinctive.

The wooded hills around the buildings have been laced with trails that climb through the trees and open onto views over Athens and the valley of the Hocking River below. Old cemeteries associated with the hospital lie on the grounds, quiet reminders of the many people who lived and died within the institution over its long life.

This corner of Appalachian Ohio was the ancestral homeland of the Shawnee and other Native nations, forcibly removed from the region in the 1800s, whose descendant communities continue today, largely in Oklahoma. The rugged, forested country around Athens still carries the character of the Appalachian foothills, and a walk on the Ridges trails gives an easy taste of it.

Spring greens the wooded grounds and softens the great brick facade, and the trails are cool and pleasant for a walk before a visit to the galleries. Summer is lush and shaded on the hill, a welcome respite from the valley heat.

Fall is the standout season, when the hardwood forest of the Appalachian foothills turns brilliant and the views over Athens glow with color. Winter strips the trees and lays bare the full scale of the Victorian complex against the sky, a stark and memorable sight. The museum keeps its own calendar, so check gallery times before you plan around them.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.