Most Haunted Places in America: The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum
The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum was a state run psychiatric hospital located in Weston, West Virginia. The 242,000 square foot building was built to house 250 patients but by 1950 held over 2400. The so called cures that were practiced there included frontal lobotomies and electro-shock therapy. There were documented deaths there that numbered in the thousands with many buried on site thus making this one of the most haunted places in America.
Construction started in 1858 using prison labor and eventually skilled European stonemasons were brought in to finish up. Construction was interrupted during the Civil War in 1861 for almost a year and though not completely finished until 1881, patients started arriving in 1864. The hospital, who’s grounds included 666 acres, included a dairy farm, water, gas well and a cemetery which were all intended to make the asylum self sufficient. The hospital was renamed Weston State Hospital in 1913.
The last couple decades at the hospital were extremely violent. Frequent reports of patients killing other patients, female employees were violated and killed including a nurse that was missing for nearly two months before being found dead at the bottom of an unused staircase. It is these events that are said to contribute to the high level of paranormal activity at the asylum.
Some of the paranormal events reported by employees were sounds of gurneys being pushed up and down the hallways. The electro-shock area has had reports of screams coming from it. Full body apparitions of patients as well as doctors have been claimed to be seen roam the halls and rooms. Voices that have ranged from giggling and laughing to ominous warnings to leave the building have also been reported to be heard all around the facility.
It seems that the spirits from the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum did not always stay there. A woman who grew up close to the hospital and eventually went to work there as a psychiatrist, had her first patient comment suicide. This doctor claims that his ghost still haunts her to this day.
The most active spot in the asylum seems to be the fourth floor as well as the Civil War wing. On the fourth floor there have been a lot of reports of strange sounds and banging, voices, whispering and what seems to be constant conversation going on even though no one is talking. The Civil War wing apparently is visited by a soldier named Jacob. Jacob as been seen wondering the area on several occasions.
In 1990 the hospital was designated an historical site and in 2007 it was bought at an auction and now open for tours. The new owners officially changed the name back to The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum.
In 2008 TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society) was invited in to investigate the paranormal activity being reported. TAPS got evidence of what sounded like a female laugh, strange banging sound and an EVP telling them to “Go Home”. Grant Wilson, from TAPS, also claimed to see an apparition standing in the corner and which immediately put its hands over its head and, according to Wilson, looked like it was “being sucked out of the room.” TAPS declared that the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum was indeed haunted.
Check out these Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum ghost videos of some captures EVP’s (Electronic Voice Phenomena).
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That we belive that the hauntings are true and that lilly and jacob do exist. we are hopping on finding inforamation on both of them. we areselfs are experiencing ghost activity in our lives.me and tori both have delt with ghost before and we can tell if a ghost is present or if it is real or not.it is a very intersting story and hope to find out more about it.
Victoria Sommers & Allison Walker
This place is amazing. I visited here on October 25th, 2009. I did the day time tour and the night time tour. Hoping too stay here soon. It was when I was in the Civil War Section, I had felt something happen too me… My pant leg was tugged on, and from what I hear, Lily likes too do this stuff, I’m really honored that this actually happened too me, I didn’t tell anyone there what happened, not thinking of course.. I didn’t know to believe it was true or not..
I attended an overnight investigation in August of 2009. The place is amazing and truly one of the scariest places on earth. I personally saw a light in the TB hospital go on then off, little balls of light flying around, some sort of shadow thing floating down a hallway against the wall, I heard a scream with my own ears and footsteps going down an empty hallway. I was able to obtain over 200 evps with just a few of them made into videos and published on youtube. On there you will see the two possible ghost faces I captured and a shadow figure which was seen by the quide when my camera flashed. I even obtained an annoucement on the no longer fuctioning PA system. Feel free to go to my channel and listen to many evps I have caught on my digital recorder in places other than TALA.
i heard so many stories i want to plan to go there sometime it seems creepy enough to scare a person that does not get scared easily.
I hunted there in June of 09 and I am going back this weekend (in March 10). My team caught great EVP’s (Class A) and we heard a little girl’s giggle on the 4th floor with our own ears. Plenty of shadow people are there and, though we never saw any, plenty of spirits that can manifest into full body apparitions. The building is amazing and seemingly never-ending. I can’t wait to tour the medical building! the building looked 100% creepy from the outside.
Well I am diffently checkin’ it out I can’t wait I am goin’ July 2nd And i’m so excited! I want to see this for myself! and hear things
Alright some of the people don’t believe the ghosts in the Asylum are real, but look at all the ghost crews who went there, Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, and more. I have been there with my Crew ( Ghost Hunting Crew) and have heard crying deep in the Medical Building, By the way Andy Stout it’s a pretty scary place
. Whoever plans on going there should bring a EVP- if they have one or an EMf detector.
Wow, ever sence I heard of this place I wanted to go! I’m only 12 years old though I am obsessed with paranormal activities! However, I feel ghost proof. When I was younger I lived in a haunted house and expeirenced nothing! The asylum sounds so amazing! I want to meet Lily so much. One of the things I want most in the world is to experience some kind of paranormal ghosty activity! I plan on coming to the asylum some day and meeting Lily! (Haha I’m a freak
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This place first caught my eye when my 14 yr old daughter did a project of haunted places in West Virginia for her West Virginia studies class. I’ve read a lot on this place and actually went there on 7/11/10 just to see the outside and to take pictures. This place looks amazing outside and building is absolutely beautiful! I would LOVE to take a tour of this place!
We are doing the July 31st over nighter. I can’t wait!
Let us know how it goes!
Wow all the possitive feed back. I just recently joined a very experianced ghost hunting crew and we are going to be visiting this place some time soon, I have seen the stories and read the comments i have even watched the 7 hr show with ghost adventures. This place is amazing and i wanna go like now. I dont agree wit hthe stiff fee that they are charging for tours, As a ghost hunter i can say i dont agrre with anyone charging anything in the name of scientific research!!
me personalty i would love to go and see it for myself. i would love to have an encounter with the little girl named Lilly its crazy how she has the same name as my little girl that past away.
I recently went on a overnight tour of this building and has so many strange things happen. While on the fourth floor we were doing a evp session where Jim is suppose to be and caught on video a white ball come out of one door, move around us and then disappear into another door. We experienced all sorts of things that night, different smells when you would walk through halls, I saw several shadow figures and we actually felt sick walking down one of the halls. (We quickly turned around and went the other way). I did not catch anything on camera really. I have “orbs” but I am a big skeptic on if they are paranormal. I would say dust. All and all it was a very interesting experience and will do it again sometime.