Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum: A Short History Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum Death Count

Construction started on the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in 1858, two years after famed psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud was born and before scientific studies of mental illness had begun. The asylum was built following the ideas of Thomas Kirkbride, a physician, and advocate for the mentally ill. The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, constructed between 1858 and 1881, is the largest hand-cut blue sandstone building in the Western Hemisphere and 2nd largest in the World. This Gothic structure was the end of the line for West Virginia's insane for 130 years...