“Let’s go, boys.”
John Hutchison urges his two Percheron horses, Jake and Bill, to begin clopping out of the Kennedy Art Museum parking lot. After working for a year to obtain permission from both Ohio University and the City of Athens, Hutchison has been leading horse-drawn tours of The Ridges for eight weeks now.
“I think it’s important to have an appreciation of the history of the site,” he said.
Hutchison tackles more than the past on these trips. He talks about current preservation discussions regarding the area, mental health treatment in America and the personal connections he has to the buildings — Hutchison’s grandfather worked at the asylum that The Ridges once played home to. And his great-uncle was a patient treated for post-traumatic stress disorder.
“(Being treated at The Ridges) you’d come and the idea was you’d have a place to live for the rest of your life,” Hutchison said on the tour.
Scott Messena and Larry Griggs attended the tour Saturday with a group of seven. When asked why they traveled to Athens from the Ohio cities of Geneva and Jefferson, respectively, Messena said “this and the trains,” referring to train tours that also take place in the area.
The pair took interest when Hutchison told them about the questions surrounding the future of The Ridges.
“There’s this question of what (restoration) is going to cost,” said Griggs, who suggested the university enlist students in restoring the buildings. “But it’s architectural history; (these are) beautiful buildings.”
Hutchison said he tries to present both sides of the preservation discussion on the tours.
“He enlightened me,” said Messena. “He remained neutral (on the topic).”
This is not the first time Hutchison has been in a position to educate: The 60-year-old is a retired teacher who spent 30 years teaching math in the Alexander School District, with a stint teaching math and physics at Hocking College. He now lives in Vinton County.
Hutchison and his pair of Percherons might be a familiar sight for some students. Since 2005, Hutchison has been harnessing the holiday spirit, offering horse-drawn carriage rides Uptown during the Holiday Tree Lighting and throughout the season.
Hutchison also offers his carriage rides up for weddings, proms, funerals, family gatherings, festivals and parades through his business, Hutchison Horsedrawn Wagon & Carriage Service LLC.
As for the tours, while the ones at The Ridges are relatively new, he’s been doing horse-drawn tours in Moonville for a year. These take place at night, with a focus on ghost stories. As of now, they are more popular than The Ridges tours, said Hutchison, whose Moonville tour on Saturday evening was filled to capacity.
But for now, the goal for the tours at The Ridges is to gain the same popularity as the ones at Moonville, Hutchison said. He added he’d like to get more OU students involved on the rides.
“It’s a chance to step back and move a little slower,” he said.
eb104010@ohiou.edu
@EmilyMBamforth
