Why Asylums?

Chances are, near the neighborhood where you grew up, there was that one creepy old abandoned building that your parents warned you not to go near.  The urban legends, ghost stories, and rumors piqued your curiosity and maybe, just maybe, you mustered up the courage to go inside if your friends dared you.  If the facility was still in operation, perhaps your parents told you to not act up or you’d be sent to the old “loony bin”…

the state lunatic asylum. 

I grew up in a small town in West Virginia about 30 minutes from the Weston State Hospital, formerly known as the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum (photos above by me... actually, all photos here were taken by me).  The building was large in structure, looking almost like a castle…

it was scary to be honest, but hauntingly beautiful at the same time 

I can remember as a kid, some parents would say “You better act right, or you’ll get sent to Weston”.  That wasn’t really the case, but the scare tactic worked!  The hospital closed in 1994 and sat abandoned until a private owner purchased it in 2007.  It wasn’t until I got older that I wanted to know and appreciate the actual history.  The stunning architecture pulled me in and I felt a sense of an emotional attachment.  It sounds odd, but I knew that Trans-Allegheny and places like it had a much bigger story to tell and that their history went well beyond the rumors and urban legends. 

Through my research, I’ve met so many amazing people who share my passion… and Kate was one of those people.  We literally hit it off by talking about asylums.  She told me about Northampton State Hospital in Massachusetts, and how it was a place that was near and dear to her.  She had spent an incredible amount of time researching the history, and even wrote a book about it called “Hospital Hill” – available on Amazon, I might add.

In late 2011, I had the pleasure of meeting the folks that saved Pennhurst State School and Hospital in Spring City, PA from demolition… I now call those people my second family.  Twice a year, I make the 3,000 mile trek to go visit them at Pennhurst.  We all share a bond over a place that is extremely personal to us; it’s more than a location.

Ok, I get it … it’s weird to love places where atrocities occurred, people were admitted against their will, abuse ran rampant, and countless people died knowing nothing but the four walls of a cell. 

Most people would assume asylums are a part of our past we should just forget; their dark history should remain long gone within the rubble of demolition.  No one would dispute the fact that these institutions have indeed seen dark times.  

But at their core, their intentions were good. 

Imagine… walking through the abandoned wards of a once bustling state institution - the broken windows, peeling paint, and patient belongings left behind paint a bleak picture of how life inside once was.  The decay and overgrowth leave little room to appreciate some of the most stunning architecture this country has seen.  If these walls could talk, they would tell stories of Christmas parties, state hospital sports teams, and recreation time at facility bowling alleys… yes, their own bowling alleys.  These places were the only home that some knew and where doctors were pioneers in the medical community.

So why are these buildings important and why should we care?

Asylums and state hospitals changed the faces of journalism, architecture, psychiatry, and mental health in general.

These are the lesser-known historical significances we hope to bring to light.  Through this blog, Kate and I hope to open the conversation around these topics, discover new details, educate the curious, and share information from historians, authors, preservationists, photographers, former patients and employees, and relatives of both.  We want to cover all aspects of asylums:  architecture, prominent figures in the medical community, mental health treatments, preservation, and much more.  I’m truly shocked at how many people I have spoken with about these topics that have some kind of personal tie to these locations.

Many of these beautiful structures have already been demolished, with many more facing the wrecking ball.
Once the location itself is gone, most of the history is lost with it.  Preservation is the key in understanding how vital and magnificent these buildings are.

This is America’s forgotten history…