Going Crazy in W Virginia!

4 Jun 2022--Left Kentucky on the 2nd and drove 295 miles to our next stop in W Virginia.  I mention the 295 miles because it seemed every one of those miles were lined with the highest density tree population I've ever seen.  The trees are so close together it's like trying to look thru a head of broccoli...you can't see an ounce of daylight beyond the 1st row of trees.

Some very nice scenes as we head into our little slice of heaven!

     

So yesterday we went for a tour of the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum.  Just the name of it makes me both cringe and crack up at the same time.  lol  

Built by Irish, Scottish and German stone masons (borrowed from the Kentucky wall builders?), this building is the 2nd largest hand built stone building in the world...2nd only to the Kremlin.  We were met by these 2 outside--all the guys working here are dressed as 1920s orderlies, while the women are dressed as 1940s/50s nurses.  This facility was originally built for 250 patients, but at it's peak in the 1950s they had up to 2400.

   

The 1st things you see as you enter the building...not sure if it's a joke or not.

  

Not being educated in the sciences, the stone masons added gargoyles to the building to keep evil spirits away.  You can buy replicas in the gift shop.

   

Famous people with mental illness.  Don't recognize all of them, but quite a few of them, for sure.

These 9 people were the 1st patients admitted--take note they are all women!  And if you blow up the pics you will see they are all pretty young.  The tour guide explained that the last lady in the 3rd pic was a milliner--a hat maker--and that she most likely had mercury poisoning, because the brim in hats used to have mercury in them.  (God only knows why.)  He claimed that's where the phrase, "mad as a hatter" came about.

   

Somehow they allowed these 3 to walk around freely! lol

A couple more fun facts:  

1.  Up until about the 1950s, if a woman was admitted her children went into the asylum with her, because at the time they thought mental illness was hereditary.  

2.  Until 1965, a husband could have his wife committed on his word alone, so it was a pretty easy way to get rid of his whole family if he chose to.  

A few of the cells had mannequins in them--looked a little cheesy!  

  

At least the military had stalls! lol

  

At 1st glance you might be wondering why I would post a couple pics of windows.  Well, although we may be appalled at what we see here today, back in the 1880s when this place 1st opened, it was considered the epitome of humane treatment.  The guide pointed out that if you look straight at the windows (pic1) the bars on the outside align with the wood in the windowpanes, obscuring the bars from the patients.  All you have to do though is stand to the side and the bars are clearly visible (pic2).  I guess they figured the patients would never do that?  lol  

  

Built to be self-sustaining, the grounds had a farm, a dairy, a morgue and a cemetery.  If your body was not claimed, they either sold your corpse to experimenters or buried you here on the grounds.  These 2 ladies were sold, along with a baby.  Someone was working on "mummifying" techniques, and these 2 were found years later floating in a river--still intact!  The baby was not found.  About 700 people are buried in this field right outside the grounds on this hillside--no markers, but they are there.

   

The 1st 2 pics here are some of the doctor's quarters.  They had some nice ones for the nurses also, but when they needed extra rooms for the nurses because there were more of them, they were put up in cells (3rd pic) where the alcoholics were housed.  (If you weren't assured this was true, you'd be hard-pressed to believe it-lol)

  

Of course, they had their own apothecary.  Check out the ingredients in the bottles--everything from heroin and chloroform to chocolate covered arsenic and strychnine tablets.  You have to wonder how many people were killed by their doctors in those days? lol

 

    

Keep in mind that in years previous to the 1880s they just shackled you to a wall if you were having a bad day, and even let tourists come and ogle you for fun.  Any advancement in the sciences would be thought to be an improvement, right?

   

How about a bath in hot or cold water?  The guide said it was actually better to be in the cold water, because they only kept you there a short time.  Conversely, they might keep you in the hot water for anywhere from 8hrs to a week, all in the name of calming you down, of course. 

  

In another quest to slow blood flow, a patient would be strapped to this chair--arms, legs, waist, shoulders and then head--in the belief that your mental illness was caused by too fast blood flow to your brain.  I don't know about you, but I know that if I wasn't truly bonkers going in, I sure as hell would be after a few of these treatments. lol  Look what they've reduced Caja to! lol

  

The confinement crib was widely used in the 1800s..sometimes even strung up from the ceiling so as to rock the patient in the hopes of calming them.

  

You think electric shock therapy is bad?  Wait till see what's coming up next!

 

This is the "transorbital lobotomy"--where, while you were awake, they used a pick and hammer to go up underneath your eyelids, tap until the pick went about 2" into your brain, then moved the pick side to side in both eyes to sever your frontal lobe.  They actually had a short, black and white, video showing the procedure being done.  It was gross!  This procedure was done to about 50,000 people in the country--the guide said one was Rosemary Kennedy.  The boy pictured here was 12 yrs old...and is still alive today living in California.  The youngest ever to have this done was 4 yrs old.  So sad!

   

Of course no study of mental illness would be complete without the homosexuals! lol  If you blow up the 1st pic they list a bunch of traits commonly thought to be true at the time.  One was that they could "easily recognize each other"...lol  Cracks me up!

   

Reasons listed on patients forms when entering the asylum...Cathy is pointing at the one that says "women"--incredible!

  

This is Dr Wilbur, the 1st woman to be Superintendent of the facility in the 1960s.  More interesting, is that the movie "Sybil", with Sally Fields, was based on this doctor and one of the patients she treated.  I found that movie both horrifying and fascinating! 

  

And as we close out the tour, here is my version of "Where's Waldo?" lol

So, today we are on our way to PA...I'm typing this on the road.  Don't know how long we will visit yet, but if we see anything interesting I'll be sure to share it with you!