Wild and Wonderful, and an Idea

As a kid growing up in West Virginia there were several things that seemed mythical about our state.

One was: Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum.

Originally designed to house 250 patients in solitude, the hospital held 717 patients by 1880; 1,661 in 1938; over 1,800 in 1949; and, at its peak, 2,400 in the 1950s in overcrowded conditions. 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. A series of reports by The Charleston Gazette in 1949 found poor sanitation and insufficient furniture, lighting, and heating in much of the complex, while one wing, which had been rebuilt using Works Progress Administration funds following a 1935 fire started by a patient, was comparatively luxurious.

At my age mythos plays a small part, but this place is actually still there and might be useful?

West Virginia also houses (or did?) The Greenbrier.

Seems the current congress critters might benefit by a visit to Weston? The place has barred windows.

I dunno… picturing the Pampered Princes on The Potomac housed in a nut house seems right somehow?

Category: Politics