For those of you that may be new here, this is the next installment of Spooky Saturdays here on the blog. This is where I take you on a tour of some pretty creepy things. It could be a person, place or thing, maybe even a personal experience from a blogger. Todays Spooky Saturday is brought to you by Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, AKA Weston State Hospital, located in Weston, West Virginia.
The Asylum housed the mentally ill and began in the mid 1800’s. Construction began in 1858 and opened up to patients in 1864 and was constructed to hold 250 patients. The building continued until 1881 and the hospital reached its peak in the 1950’s with over 2,400 patients leading to deplorable conditions. Due to changes in treatment and the deterioration of the buildings condition Allegheny was forced to close in 1994. The building itself is 160 years old and is the second largest structure in the country designed by Richard Andrews.
Early on the insane were considered to be possessed by demons or even the devil himself. They were generally forgotten about by families or hidden by those that “cared”, they were often chained to walls and covered in their own filth along side criminals. It wasn’t until the 1800’s that any form of change was brought for the insane.
Dorothea Dix was a social reformer who fought to change the treatment of the mentally ill after experiencing the treatment of the insane in a local jail in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dix gained the attention of state legislator who granted funds to help change the deplorable conditions exposed to the public. Dorothea traveled extensively across the US, Europe and Asia. Her tenacity was eventually rewarded when the first state hospital for the mentally ill was opened in 1848 in Trenton, New Jersey. It was the second hospital to be opened following the Kirkbride plan, designed by Dr. Thomas Kirkbride, who Dix worked closely with. Dr. Kirkbride’s idea was building with a cure. Giving patients wide open spaces, sunlight and plenty of ways to offer them constant stimulation and a special apparatus for lunacy. (The building as a cure theory was widely discredited.)
“There is no reason why an individual who has the misfortune to become insane, should, on that account, be deprived of any comfort or even luxury…” Thomas Kirkbride.
While well intended, Allegheny’s conditions began to decline. As the stigma of mental illness began to climb, so too did the number of patients admitted. Soon the Asylum saw more than it could house with rooms holding 4 to 5 people per room intended for one. The farm and dairy that was designed to feed 300 people couldn’t keep up with the increasing demand. This soon lead to malnutrition that only further exacerbated the patients mental illness. By 1938 it was at six times its capacity, the orderlies were outnumbered and unable to gain control of the patients who ran wild in the hospital.
The Charleston Gazette sent a crew in to expose the horrible conditions and found more than they bargained for.
Patients sleeping on floors, freezing due to a lack of furniture and heat, decrease in sanitation from overworked staff and over crowding. The windows were dark with grime, wall paper peeling from the walls. That which hadn’t disintegrated from decay had been pulled off by panicked patients.
Even worse was the treatment of the patients themselves. The patients termed uncontrollable by staff were stuffed into cages on the floors to make room for patients that were more “manageable”, less bothersome.
Walter Freeman in turn made Allegheny his own training grounds for experimental lobotomies when he opened up shop. Freeman performed over 4,000 lobotomies in his lifetime and left many a healthy patient with lasting physical and cognitive damage. His “ice pick” method also left many more dead. (Nothing like an ice pick through the eye to cure “insanity” )
By the time the asylum was shut down for good, the only expansions made to accommodate its demand was the graveyard.
Trans-Allegheny Asylum now offers historical and ghost hunting tours for the morbidly curious. Some people have reported seeing apparitions or hearing the voices of those who left this world in a shocking fashion. It has been featured on Sy-Fy’s Ghost Hunters, Ghost Hunters Academy, the Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures and Paranormal Challenge. Make your own judgment and have a visit if you dare.
I hope you enjoyed todays installment of Spooky Saturdays. If you have any stories to share of paranormal experiences and would like to be featured please send your stories to lunaluvbook@gmail.com. You can either be named or wish to remain anonymous, the choice is yours.
Happy haunting ya’ll. Stay witchy! 🙂
T. (n.d.). History of the Asylum. Retrieved December 28, 2020, from http://www.trans-alleghenylunaticasylum.com/main/history.html
Serena, K. (2020, July 30). The Horrifying History Of The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. Retrieved December 28, 2020, from https://allthatsinteresting.com/trans-allegheny-lunatic-asylum
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