As a kid growing up in West Virginia there were several things that seemed mythical about our state.<\/p>\n
One was: Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n Originally designed to house 250 patients in solitude, the hospital held 717 patients by 1880; 1,661 in 1938; over 1,800 in 1949; and, at its peak, 2,400 in the 1950s in overcrowded conditions. A 1938 report by a survey committee organized by a group of North American medical organizations found that the hospital housed “epileptics<\/a>, alcoholics<\/a>, drug addicts<\/a> and non-educable mental defectives” among its population. A series of reports by The Charleston Gazette<\/a><\/em> in 1949 found poor sanitation and insufficient furniture, lighting, and heating in much of the complex, while one wing, which had been rebuilt using Works Progress Administration<\/a> funds following a 1935 fire started by a patient, was comparatively luxurious.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n At my age mythos plays a small part, but this place is actually still there and might be useful?<\/p>\n West Virginia also houses (or did?) The Greenbrier<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n Seems the current congress critters might benefit by a visit to Weston? The place has barred windows.<\/p>\n I dunno… picturing the Pampered Princes on The Potomac housed in a nut house seems right somehow?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"