West Virginia: Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum

The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, subsequently the Weston State Hospital, was a Kirkbride psychiatric hospital that was operated from 1864 until 1994 by the government of the U.S. state of West Virginia, in the city of Weston. Weston State Hospital got its name in 1913 and was changed back to its originally commissioned, but unused name while patients occupied it, the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, after being reopened as a tourist attraction.
It was forcibly closed in 1994 due to changes in patient treatment. The hospital was bought by Joe Jordan in 2007, and is opened for tours and other events to raise money for its restoration.
The hospital's main building is claimed to be one of the largest hand-cut stone masonry buildings in the United States, and the second largest hand-cut sandstone building in the world, with the only bigger one being in the Moscow Kremlin. As Weston Hospital Main Building, it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1990.
The hospital was authorized by the Virginia General Assembly in the early 1850s as the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum.
Construction was interrupted by the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861. Following its secession from the United States, the government of Virginia demanded the return of the hospital's unused construction funds for its defense. Before this could occur, the 7th Ohio Volunteer Infantry seized the money from a local bank, delivering it to Wheeling. It was put 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. 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, which ultimately reached 666 acres (270 ha) in area.
Originally designed to house 250 patients in solitude, 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
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.
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.
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.
As of 2012, the records of the Weston State Hospital reside with the Library of Virginia. While the records are accessible to the public, those who go to the library in person, can sign in and view the records but information on patients below the age of 75 cannot be recorded or publicized to protect those patients.
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.

[@erockisfat]

Why have i dreamed of this place, yet only just found this through unrelated events?

[@yamamahoe4142]

at 5.51 is where i was in the middle of my tour about 5 years ago when i had to sit in the chair because i almost fainted. i have no idea why i was perfectly fine and then boom. i had to leave the room and get some fresh air before continuing.

[@Rhyme2400]

I've done a tour there before
Its creepy

[@rudyscarpine7843]

Same

[@erockisfat]

RIP those minds

[@bingerskywoman3165]

i was a was here myself when i was 14 i was put here bc i had angry issues i saw some weird stuff happen there