TransAlgheny Asylum — Home of Horrors

TransAlgheny Asylum, also called West Virginia Hospital for the Insane and Weston State hospital was opened in 1864. Located in Weston West Virginia, this facility housed over 2,000 patients at one point, despite being designed to accommodate only 250. Although it was designed using particular structure that was intended to allow psychiatric patients to recover in a peaceful, safe environment, it became a living hell for everyone who set foot within its walls.

Due to the serious overcrowding issues that plagued psychiatric institutions all across the united states from the 1900s until major reforms took place in the 1970s, TransAlgheny Asylum was the site of countless atrocities. It is estimated that the deaths which took place in this facility during its operation were in the 10s of thousands.

Overcrowding in psychiatric institutions was the result of loose and vague criteria for admission and diagnosis. For example, people were admitted to these asylums because of learning disabilities, alcoholism, epilepsy, being weirdly old, and for women — missing a menstrual cycle. The list of inconsequential behaviors that would land someone in one these institutions is very, very long.

With a building designed to house 250 people at a time now holding over 2000, patients were crammed into tiny rooms. Some were placed in cages in the hallways. Staff was unable to keep up, and the stress often pushed them to abuse the patients. Reports stated that the asylum was unsanitary, caked in layers of filth, whole…