The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum was a psychiatric hospital located in Weston, West Virginia, and it has previously been known by other names, such as West Virginia Hospital for the Insane and Westo
The Hospital's main building in 2006
Wheelchairs on display
Violin on display in glass case
Looking for ghosts, 2017
Kirkbride Plan
Videos
The Kirkbride Plan was a system of mental asylum design advocated by American psychiatrist Thomas Story Kirkbride in the mid-19th century. The asylums built in the Kirkbride design, often referred to
Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum
…named after William R. Sharpe Jr., a member of the West Virginia Senate. The hospital reopened as a tourist attraction in March 2008. Utilizing the Kirkbride Plan, the hospital was designed by architect Richard Snowden Andrews of Baltimore, Maryland. Construction of the hospital started in 1858 but was not completed…
An 1848 lithograph of the Kirkbride design of Trenton State Hospital in Trenton, New Jersey
The Traverse City State Hospital in Michigan, in operation from 1881 to 1989, is an example of a Kirkbride building
Thomas Story Kirkbride, creator of the Kirkbride Plan
The floor plan for the Kirkbride design from an 1854 lithograph