Trans Allegheny Lunatic
Asylum, Weston West Virginia (Lauren)
When was this "asylum" opened, and what did it look like? Did it follow Kirkbride's design? Paste images as appropriate - interior and exterior. The Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, in Weston, West Virginia, is the largest building of hand cut masonry in the North America constructed between 1858 to 1881. It was open for patients from 1864-1994. It followed the Kirkbride’s plan, which called for long rambling wings arranged in a staggered formation, assuring that each of the connecting structures received an abundance of therapeutic sunlight and fresh air. The hospital had a name change for a few years called Western Virginia Hospital For The Insane/Weston State Hospital due to funding as States were being established.
What was this institution's original intent? It was designed to be a self-sufficient institution, with a farm to feed its original intended maximum population of 250 people. However, by the 1930's, the institution became overcrowded, eventually reaching 2,600 patients in the 1950's. This institution was designed to serve patients who were mentally ill and had 666 acres to utilize for services including a cemetery. The goal was to make patients feel like they were at home, having some freedom and control.
Who were the patients there? Do narratives of their experiences exist? “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” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Allegheny_Lunatic_Asylum). From the many websites I looked at there was not a link to an individual who attended there. I am going to continue to look into this.
What was the patients' experience like in that institution, and did that change over the course of the institution's history? Initially the goal for this Asylum was to house no more than 250 patients to provide a self-sufficient program. Over time the number of patients increased which decreased quality services. There could be 5 patients in one room where it was to originally house only one. Now there was not enough food made on the farm to support the number of patients. This also led to conditions of the treatment facility declining. Malnutrition exacerbated mental health symptoms too.
Did the institution, its services, and patients change over time? During the 1880’s mental health diagnoses increased which added to the overcrowding population. Patients killed patients and one staff member went missing. Found later dead,at the bottom of an abandoned staircase. During 1980’s mental health treatment changed, decreasing the population at the asylum. As the treatment being utilized was considered torture.
How many people lived, worked, and died there? Originally the asylum was to hold 250 “souls”, but over time that number increased to 2,600 patients. That is ten times more than what the initial plan was when its doors opened. It was known that thousands of patients were committed there, and hundreds of them died there. 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.
Were bad conditions ever exposed to the public? How? According to the articles online;
“To expose the terrible
conditions within, the Charleston Gazette attempted to send in a crew to
investigate the inner workings of the asylum. What they found shocked them. Patients
were sleeping on the floor and in freezing rooms due to a lack of furniture and
heat. The overcrowding had resulted in overworked staff and a decreased
emphasis on sanitation. The once bright, clear windows were covered with grime,
darkening and further chilling the rooms. The wallpaper was peeling from decay,
and where it hadn’t disintegrated on its own, the patients had torn it off in a
panic. Worse still were the patients themselves. Those whom the orderlies
deemed “unable to be controlled” had been locked in cages in open spaces, in an
attempt to make more bedrooms available for less worrisome inhabitants.
The asylum had also
become a training ground for experimental lobotomies, as Walter Freeman, the
famous surgeon and lobotomy advocate, opened up shop. In the course of his
lifetime, Freeman performed some 4,000 lobotomies, leaving sometimes perfectly
healthy patients with lasting physical and cognitive damage. His “ice pick”
method, which involved slipping a thin, pointed rod like an ice pick into the
patient’s eye socket and using a hammer to force it to sever the connective
tissue in the brain’s prefrontal cortex, resulted in a number of deaths”.
The hospital was forced
to close in 1994, due to changes in mental healthcare/treatment.
Currently is used now a
tourist attraction for history tours and ghost hunts; sighting, unexplainable
voices and sounds, and other paranormal activity…discover the haunting truth
about what happened within these walls! – this line is used for people to schedule
their ghost tours. It is a hotspot for paranormal investigators.
Would you have wanted "treatment" in this institution? The initial idea for this hospital was about the individual and how they could help them. The self-sufficient model created an atmosphere like home. I was hoping this was going to be successful hospital based on the initial purposes and intent for opening as I thought to myself if I needed support and help that is where I would want to be. However, over time the increase of patients declined the care and conditions of the facility, resulting many years later with closing their doors.
References
Hi Lauren,
ReplyDeleteWow - incredible history here. I find it horrifying that this place was the home of lobotomy experiments in the 50s?! That seems so recent...were lobotomies performed so that people could go home without being a danger to themselves/others? I'm not totally understanding why that procedure would reduce the number of patients needing treatment.
Also horrifying (apart from just the conditions) is that they built the place to hold 250 and then just..kept accepting patients. Extreme lack of ethics there, and speaks to the attitude that no matter what, "crazy" people needed to be institutionalized.
This place sounds just terrifying. Great post. Definitely going to dive into some more reading on the place!
Emily,
DeleteFrom the reading and video I watched about the lobotomy procedures, it sounded like they utilized this method to help change people's mental health conditions. There was hope from a few patients after the procedure that is was successful and they could return to their community. However, there were many people who adverse effects and made their physical and mental health state worse off, sometimes resulting in death.
The increase in numbers occurred over time and not having many other options for mental health patients to access. I think this institutions initially would have done well if it could have stayed at the max amount of patients sustaining their self-sufficient model on the farm land.
I plan to look more into this too especially as now it is open for tours about its history and they also do ghost tours. From my understanding the rooms were left with the items that were in there from the patients.
I too decided to look up lobotomy procedures and was disgusted and intrigued. They did help some patients yet it also had some bad effects on others making them worse or having to deal with a physical ailment they never had. Upon looking up more videos there was one which talked of two women who were at the hospital for years. One was very rigid and unable to move body limbs and her head. She was also mute and did not seem to understand. A couple of months after the procedure she could now feed herself, her limbs and moveable and she could walk and talk and even make jokes. In my mind I wonder who in their right mind could ever think of something horrific to do to someone that might work. But I guess overall it did work to some degree. I just wonder how he thought this would be effective.
DeleteLynn, that is so interesting and scary at the same time. I am the women you described has more functioning but the risk that could have happened is scary too. I would be curious what started this all as well. I wonder if due to the fact of understanding the brain more and how it impacts mental heath that Dr. Freeman decided on this procedure to change it. The video I watched which was similar to a commercial promoted it and its benefits however not sharing any risks.
DeleteHi Lauren, the lobotomies, severe overcrowding, and patient conditions all seem so terrible I wonder what caused the hospital to stray so far from what seemed to be a positive beginning (or intent). It seems like these patients had less rights than prisoners, as I imagine the lobotomies were not optional procedures. I also wonder if we have any “treatments” today that might in the future be deemed an equivalent to lobotomies, as someone must have believed lobotomies were beneficial at the time to allow Walter Freeman to conduct so many of them.
ReplyDeleteLuke the labotomy video I watched which is linked to my references at; https://allthatsinteresting.com/trans-allegheny-lunatic-asylum. The link on that page for the lobotomy video above is; https://youtu.be/m__SMOo8rZw. It sounded as if the positive outcomes from utilizing this procedure initially out weighed the severe side effects and death. If patients did die, it was a way to decrease the population.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if this is when medication started be utilized more as people were understanding the brain and how it impacts individuals physical and mental health.
I also agree with you that the initial capacity of patients should have stayed at 250. The quality of care and staff available to keep up on the facility was more manageable at that amount.
A hospital which once had potential only to turn out like numerous other insane hospitals, closed. To have a hospital that self reliant on its own land and animals is amazing which would be beneficial. Yet as the numbers grew this was no longer able to work which resulted in the patients going from cared for too uncared. To have as many patients where they are killing one another is unimaginable. When reading about Dr. Freeman and lobotomy, I decided to look it up and found a video from his son's on what he had done. I was very anxious to watch and read about taking an ice pick into someone's eyes and chisel away. How? Man, I don't think I could do or be around something like that. Then to find out that they still do it to this day for those with severe OCD. No way! An ice pick to the brain through the eye?! Nope no way!!
ReplyDeleteLynn, I loved the idea of using a self sufficient model and having a place that was considered home away from home. It was sad that couldn't have continued as the increase in numbers decreased quality care and is where different forms of treatment were identified and utilized. Thanks for the information about Dr. Freeman's son. I found it disturbing to watch too and to think about.
DeleteThis place sounds so creepy. The fact that lobotomies were considered a valid form of treatment is beyond me. Amazing how so many of these hospitals disguised torture as treatments. I notice a common themes in these hospitals appears to be overcrowding and understaffing. I am sure this contributed to the abusive practices that often took place between staff and patients.
ReplyDeleteAshley, as I first started reading about this asylum I loved the initial ideas of being self-sufficient. Then as the population increased so did forms of treatments. I also noticed in many of the readings this week of everyone's posts that the initial population always went up and then treatments were added in to help manage the overcrowding. I wonder how many of these places would have sustained their initial practice and treatment if their numbers didn't go up.
DeleteHI Lauren, Great post this week. The asylum I did, Mt. Pleasant Asylum in Iowa, also tried its hand at the sufficient model.bWhere our two hospitals diverge is the lobotomy experiments how horrific that they occurred at Trans Allegheny! The way in which this "treatment" was done is just beyond shocking to me. Not just the cruelty of the procedure but the lack of delicacy in it! No imaging to see what parts of the brain they were messing with so each patient could emerge with a totally different outcomes. It destroyed personalities and left some in vegetative states, just shocking that this method continued as long as it did.
ReplyDeleteMackenzie,
DeleteI couldn't agree with you more. I too was in shock to read about it and look into Dr. Freeman's use of it. As we know now, the brain is very delicate and serves multiple functioning. From what I read Dr. Freeman's use of it was to move some brain tissue around which for some patients provided more functioning and a decrease in the initial mental health symptoms. However, for others this resulted in more physical and mental health symptoms and other times resulted in death.
The idea of a self-sufficient model is great as individuals can be apart of their treatment and learn skills. If there wasn't an increase in patients I wonder how successful the asylum would have been.