The small town of Weston, in rural West Virginia, holds a dark past. A massive facility, surrounded by a rusting fence stands here. The building is America's largest hand-cut stone masonry building. It is the second largest of its kind in the world, only beat by the Kremlin. As interesting as that is, that is not what makes this building unique. This building is unique because it is the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, formerly known as Weston State Hospital and West Virginia Hospital for the Insane. It is home to numerous deaths, murders, and cruel treatment. This "treatment" of patients included hydrotherapy, electroshock therapy, lobotomies, and isolating patients to rooms where they were chained immobile. Welcome to the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic …show more content…
Construction continued until it was interrupted by the Civil War. Confederate and Union troops fought for control of the asylum since the southern wing served as barracks and the concrete foundation was ideal for stables. In 1863 the Asylum changed its name to West Virginia Hospital for the Insane since West Virginia just became a state. In 1862 construction started again on the asylum; however, now the asylum was the primary focus for Weston. The Trans-Allegheny opened its doors to patients in October 1864. By 1871 the clock tower was completed, and in 1873 black people segregated into rooms. On the hospital grounds, there was a farm, dairy, waterworks, and a cemetery. In 1881, the facility was fully completed; however, Kirkbride's plans of the patients having space had been forgotten. Originally only supposed to hold 250 patients, by 1880 it had already reached 717 patients, and that number would only get larger. In 1913, the hospital's name changed to Weston State Hospital. As the number was patients steadily increased, so did the poor conditions of the asylum. Disaster struck in 1935 when a man started a fire in the main