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History
Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum
Hospital History
For the longest time,
it hardly seemed neccesary to formulate a fictional story and characters to showcase the Weston Hospital, for its own true
history and life-story were akready full of rich, colorfull people and events. Further modification and sweetening of
the facts almost seemed to be overkill when the events of the hospital's 130+ year existance is examined.
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| 1884 Map Image. NOTE: Pond on Front Lawn. |
Born of War and Succession
The hospital's colorful history began in 1858, when
the Virginia Assembly in Richmond voted to levy funds for the construction of a "lynatc Asylum" on the Western side of the
Appalachian mountains. It must be remembered that in 1858, there was no "WEST" Virginia, only the "Western" section of the
Commonwealth of Virginia, an area that, in many minds, always recieved short-script from the Statehouse in Richmond.
Never-the-less, the funds were approved, the small town
of Weston was chosen as the perfect location, and a large tract of land was purchased from a local man named Henry Flesher.(No
coincidence here I assure you.) Famous architect R. Snowden Andrews of Baltimore was brought in to lay out a design
for the proposed asylumn. After finally settling on a style based heavily upon the "Kirkbride Design" construction on
the facility began in late 1859 and had advanced but a fraction of the way before the Civil War erupted and halted construction.
The hospital became a chief battling point among the
so called "loyal" citizens of Old Virgina(The Confederate loyal "Richmond Gov't") and those who sided themselves with the
"Restored" Virginia Gov't in Wheeling. These contentions came to a head in June 1861 when $27,000.00...funds originally allocated
for the hospital's construction...was "appropriated" from the Exchange Bank of Virginia in Weston and carried off to Wheeling
for use by the Restored Gov't of Va. In two short years this "Restored Gov't" would become the state of West Virginia.
Despite several annoying raids by marauding confederate
forces over the next few years, the hospital was completed enough in October 1864 to allow for the first influx of patients...most
of whom came from assylumns in Ohio. Nine patients were formally admitted on Oct. 22nd 1864 and the institution was off and
running.
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| Original one-story 1860 section |
| Oldest Photo This Author Has Seen |
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| 1898 View From South |
Continual Construction
Following the rushed opening of the hospital in 1864, applications
for admission began pouring in much faster than the builders and Superintendants had anticipated. Despite the best efforts
of the both local and state agents, the amount of space available was never really able to meet the current demands for patient
admission. From 1864 through 1881, construction on both the main stone structure as well as several auxiliary buildings
remained a constant. By 1872 or 3, construction had reached the present- day Center Section and the imposing clock tower was
up and running...though its unexpected weight proved to be a burdon upon the building's roof line. To that end, a good deal
of shoring up was required to keep the center section from imploding.
Battling a slugish flow of funds from Charleston, the entire
stone structure was not completed and open for admissions until late 1881. For a brief time, space and demand were compatible.
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| 1897 Male Geriatric Ward (13) |
Yesterday and Today
Even as early as 1881, when construction was completed on the final
wings North of the center section, trouble was evident. The ground upon which the Northern most (female) wards were constructed
were found to be far less stable than previously anticipated. The foundations of this section began sinking shortly after
completion and a good deal of "shoreing up" was needed to help stablilize the two-story stone wings.
NOTE: In 2006, the problem has returned. The foundations are, again, begining to sink
and...under the healm of the new owner foundation work is currently underway.
| Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, 1894 |
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| Directly Behind Center Section |
In 1875, the hospital's work force began construction of a new three story brick structure
directly behind the Boiler House and center-administration section.(See map at right) Soon to
be dubbed "old brick" by many of the hospital's staff, the building first served as a home for geriatrics, then as a combined
Geriatrics/"Corlored" Ward, then exclusivley to a "Colored" Ward around 1897...and finally to a Children's Ward in its final
days.
Over the years, it was re-modeled, added-on and added-on to reapeatidly until is was
officially condemned in 1945. Occupations continued however. By the time it was razed in 1952...the so-called "Cottage
Structure" had decayd to the point that the ceilings and walls were litterally falling on its occupants.
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| Main Entry Hall, 1904 |
As of September 30th 1880, 1,124 patients(617 males and 307 females) were calling the
W.V. Hospital for the Insane home. All told, they made up a perfect microcosm of West Virginia society. "Some
in rags, and some in tags...and some in velvet gowns." was more than just a nursrey rhyme...it was a way of life at the hospital.
While it is true that a high percentage of patients DID come from
the lower rungs of societie's ladder, it would be wholly untrue to say that ALL where of "peasant stock" The 1880 Hospital
Report to the State lists among its occupents 8 school teachers, 3 physiscians, 61 Physician's Daughters, 4 Physiscian's wives,
15 carpenters and 6 shoemakers.
Double Difficulties
During the next 30 or so years, the hospital would face two major
problems...each of which seemed capable of bringing the hospital to its knees in one form or another.
First and foremost, over-crowding. There never seemed to be enough
room for the number of applicants filing for admission. Even with the construction of two additional hospital wards around
the early 1890s(One for male and one for female patients) as well as a full, two-story brick structure devoted solely to the
elderly and geriatric patients in 1897, (See Photo Above.) the hospital was still opperating at well above its recomended
capactiy.
Secondly, water. The Weston Hospital sits back about 100 yards from
the West Fork of the Monongahalia River and it was thought early on the this would provide a more than adaquate source of
water for both work and consumtpion. By the late 1890s however, a sucesion of considerably dry seasons drove the West Fork
river to its lowest stages in recorded history.
Many times, the only way of obtaining any water for drinking
was to use the "pooling" method in some of the small puddles left behind in the river's absance. Eventually, 3 seperate resouviors
would be constructed upon the hill driectly behind the hospital...the last of these being completed in the early 1930s. These
tanks, along with improved piping and pumping capacity, gradually brought the institution back from its "Dry Spell"
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| 1920s Resouvior. 2006 |
NOTE: Only one of these resouviors still exists, the largest of the three. Situated at the
very top of the hill behind the hospital, the giant, brick-lined tank and the foundation of it's pumping house, are today
burrounded by a thick net of thorns and vines. Water still pools...and freezes...in the bottom.
Superintendant Scnadal
Read about the scandal that surrounded former Supt. W.E. Strathers through period newspaper reports compiled by the WV Division
of Culture and history.
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