The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum located in Weston, West
Virginia first opened in 1864. This
palatial structure is the 2nd largest hand cut stone building in the
world with its grounds spanning 666 acres.
Its architecture was born out of the gothic revival which making look
like something straight out of a horror film.
The institution was orignally intended to provide “moral treatment” to the
mentally ill. Doctor Thomas Kirkbride believed
that the buildings tall tower and rambling wings would help foster more
comfortable living conditions helping maintain a sense of calm and happiness. Patients ranged from epileptics, alcoholics,
drug addicts to people who were considered far to mentally impaired to be educated/rehabilitated. The hospital was originally designed to house
250 people but as patient numbers grew conditions deteriorated. The asylum was known for having poor
sanitation, little to no lighting, and inadequate heating. New medical interventions such as seclusion
cells and lobotomies took patient misery to new levels all the way through the
1980s. Records show that thousands of
patients died at the asylum, many of which were buried on hospital
grounds. The Charleston Gazette exposed
the institution on several occasion between 1949 and the 1990’s. The paper cited poor conditions such patients
lying naked smeared with feces.
For more information on the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum (Weston
State Hospital) please click below.
Geoff, from the looks of our collective research, it appears there are not enough walls or buildings to contain all those who need mental health services. The solution is definitely not taking them from their communities and "housing" out of sight. These vulnerable people deserved more than the unceremonious graves they were put in.
ReplyDeleteGeoffrey
ReplyDeleteVery interesting post. I'm beginning to see a theme with these institutions having "palatial" (great word) architectural design, but lacking substance for clients. One has to wonder what it might have felt like to be someone living in those walls with their dim lighting, essentially locked into an environment that housed great numbers of people struggling across a range of mental illness and psychoses. And of course, the dubious methods of "treatment", which feel now like methods use in a horror film (as you likened). What is even more is that these facilities were used to imprison people who were just different, or who didn't abide by the Victorian-era moral strictures regarding their sexuality or behaviors. There very existence seems like insanity to me.