Location: Asylum Drive, Weston, WV Map
Constructed: 1858-1881
Area: 26.5 acres (10.7 ha)
Closed: May 1994
Trans- Allegheny Lunatic Asylum is situated at Asylum Drive, Weston, West Virginia in United States. In the 19th century society in United States began to shift its views on treatment of individuals with mental issues and challenges. In the middle of the century Thomas Kirkbride developed a theory of construction of a Sanatorium with supportive and curative environment for the patients. Over 300 such facilities were constructed across the country. Trans- Allegheny Sanatorium became one such facility.
XIX century
The hospital was chartered by the
Virginia General Assembly in the early 1850s as the Trans-Allegheny
Lunatic Asylum.8 After consulting Thomas Story Kirkbride, then
superintendent of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, Richard
Snowden Andrews (1830-1903 ), a Baltimore architect who had completed
other commissions, including the Maryland Governor's Residence in
Annapolis and the South Wing of the United States Treasury Building,
designed a building in the Gothic Revival and Neo-Tudor styles.9
Construction on site , along the West Fork River across from downtown
Weston, began in late 1858. In November of that year, a local newspaper
noted that "seven convict Negroes" were the first to arrive to work on
the project. Later skilled stonemasons were brought in from Germany and
Ireland.
Construction was interrupted by the outbreak of the
American Civil War in 1861. Following its secession from the United
States, the Virginia government demanded the return of unused
construction funds for the hospital for its defense. Before this
occurred, the 7th Ohio Volunteer Infantry seized money from a local bank
and turned it over in Wheeling. It went towards the establishment of the
Reorganized Government of Virginia, which sided with the northern states
during the war. The Reorganized Government appropriated money to resume
construction in 1862.
Upon West Virginia's admission as a state
of the United States in 1863, the hospital was renamed West Virginia
Hospital for the Insane. The first patients were admitted in October
1864, but construction continued until 1881. The 200-foot (61 m) central
clock tower was completed in 1871, and separate rooms for blacks were
completed in 1873. The hospital was intended to to be self-sufficient,
and a farm, a dairy, a water factory and a cemetery were located on its
land,8 which eventually reached 666 acres (270 ha) in area.
At
that time, patients were admitted to the asylum for various reasons,
such as asthma, laziness, selfishness, domestic problems and even greed.
This led to an overwhelming number of patients being admitted, leaving
the asylum facing a shortage of staff and beds.
Twentieth century
In 1902 a gas well was drilled on the hospital grounds. In 1913 its name
was changed again to Weston State Hospital.
Originally designed
to house 250 patients in solitude, the hospital housed 717 patients in
1880; 1,661 in 1938; more than 1,800 in 1949; at its peak, 2,600 in the
1950s in cramped conditions. A 1938 report by a committee of inquiry
organized by a group of American medical organizations concluded that
the hospital housed among its population "epileptics, alcoholics, drug
addicts, and the ineducably mentally deficient." A series of reports
published by The Charleston Gazette in 1949 revealed poor sanitary
conditions and inadequate furnishings, lighting and heating in much of
the complex, while one wing, which had been rebuilt with funds from the
Works Progress Administration after a fire caused by a patient in 1935,
was comparatively luxurious.
The lack of adequate care and access
to healthcare led to a large number of deaths in the asylum. Although no
official count of the patients who died at the asylum is available,
historians have estimated the number to be between 400 and 500.
Weston State Hospital became the home of the West Virginia Lobotomy
Project in the early 1950s. It was an effort by the state and Walter
Freeman to use lobotomy to reduce the number of patients in asylums, as
there was severe overcrowding.
In the 1980s, the hospital had a
reduced population due to changes in the treatment of mental illness.
Patients who could not be controlled used to be locked in cages. In
February 1986, then-Governor Arch Moore announced plans to build a new
psychiatric facility elsewhere in the state and convert Weston Hospital
into a prison. Eventually, the new facility, William R. Sharpe Jr.
Hospital, was built in Weston, and the old Weston State Hospital simply
closed in May 1994. Since then, the building and its grounds have been
mostly empty, apart from local events such as fairs, religious
observances, and guided tours. In In 1999, all four floors of the
building's interior were damaged by several paintball-playing city and
county police officers, three of whom were fired over the incident.
Efforts to reuse the building include proposals to convert it into a
Civil War Museum8 and a hotel and golf complex. In 2000, a 501(c)
non-profit organization was formed, the Weston Hospital Revitalization
Committee, in order to assist in the upkeep of the building and find
suitable tenants.
XXI century
Three small museums dedicated to
military history, toys, and mental health opened in 2004 on the first
floor of the main hospital building, but were soon forced to close due
to fire code violations.
The hospital was auctioned off by the
West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources on August 29,
2007. Joe Jordan, an asbestos demolition contractor from Morgantown, was
the highest bidder, paying $1.5 million for the hospital building.
22,500 m². Bidding started at $500,000. Joe Jordan has also started
maintenance projects on the old hospital grounds. In October 2007, a
fall party was held at Weston State Hospital. Historical and paranormal
guided daytime tours were offered, as well as nightly ghost hunts and
paranormal tours.
The main building of the asylum, known as the
Kirkbride, houses several rooms that serve as a museum, located on the
first floor. There are paintings, poems and drawings made by patients in
the art therapy programs, a room dedicated to the different medical
treatments and restraints used in the past, and artifacts such as a
straitjacket and a hydrotherapy tub. The tour guides dress in clothing
reminiscent of 19th century nurse costumes: blue dress, white apron,
white cap and white shoes. The shorter historical tour offer allows
visitors to see the first floor of the Kirkbride, while the longer
historical tour allows visitors to see all four floors, the staff
apartments, the morgue and the operating room. In addition to the
historical tours, there are also two paranormal tours. Both start when
the sun goes down, the shorter one lasts between two and three hours,
and the longer one takes place overnight with the option of a private
tour.