This is a July 2022 photo of theformerWestern State Lunatic Asylum. Now abandoned since the 1970’s, in its early years, itwasa hospital for the mentally ill in Staunton, Virginia, which admitted its first patient on July 24, 1828.
In its early days, the facility was a resort-style asylum. It had terraced gardens where patients could plant flowers and take walks, roof walks to provide mountain views, and many architectural details to create an atmosphere that would aid in the healing process.
However, by the mid 19th Century, this utopian model of care had vanished, replaced by overcrowding in the facility and the warehousing of patients. Techniques such as “ankle and wrist restraints, physical coercion, and straitjackets” were used. After the passage of the Eugenical Sterilization Act of 1924 in Virginia, patients were forcibly sterilized here until the law authorizing the practice was repealed in the 1970s.Electroshock therapy and lobotomies were also practiced at the facility.
There are many more buildings at the original complex and the larger structures can be seen from nearby Interstate 81.This complex is on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and Virginia’s Landmarks Register.
This place is located on a hillside at the junction of U.S. 11 and U.S. 250, Staunton, Virginia. I was told that the complex is guardedand patrolled.
