Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum

We went to a ramp festival in West Virginia yesterday and I'll post pics once I've sorted through all of them.  After we left the festival, we headed west to tour the Trans Atlantic Lunatic Asylum in Weston, WV.  This building is the second largest sandstone building in the world; the Kremlin being the largest.
 I have a lot to post about this place but today I will start with the art gallery.

 Click any pic to enlarge.  If you still can't read something because it's too small, hold down your command key and click on the + key to make it bigger.

 All of the art work was left behind by patients.

 This hospital closed in 1994 which is rather startling.

 This is some pretty amazing stuff.  The pain these patients were in is quite obvious in some of these pieces.

 So, take your time and peruse these if you are interested and tomorrow I will post more of the hospital and the practices within.












Comments

Linda said…
Interesting. I read the ones I could. It's too bad some of the smaller print is not readable, not your fault by any means.
Leanna said…
Sad but interesting how the mind works. I was able to read most of the work but not all. Thanks for the field trip.
Mary said…
The Don't Quit poem is wonderful, it would be a great motivational card. Such sadness though.
A place like that of such concentrated, historical human misery would overwhelm me energetically. And you know, I'm not even a particularly sensitive person. So I don't think I could visit there.
Anonymous said…
It's good that they actually saved a place like that, they were usually horriffic places. I don't think they've saved any here though,they really should have because we treated the mentally ill very bad.

Looking forward to more tomorrow!

Christer.
TARYTERRE said…
i am glad this is open to the public so that people better understand mental illness. too often it is misunderstood.
Guillaume said…
Some of it is extremely chilling. Some heartbreaking. Beautiful building, it gathered so much suffering. And I said it before but it looks like a perfect setting for a horror story.
chickpea678 said…
It's all so heart-breaking and sad :(.