USA/WV: Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum
And here’s some bizarre attraction – Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. This was the infamous psychiatric hospital that operated from 1864 until 1994. Architecturally, it’s quite remarkable and spectacular – constructed in 1858, the asylum is the largest hand-cut stone masonry building in the Western Hemisphere and second largest in the world (exceeded only by the Kremlin in Moscow). The design was internationally so grand and atmospheric and wide-open as to add to the therapies for the patients here. In the 1950s, more then 2400 mental patients were crowded in its walls. Inside, you get a glimpse at the treatment rooms and methods – seclusion, restraints, electro and hydro shocks, insulin shock, and prefrontal lobotomy. Too bad the place is not longer a lunatic asylum, there’s so many social media experts on all subjects and political gurus that would clearly benefit from being treated here.
