Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum

 

The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum was a psychiatric hospital located in Weston, West Virginia, and known by other names such as West Virginia Hospital for the Insane and Weston State Hospital. The asylum was open to patients from October 1864 until May 1994. After its closure, patients were transitioned to the new William R. Sharpe, Jr. Hospital in Weston, named after William R. Sharpe Jr., a member of the West Virginia Senate. The hospital reopened as a tourist location in March 2008.

Utilizing the Kirkbride Plan, the hospital was designed by architect Richard Snowden Andrews of Baltimore, Maryland. Construction of the hospital started in 1858 but was not completed until 1881. Originally designed to accommodate 250 patients, it became overcrowded in the 1950s with 2,400 patients. The asylum was sold at auction in 2007 and is open for tours and other events to raise money for its restoration. The main building of the hospital is said to be one of the largest hand-cut stonemasonry buildings in the United States and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1990.

History

19th century

The construction of the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum was authorized by the Virginia General Assembly. An appointed Board of Directors was tasked with the purchase of a pre-approved parcel of land near the West Fork River, which at the time was still considered the state of Virginia. Construction began in late 1858 and was initially conducted by prison laborers. Most of the building materials were sourced nearby, most notably the blue sandstone from a quarry in Mt. Clare, West Virginia and because of this, skilled stonemasons from Germany and Ireland were employed.

Construction was interrupted by the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861. Following the secession of the State of Virginia from the United States, the government demanded the return of the hospital's unused construction funds for its defense. However, before this could occur, the 7th Ohio Volunteer Infantry seized the money from a local bank, delivering it to Wheeling. This money was to be set aside for use by the Virginia government which remained loyal to the Union, also known as the Restored Government of Virginia. These funds were designated as a “start-up treasury” for what would become a new Union State. Funding was appropriated from this established treasury for the hospital's continued construction in 1862.

While construction was attempted during the war, the grounds and buildings were often occupied by both Union and Confederate military, and building supplies were taken by Confederate raiders. Following the admission of West Virginia as a U.S. state in 1863, the hospital was renamed the West Virginia Hospital for the Insane. The first patients were admitted in October 1864, but construction continued into 1881. The 200-foot (61 m) central clock tower was completed in 1871, and separate rooms for black people were completed in 1873. The hospital was intended to be self-sufficient, and a farm, dairy, waterworks, and cemetery were located on its grounds.

Patients were admitted into the asylum for a variety of reasons including asthma, laziness, egotism, domestic troubles, and even greediness. This led to an overwhelming number of patients being admitted, causing the asylum to face a shortage of staff and beds.

20th century

A gas well was drilled on the hospital grounds in 1902. Its name was again changed to Weston State Hospital in 1913.

Originally designed to house 250 patients in solitude, the hospital held 717 patients by 1880; 1,661 in 1938; over 1,800 in 1949; and at its peak, 2,600 in the 1950s in overcrowded conditions. A 1938 report by a survey committee organized by a group of North American medical organizations found that the hospital housed "epileptics, alcoholics, drug addicts, and non-educable mental defectives" among its population. A series of reports by The Charleston Gazette in 1949 found poor sanitation and insufficient furniture, lighting, and heating in much of the complex, while one wing, which had been rebuilt using Works Progress Administration funds following a 1935 fire started by a patient, was comparatively luxurious.

The lack of proper care and access to sanitation led to a large number of deaths at the asylum. While the official count of patients who have died in the asylum is not available, research is currently underway to determine an accurate count. Weston State Hospital expert and historian, Titus Swan, estimates the number to be in or above the five-figure range.

Weston State Hospital found itself to be the home for the West Virginia Lobotomy Project in the early 1950s. This was an effort by the state of West Virginia and Walter Freeman to use lobotomy to reduce the number of patients in asylums because there was severe overcrowding.

By the 1980s, the hospital had a reduced population due to changes in the treatment of mental illness. Those patients who could not be controlled were often locked in cages. In February 1986, then-Governor Arch Moore announced plans to build a new psychiatric facility elsewhere in the state and convert the Weston hospital into a prison. Moore authorized work to begin on the prison conversion, but the state found the move to be unconstitutional and work was suspended. Ultimately the new facility, the William R. Sharpe Jr. Hospital, was built in Weston and the old Weston State Hospital closed in May 1994. The closure came by court order due in part to a class action lawsuit filed by family members of patients. The building and its grounds have since been mostly vacant, aside from local events such as fairs, church revivals, and tours. In 1999, all four floors of the interior of the building were damaged by several off-duty city, county, and state police officers playing paintball, three of whom were dismissed over the incident.

Efforts towards adaptive reuse of the building have included proposals to convert the building into a Civil War Museum and a hotel and golf course complex. A non-profit 501(c)3 organization, the Weston Hospital Revitalization Committee, was formed in 2000 to aid the preservation of the building and find appropriate tenants.

21st century

Three small museums devoted to military history, toys, and mental health were opened on the first floor of the main hospital building in 2004 but were soon forced to close due to fire code violations.

The hospital was auctioned by the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources on August 29, 2007. Joe Jordan, an asbestos demolition contractor from Morgantown, was the high bidder and paid $1.5 million for the 242,000-square-foot (22,500 m2) building. Bidding started at $500,000. Joe Jordan has also begun maintenance projects on the former hospital grounds. In October 2007, a Fall Fest was held at the Weston State Hospital. Guided historic and paranormal daytime tours were offered as well as evening ghost hunts and paranormal tours.

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum 2017

The main building of the asylum, known as the Kirkbride, holds several rooms that serve as the 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 hydrotherapy tub. The tour guides dress in clothes that resemble 19th-century nurse outfits; 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 apartments of the staff, the morgue, and the operating room. Aside from the historical tours, there are also two paranormal tours. Both start as the sun sets, the shorter tour lasting around two to three hours, the longer tour being overnight with the option of having a private tour.

In popular culture

The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum is featured in the Pulitzer-winning novel Night Watch by West Virginia author Jayne Anne Phillips. This Civil War-era story is set in the Asylum and explores daily life in the early days of its operation.

The former facility was featured as a haunted location on several paranormal television shows, including Ghost Stories, Syfy's Ghost Hunters, Travel Channel's Ghost Adventures, and Paranormal Lockdown on Destination America/TLC as well as Portals to Hell and Sam and Colby and most recently Travel Channel's Destination Fear and Conjuring Kesha.

The facility is featured in Bethesda Game Studios' 2018 video game Fallout 76, under the name "Fort Defiance," acting as a base for The Brotherhood of Steel, one of the game's main factions.

The facility is featured in episode 60 of the podcast Lore.

Daniel Johnston, a songwriter, musician, and artist, and featured in the documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston, was a patient at the hospital during the late 1980s.

The facility is featured on Expedition X, released on the Discovery Channel in August 2024.