Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum

Construction of the asylum began in the 1850s, using sandstone quarried nearby and cut by hand, and it was interrupted by the Civil War before finally being completed in the 1880s. The finished building is enormous, its main structure among the largest hand-cut stone buildings anywhere, with a central administrative section flanked by long, staggered wings stretching out along the ridge.

The design followed a nineteenth-century model developed by the reformer Thomas Story Kirkbride, who believed that the architecture of an asylum itself could aid recovery. The staggered wings were meant to give every ward abundant sunlight and fresh air, the grounds were landscaped with gardens and farmland, and the whole was set in the countryside, all in the belief that a calm, beautiful, orderly environment could help heal a troubled mind.

The asylum opened its doors after the Civil War with those reforming ideals at its heart, and for a time it operated much as Kirkbride imagined, with patients working the farm, tending gardens, and living in wards flooded with light. But over the following century the ideals eroded under the weight of numbers. Built for a few hundred residents, the institution at its peak held many times that, and overcrowding overwhelmed the careful design.

As with institutions across the country, the twentieth century brought treatments now regarded as harmful and conditions that grew crowded and grim. The story of the asylum became a mirror of the changing, and often troubling, history of how society cared for the mentally ill. It finally closed in the 1990s, and the building passed into new ownership to be preserved rather than demolished.

The asylum shaped the town of Weston around it, providing work and drawing the town's economy for well over a century. Weston grew as a central West Virginia trade town along the West Fork River, and its handsome older buildings and small downtown reflect that long history. Today the preserved asylum is the town's most striking landmark and a major draw for visitors.

The region around Weston, known as the Mountain Lakes country, is dotted with reservoirs, state parks, and small towns. This central plateau was ancestral homeland and shared hunting ground of the Shawnee, the Lenape, and other peoples who traveled the West Fork and its tributaries long before the town rose. None of those nations is federally recognized in West Virginia today, and their descendant nations continue in other states.

Since its closure the building has been stabilized and opened to the public, chiefly through guided history tours that lead visitors through the great stone halls and wards. These tours aim to tell the full story with honesty and care, from the reforming ideals of its founders to the overcrowding and hardships of its later decades, treating the many people who lived and worked there with respect.

The asylum also hosts after-dark and paranormal-themed programs, which have brought it a wider reputation, but its most meaningful offering is the straightforward history tour. Standing inside the vast, echoing corridors, a visitor comes face to face with a chapter of American life that is easy to forget and important to remember, preserved in one of the country's most remarkable buildings.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.