August 14, 2025, update: Repairs to Joneswood Drive are now complete and the road has been reopened. According to assistant city engineer Gillian Garland the total cost of the project was $593,350.03. This comes in roughly $7,000 under the $600,000 budget for the repairs that was approved by Athens City Council in April. Click on any of the images below showing the repaired road to view them in slideshow format.
ATHENS, Ohio — Joneswood Drive in the City of Athens is expected to be closed in the coming weeks as a slow landslide pulls apart the road and damages a home.
Andy Stone, the director of the City of Athens Service-Safety Department, said that the landslide has likely been caused by recent rains.
“Clearly it’s a landslide, probably exacerbated by the heavy rains over the last several days,” Stone said. “This is not uncommon in the spring in Athens, where you have slope stability issues to begin with, particularly in late winter, when there is not a lot of leaf cover.”
Robert Rymer, chief of the City of Athens Fire Department, said that the fire department was first alerted about the home at 8:57 a.m. when a concerned citizen called about a potential gas leak. Rymer said that the city then closed the road, shut off the waterline and contacted Columbia Gas to shut off the gas line.
Rymer said that firefighters inspected the home and confirmed that no one was currently living there.
“[The home is] currently moving now,” Rymer said. “You can hear it creaking and making all kinds of noises right now.”
According to court records, the property (10 Joneswood Drive) recently foreclosed and was purchased by the Federal National Mortgage Association, aka Fannie Mae.
Stone said that the main concern for the city is preserving the waterline. Stone added that if the waterline were to break, Joneswood Drive, Riverview Drive and parts of Terrace Drive would be without water.
“Our first plan is to remove the load on top of the line,” Stone said. “The crew seems to think that that’s a relatively new line, that line went in around eight years ago and they seem to think that it’s actually sitting on rock down at the bottom of it. So it may be fine if we could just get some of the load off the top of it, so that if the hill goes it [won’t pull the water line along with it].”
Stone said that the area around Joneswood Drive is prone to these slow moving landslides, more commonly known as slippages, and that the city has installed a number of retaining walls over the years. According to Stone, the city is currently preparing to run a temporary waterline if the main line does suffer damage.
Joneswood Drive overlooks Columbus Road but officials do not expect the slippage to cause any damage or impede traffic.
“We looked at it,” Stone said. “[The home is] not above any occupied structures down there, so it’s unlikely that you’d see it tumbling down the Columbus Road. This isn’t like a Southern California situation where you have landslides that cascade and rapidly fall down the hill. It’s a slow moving landslide.”
Rymer expects that the house will be stopped by trees and other foliage as it begins to slide further down the hill.
“I think it’ll be stopped by quite a bit of the trees myself,” Rymer said. “My guess is it’ll probably just pancake and the top half of it will fall over, but that’s just my guess from looking at the foundation issues.”
Stone believes that once the house finishes sliding down the hill it’s going to be there for a while due to the difficult terrain.
“I think in the grand scheme of things, the unfortunate thing is, the wreckage of it is going to be there for a while,” Stone said. “Until we get that road rebuilt and depending on what portion of the hill goes, it’s going to be difficult to get in there and get [the house] out.”
Stone encouraged members of the public to reach out to the City of Athens Service-Safety Department or the Engineering and Public Works Department if they see quickly developing cracks in the roadway.
April 10 update: The garage of the house at Joneswood Drive has fully collapsed. The weight has now shifted to the other side of the house causing a slight lean.
Note: This story has been updated since initial publication to clarify that the home is uninhabited. It also reflects updates to the structure’s status.
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