The largest hand-cut sandstone building in America, and the second largest in the world, is located right here in Weston, West Virginia. No doubt you’ve heard of it: the infamous Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum.
There are few places in the country that have a stranger or darker history than the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, West Virginia. Over the course of its 160 year life, this massive structure has witnessed some good things but many more terrible and sad events.
Both the light and the darkness are memorialized in the structure itself - an incredible, massive building that was built over the course of 13 years. Construction was disrupted by the outbreak of the Civil War, leading to multiple historic events, including a raid on the Weston bank by Union soldiers to prevent the building's construction funds from falling into Confederate hands.
By the time the building was completed in 1881, the figures reveal its colossal size: nine acres of floor space, 15 miles of steam piping for heating, 906 doors, and 921 windows. A railway system in the basement distributed food to an array of dumb waiters that raised it to the ground level.
Thirty-inch thick walls built from sandstone quarried in nearby Harrison County display superb workmanship and give the asylum the distinction of being the largest hand-cut stone building in America - perhaps second only to the Kremlin worldwide.
The building, with its massive hallways, parlors, and open spaces, was originally designed to bring light, comfort, and order to the residents' lives, but as time went by a darker atmosphere crept in. Originally intended for 250 patients, the asylum - renamed the Weston State Hospital - housed 492 in 1880, and 1661 in 1938.
With the combined effects of overcrowding and underfunding, conditions in the hospital drastically deteriorated. Though the original intent was to avoid patient restraints, by the early 1900s typical instruments included straitjackets, bed straps, and even coffins. By 1950, over 2300 patients were kept at the hospital, and it had become a "dumping ground" for the unwanted, whether uncontrollable family members, criminals, or substance abusers.
Conditions in the hospital included decaying floors and ceilings, patient beds in the hallways, one aide per up to 70 residents, one toilet per 57 residents, and patients constantly restrained with arms lashed to their sides. By this time, novel methods of treatment had been introduced; tranquilizers, electroshock therapy, and worst of all, lobotomies - the "surgical disabling" of the brain's prefrontal lobes.
Hundreds of patients at Weston were lobotomized, often with terrible results: commonly the patient's brain function after surgery would be similar to a "household pet." In those days, patients admitted would often never leave. Three cemeteries on the property hold the remains of many patients whom no one claimed after death.
Later, with growing attention to patients' rights and advances in treatment, the patient population declined. Finally, in the wake of multiple patient deaths, insufficient funding, and poor management, the hospital closed in 1994.
But the building lives on. Listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1990, it is privately owned today, with tours offered daily - and nightly - much of the year. The daytime tours document the troubled history of the building, while the night tours investigate the paranormal aspects of the building.
Have you visited this disturbing window into the past? What did you think? Feedback on the tour is overwhelmingly positive, with many participants promising that it is one you won’t regret taking! To learn more, visit the Asylum’s website or Facebook page.
The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum isn’t the only record-holding structure around; here’s another one.
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