Our family is on holiday in West Virginia for the summer, enjoying the sunshine and fantastic mountain scenery and some amazing sights, including the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. When I took this photo I thought I'd save it for
Skywatch Friday.
The interior is grimmer than grim, as you'd expect from a nineteenth-century asylum. Wall shackles and chairs with restraints and ancient medical implements gave the hot sunny day a chill... as did the price quite frankly. It costs $30 per person to take the whole tour, but you can opt for an abbreviated $10 version, which might leave you enough to spend on souvenirs, including a 'Lunatic' t-shirt.
You can click any of these photos for a larger version. If you can't see the sign on the door clearly, it says "Please Do Not Prop Door Open" which considering the rope I thought very funny. Also it gives you a glimpse to the inside... imagine being dragged in through these doors a hundred years ago?
Our family is on holiday in West Virginia for the summer, enjoying the sunshine and fantastic mountain scenery and some amazing sights, including the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. When I took this photo I thought I'd save it for Skywatch Friday.
The interior is grimmer than grim, as you'd expect from a nineteenth-century asylum. Wall shackles and chairs with restraints and ancient medical implements gave the hot sunny day a chill... as did the price quite frankly. It costs $30 per person to take the whole tour, but you can opt for an abbreviated $10 version, which might leave you enough to spend on souvenirs, including a 'Lunatic' t-shirt.
You can click any of these photos for a larger version. If you can't see the sign on the door clearly, it says "Please Do Not Prop Door Open" which considering the rope I thought very funny. Also it gives you a glimpse to the inside... imagine being dragged in through these doors a hundred years ago?
22 comments:
yikes this place is spooky, but the sky is lovely!
beautiful photos...my feelings about how society dealt with individuals by throwing them into such institutions as they did not understand and perhaps did not care to understand the difference in behavior(s).
reminds me of the movie with elizabeth taylor-raintree county-where she was emotionally disturbed (circa civil war) and went into such a place.
come to think of it, that is the time period when a lot of states constructed homes/institutions/schools for the blind and separated them from the main stream.
alas.
Terrific shots! REALLY scary looking place! Just hope I don't end up in one -- old or new!! So glad you're having a great trip!
My Kate is dying to do this tour and the one of the prison. She's my nut and never boring. I think we might do it. By the way, the Crazy family down here let their 14 year old join the Zombie Patrol. She begged and I caved and she earned the 15 bucks to do it. Just waiting on the membership card now. Who can resist the slogan "We Make The Dead Deader".
WooHOo!!! I've been meaning to join the local Zombie Patrol here (we don't have one in Ireland) and now I DEFINITELY will, thanks Cathy!! LOL
Thanks everyone for your comments--this really was quite a place. We spent today at the Mystery Hole; this state just gets better and better. LOL
I guess you have to trade $30 for the "superlative" stone cut virtue. We have a similar hospital here that is not a tourist attraction but a white elephant.
Now you must read "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Florence Perkins Gilman to your captive audience!
Interesting post and it is sooo huge...must have had a lot of people in it....Happy Sky Watch and have a great weekend
Great building.
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That is such a huge building for an asylum! I wonder now how many were roomed here at a peak period! Scarey looking building with many scarey ideas attached!
Nice tour and great shots!
Regina
Neat place! You find the most interesting places.
It's amazing to me that they give tours, and astounding that at full one costs $30. I think the beautiful view from the outside is just fine!
Great view and a beautiful sky. The building certainly looks forbidding.
Only shots like this can make such a dreadful place appear beautiful.
Great job!
Great shots of an intersting place. Its a very imposing building. I got a laugh out of the rope and sign!?
Shuddder! I hope things have improved dramatically these days.
Love that kind of old place, but $30 is a bit much, isn't it? One of the things we love about West Virginia is that life seems cheaper there than in Washington--guess there's still a bit of the old lunacy there! (Would have loved a lunatic shirt though!)
I had the exact same thought as someone else who mentioned how huge for an asylum!
What an amazing photographs.
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My grandmother worked here in the 1930s. It's a beautiful photo. Chilling though many of the thoughts around the old use of this building may be, I'm pleased to see it being preserved. It provided work for many during some tough times.
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