Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Athens, OH

Athens is a city in southeastern Ohio and the county seat of Athens County, named for Athens, Greece, the ancient center of learning, and set along the Hocking River in the hills of Appalachian Ohio about 65 miles southeast of Columbus.

The first permanent European settlers arrived in Athens in 1797, the town was surveyed and platted in 1800, incorporated as a village in 1811, and it did not become a city until 1912, after its population passed Ohio's 5,000-resident threshold.

Athens is home to Ohio University, chartered on February 18, 1804, the first public institution of higher learning in the Northwest Territory and the oldest university in Ohio.

Ohio University was established with the first federal land grant for a university in American history: in 1787 Congress gave the Ohio Company of Associates two entire townships of land to support a literary institution, more than 70 years before the Morrill Act.

Ohio University enrolls more than 21,000 students on its roughly 1,800-acre Athens campus and is the largest employer in Athens County, with its Bobcats fielding more than 250 academic programs through the university.

Athens had 23,849 residents at the 2020 census, but thanks to its student population its median age was just 22.1 years, one of the youngest of any American city; the census counted 7,532 households, and only 26.0% of its occupied homes were owner-occupied.

Athens hosts an annual Halloween Block Party in its Uptown district that draws worldwide media attention, and the city has been billed the 'World Capital of Halloween.'

The Athens Lunatic Asylum opened in 1874 on the hill south of the Hocking River and was once the town's largest employer; the decommissioned hospital complex, now owned by Ohio University, is known as The Ridges.

Athens was plagued by Hocking River floods for two centuries, including destructive floods in 1832, 1873, 1907, 1937, 1949, 1964, and 1968; after the 1968 flood the Army Corps of Engineers rechanneled 5.5 miles of the river through the city.

Athens' early industries included salt production, iron, and coal, and the Hocking Canal opened through the city in 1843, followed by the first railroad in 1857.