Ohio University Athens
Built on an ancient burial ground, Ohio University sits at the center of a pentagram of cemeteries. Room 428 in Wilson Hall is sealed—a student died there practicing occult rituals. The Ridges asylum looms above. Athens is America's most haunted campus.
Ohio University is considered America’s most haunted campus.
The Pentagram
Five cemeteries surround the campus, forming what appears to be a pentagram shape with the university positioned at its exact center. Whether this is deliberate design or eerie coincidence remains debated, but many believe it creates an unusual concentration of spiritual energy.
Wilson Hall Room 428
This room remains permanently sealed after a student died inside under mysterious circumstances. Occult practices were rumored to have taken place there, and violent poltergeist activity made the room uninhabitable. No one has been able to stay in the room without experiencing terrifying phenomena, leading to its permanent closure.
The Ridges
The former Athens Lunatic Asylum looms above campus, a massive facility that once housed a tuberculosis ward where countless patients died. Lobotomies were routinely performed in its operating theaters, and one patient’s lonely death created a permanent reminder of the building’s tragic history.
The Stain
Margaret Schilling, a patient who escaped supervision, hid in a closed ward section of the asylum where she died completely alone. Her body wasn’t discovered for weeks, decomposing on the concrete floor. A permanent stain in the exact shape of her body remains visible today, resisting all attempts to remove it.
Campus Activity
Students and visitors report frequent paranormal encounters including full apparitions walking campus paths, doors slamming violently in empty buildings, disembodied footsteps following people through hallways, intense cold spots that appear suddenly, and objects moving on their own in dorm rooms and classrooms.
Today
The university remains fully operational with active classes and residential life. Tours of the Ridges asylum are offered regularly, ghost walks take visitors through the most haunted locations, and student stories of paranormal encounters continue to accumulate. Paranormal research groups frequently investigate the campus.