Few things give the sense of a society whose time has lapsed than impressive human structures overgrown with plants and trees. A building’s façade crumbles and gives way to the architecture of nature, which consumes it slowly and rebuilds in its own image. Such a transformation is taking place at the site of the old power plant that used to serve Antioch College.

In this edition of Forgotten Springs, we take a look at a place on the Antioch campus whose planned obsolescence reflects a philosophical take on life. The Village was home to a series of Japanese teahouses, built by an Antioch professor who wanted to establish a place of reflection similar to those he enjoyed during the years he spent in Japan.

When we went to check out what was described as an overgrown statue garden on the Antioch campus, I was expecting another crumbling relic that held a quirky story. Far from being a quirky tale, the place recalls an event Yellow Springers will never be able to talk about with detachment.

According to some theorists, at one point Yellow Springs was said to host none other than Lee Harvey Oswald, the man behind the Kennedy assassination. Was he really here? Why? How? Was it all just part of a larger CIA-led plot?