The Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum

Well this was exciting and a little freaky! This was a fully functioning asylum from before the civil war until 1994. It is the second largest handcut stone building in the world. It was just like the movies and frankly just as scary even in the day. The tour guides all dress in nursing uniforms from a much earlier era which adds to the effect. We took a 90 min historic tour. We found out after we bought our tickets and we were about to go on the tour that there was a daytime haunted tour which we would have preferred. Our tour was great though. The amount of history in that place was amazing. We got to here about the years of wives and likely children being dropped off by husbands/fathers because they didn't want them anymore and because wives were property the husband had the right! It was eerie to hear about all the children that grew up in the asylum and how many didn't want to leave because that was the only home they ever knew.
Our tour began in the newly refurbished center section downstairs and then continued down one of the first floor wings. It began getting freaky at this point because these areas have not been refinished and therefore look like hell - literally! The paint is peeling everywhere. The beds they have placed in the rooms are of various ages and types but most all of them are exceptionally rusty. Because we are in the east the humidity is high which adds to the effect as the air just feels heavy within the building with 3 foot thick walls. The effects of the buildings remained about the same throughout most for the tour where we would occasionally feel a little off and creeped out until we got up to the maximum security floor of the main building and the girls and I got put into a security room with double doors. No body freaked out but we were all a little uneasy. We got to hear how it wasn't the maximum security males that had to be as concerned about, it was the females because they plotted and would come after you when you least expected. The workers were told to keep up against a wall so as to only have 3 sides of your body open to attack!
The only truly scary-type story that we were told was that a known killer of fellow inmates was beaten, strung up in the ceiling and let up and down repeatedly until he passed out and then when he came to they put his head under a bedpost and jumped up and down on the bed until he died; it was at this point that I expected a ghost to possess one of us and attempt to strangle someone in retaliation!
The tour ended with a view of the doctor and nurse residences which there was a large disparity. The doctors had comparatively large quarters where they and their families could live whereas the nurses, whom could not only not marry, they could not interact with the male species if they wanted to keep their jobs, they did not have private living quarters; they had a bed to sleep in that they shared with another nurse that worked the opposite 12 hour shift. Women's lib was definitely not a thing at this hospital! Talk about scary!
Overall we all enjoyed the tour. We saw the morgue and cool scary rooms and buildings and got a lot of history. Well worth the money of $30 an adult. I would recommend anyone heading West Virginia! - Carrie