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GASP!
ATHENS, Ohio (AP)--As Halloween gets closer, the intriguing past of an Ohio University building is attracting crowds of the curious.
About 2,500 people showed up on Friday the 13th this month at the former the Athens Lunatic Asylum -- now known as The Ridges--to tour the site, which some people say is haunted.
University officials had expected about 60 people to attend the tour. The size of the crowd, which included parents with costumed children, overwhelmed them and forced them to cancel the event. Campus police were called to help control the crowd.
``There is a huge fascination with the history, especially at this time of year,'' said Doug McCabe, an archivist at the university library. He frequently helps students who wander into the library with questions about the former mental hospital.
``They want the legends and the scary stuff,'' he said.
They're particularly interested in the story of a patient named Margaret, who wandered away from her ward in 1978.
Six weeks later, in early 1979, her body was found on the floor of a secluded, locked ward.
An hourglass-shaped silhouette still marks where she lay and died on the masonry floor. In Athens, it's known as The Stain.
McCabe suspects decomposition of the body, and the stain which resulted, was sped up by sunshine pouring in through a bay window.
Some people say they hear unexplained noises in the old building.
Trisha Johnson works in the former laundry room, sewing drapes and other items for residence halls and lounges.
Several years ago while sipping coffee on a break, she heard harmonica music. She looked around and looked outside but found no one.
``I'm like, 'Where's that harmonica coming from?''' she recalled. ``I said, 'I can't handle this.' It was a creepy, weird feeling.''
Rick Dickerson, a maintenance worker, recalls a frigid morning several years ago when he and other workers were in the basement to make sure the pipes hadn't frozen.
At about 3 a.m., they heard a door slam upstairs ``real hard,'' Dickerson said.
They decided to stay in the basement.
Dickerson said that lately, he's been finding open doors and windows. He attributes the break-ins not to ghosts but to young people in search of thrills.
Others are tramping through the cemetery the hospital maintained on its grounds for patients whose bodies went unclaimed. The state-issued tombstones are inscribed with numbers rather than names.
The asylum opened in 1874 and had nearly 2,000 patients at its height in the 1960s. The last patients left in 1991, when it was known as the Athens Mental Health Center.
University officials, through events such as the tour, are trying to let a curious public see inside The Ridges and learn its history without exploiting or sensationalizing it.
McCabe said it's remarkable for being one of the few asylums in Ohio, if not the only one, still intact and in decent condition.
``Its history is its history, and why not share it? You can share it and respect it,'' said university spokeswoman Leesa Brown. ``I think people come to be scared. People like to be scared.''
The 750-acre property now is home to an art museum and a research center. Graduate students use a former patient ward as a painting studio.
Under construction at the renovated compound are a child care center and the Voinovich Center for Leadership and Public Affairs, a public service institution that will train and educate government and business leaders, particularly in Appalachian Ohio.