23 November 2021 - LUNATIC ASYLUM IN ATHENS, OHIO

 

LUNATIC ASYLUM

 IN ATHENS, OHIO

G'day folks,

An abandoned asylum has been incorporated into a college campus. 

Athens Lunatic Asylum opened in 1874 on 141 acres and it was designed for 500 patients. By the 1950s it had expanded to a facility with 78 buildings on 1,000 acres. During its active years tens of thousands of patients were treated with around 1,800 buried in cemetaries on the ground.

At one time it was the largest employer in the state of Ohio. However, it was the patients who worked the grounds. That is, until catatonic drugs became common. Archives on the asylum show that hydrotherapy, electroshock therapy, lobotomies, and psychotropic drugs were all used as treatments.

 

The asylum closed in 1993, and the property was bought by Ohio University. Today as renovations continue the old asylum has several uses, such as a daycare, art museum,art studios, surplus store, Biotech labs, OU Police Department, and education related uses. 

 The Ridges is also known for its use of the kirkbride plan a unique and distinct asylum plan that used a batwing design and was built on the idea of moral treatment. Kirkbrides featured lots of natural light and airflow. Today the Ridges may be considered the largest and most complete example of a kirkbride still standing.

Clancy's comment: I despise the word, 'Lunatic' but included it here because that was what this place was called. Lest we forget those who spent time here.

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1 December 2021 - SUNDAY CREEK COAL COMPANY , OHIO

 

SUNDAY CREEK COAL 

COMPANY , OHIO

G'day folks,

This is the site of the worst mining disaster in Ohio's history. 

On November 5, 1930, a Wednesday morning tour by Sunday Creek Coal Company officials and customer reps was cut short by a massive underground explosion. Eighty-two men lost their lives in what remains the worst mining disaster in Ohio history. Company officials had wanted to display the safety improvements made to the recently acquired mine.  

 Before the disaster, Mine Number 6 was said to be the Sunday Creek Coal Company’s best and safest mine in the Hocking Valley. The explosion took place around 11:45 a.m., about 10,200 feet away from the mine’s main shaft. There were about 250 people at the mine when the explosion occurred, many of whom were able to escape using ventilation shafts to exit the mine.

Investigations later revealed that a fallen wire had produced an electric arc in an unused part of the mine. The electricity ignited methane gas, causing a massive explosion. Investigators faulted poor ventilation and an accumulation of coal dust as contributing factors in the severity of the explosion. After the gas had been cleared and repairs made, production resumed a month later.

The mine was permanently closed in May 1945. The Sunday Creek Coal Company cited increased labor costs and strikes coupled with stagnant coal prices as justification to shutter the mining operation.

 

The tipple and various buildings fell victim to the ravages of time and now only the chimney and a few building walls remain standing. A memorial plaque stands at the entrance to the former mine property on Millfield Road.

The main entrance into the mine collapsed in 2012, creating a sinkhole. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources undertook a major project to seal the shaft in 2013, and now no trace of the tipple remains. A Historic American Engineering Survey of the remaining ruins was conducted by the U.S. Government in December, 2013, updating the condition of the mine site. 

Clancy's comment: Mm ... I hope our federal government reads this.

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30 November 2020 - MIKE TYSON'S ABANDONED MANSION IN OHIO

MIKE TYSON'S ABANDONED

 MANSION IN OHIO

G'day folks,

It is very hard for me to imagine how a once beautiful mansion can be left abandoned with no real interest in the property. I mean, it has an indoor pool, basketball court, tennis court and a huge, open layout. Oh, and did I mention it once belonged to boxing champion Mike Tyson?

 

Things were not always so good for Iron Mike, who was jailed in 1992 for rape and went to jail again in 1999 on assault charges, after which he was broke and struggling. Because of his financial problems, Tyson was forced to sell his 19,500-square-foot mansion on 58 acres in Southington, Ohio, where he’d lived since the 1980s.

Let’s take a tour of this immense property and the weird things that were found inside.

Clancy's comment: Wow. That's some shack, eh?

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3 May 2020 - 'IRON SOUP' IN CAMPBELL, OHIO

 'IRON SOUP' 

in 

CAMPBELL, OHIO

G'day folks,

Like all abandoned towns, there is beauty and history in the ruins of this former company town. 

 

Youngstown, Ohio and the surrounding area was once a booming industrial center. Like many cities in America’s steel-producing Midwest, it flourished until the economy began to decline in the 1970s and these once-thriving towns saw their means of income and stability suddenly eviscerated. When that industrial apocalypse occurred, sadness and ruin were left behind.  

 

In the city of Campbell outside Youngstown, the beginning of the end came on September 19, 1977, a day forevermore known as “Black Monday.” The industrial powerhouse that was the lifeblood to the community and others around it, Youngstown Sheet and Tube, abruptly closed its Campbell Works and furloughed 5,000 workers.

Campbell was a company town with a company store and company housing, and it was all many families had ever known. When the mills started closing, those who could leave did. Those who stayed watched in slow-motion as year after year, decade after decade, as the town got smaller and smaller. 

The once-booming town has never recovered from Youngstown’s industrial demise.

Today, that old company housing still stands, mostly empty and crumbling. A few hearty individuals and families still call the area home, amidst abandoned concrete buildings, most boarded up and in serious disrepair. This area today is known as “Iron Soup.”

Nowadays, a group called the Iron Soup Preservation Society is working to bring the area back, one unit at a time, fixing up what can be fixed and renting out the units. The walls of the crumbling units hold amazing stories of a time now lost, and the preservation society is doing its best to help tell those stories before they are forgotten.

Clancy's comment: As you have probably gathered, these old towns fascinate me. Yep, I could visit every one of them seeking some sensational photographs. 

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25 August 2019 - STUNNING CAVES OF HOCKING HILLS STATE PARK IN LOGAN, OHIO

STUNNING CAVES OF HOCKING HILLS STATE PARK 

IN LOGAN, OHIO

G'day folks,

Welcome to another great place to visit. Rare recess caves fill this unbelievably beautiful Ohio park.

 People don’t believe the pictures are from an Ohio park, but many who know of this incredible landscape consider it the most beautiful land in the Midwest. Striking rock formations speckle the park, which is filled with gorges and caves waiting to be explored.

 These caves and gorges are more than just intriguing slivers of land to explore. They also speak to the park’s long geologic history.

Thousands of years ago, when the Wisconsin Glacier began to melt and recede, its waters bled across the land that’s now part of the park, rushing through cracks in the ground and scarring the earth with deep, winding gorges and recess caves, which are rock shelters carved into the soft sediment. The caves are certainly large enough to wander within—The Rock House cave has a ceiling that’s 25 feet high, and the main corridor is 200 feet long and up to 30 feet wide.

 The human history is interesting, too. Old Man’s Cave is the most popular attraction and was named after a hermit from the late 1700s who lived in the cave. Ash Cave was named because when the colonial settlers first discovered it, they found mysterious, massive piles of ashes created by Native Americans waiting within.

Clancy's comment: Worth visiting if you get the opportunity.

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