The light forms an unusual pattern on the orange tile that forms the wall of this room. The tile walls seemed cold and distant in contrast to the rooms with plaster walls painted various pastel colors. I am not sure why some of the rooms were so constructed. I can't imagine it facilitated a "cure."


Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, aka Weston State Hospital.

Authorized by the Virginia State Legislature in the early 1850's as a state mental hospital, it served as a Union headquarters during the Civil War. (At which time, that part of Virginia became the state of West Virginia.) Afterwards, it continued serving as a psychiatric facility until 1994. The original building is the largest hand cut stone masonry building in the United States.

There are several smaller buildings on the site which were used for additional patients including those with TB and the "legally insane."