Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum

400,000 square feet of scarey. This is an abandoned asylum, used by paranormal investigators. Best place I have investigated yet. The EVP’S were great, lots of sounds that need investigating. Our team had footsteps near with us being the only team near. A cell door slammed on its own. The host was helpful and the other investigators were quite friendly. The area did have motels, and ours for the money seemed fair. As to the area it was beautiful. If you go, dress for the season. And for Gods sake don’t wear heels like one female did. They have historic tours, and seasonal things for the family on the grounds. The best time of the year? Halloween of course! (SOME THINGS FREE, but investigations do cost. Bring your paranormal equipment, or just go and learn).

I was expecting an interesting tour, but this was even better than I could have thought. We took the 4 floor historical tour. Our tour guide (Michael) was knowledgable and answered any questions we had. He was really helpful and you could tell he had interest in what he was doing! For such an old building, they’re doing an awesome job keeping it up, and I’m excited to come back again in the future, as they’re still putting work into it to bring it even closer to originality. I’m so glad they’re putting a gorgeous building to good use by educating people about mental health and its care. They’re doing a great job! They have a variety of tours, nice exhibits downstairs, and a gift shop. I totally recommend that you visit, and if you have the time, the 4 floor historical tour is awesome.

Had an overnight stay in Weston for work, and was excited to hear about the Asylum! After reading so many positive reviews, we headed over in the afternoon for a tour! Parking is easy as could be, right in front of the building.
You have a few tour options, but for midweek, midday, it’s either the first floor grounds tour ($ 10), or that tour + 4 floors of the main building for a steeper price ($ 30), which wasn’t a great bargain, but If you want to hear and see the creepy/​sad/​spooky part of the asylum, you need to do the additional 4 floors tour.
Our tour guide Macy was all you could ask for in a guide. She was well-​spoken, informative, and entertaining. Could answer our questions, and kept moving at a comfortable pace with ease. What I love about the first part of the tour, and the only part for the $ 10 ground floor tour is learning what the vision for asylum was and how it operated when under ideal conditions. I don’t want to spoil too much about the tour itself, but I thought this part of the tour was as interesting, if not a little more so than the creepy/​spooky parts we all want to hear. I didn’t understand why there’d be an Architectural Tour until after Macy had pointed out all of the ingenious building designs. If you’re a fan of Architecture, I would recommend looking into it.
For those with kids, or anyone with a slight physical handicap, the first floor tour is really manageable. The 4 floors in the main building do have stairwells, but the facility provides wheelchairs on each floor for those who may need it. Love that TALA holds events, and really uses the facility throughout the year. I would also recommend doing the tour first and then exploring the first floor building museum. Definitely appreciated all the artifacts more afterwards.
Great experience, really glad we stopped in!

This was my first time visiting anything like the Trans-​Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. My fiancé and I took the historic tour of the first floor. We didn’t have the time or money to do the fourth floor tour, but we would love to do it another time.
I don’t want to give away all the details or secrets from the tour, but I’d definitely recommend it. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and engaging. We learned a lot from the tour.
When it comes to hauntings, we’re neither skeptics nor fanatic believers. The historic tour did not include anything about hauntings, and that was fine by us. The historic tour included lots of details about the asylum/​hospital, the town, and the cutting-​edge research and medicine that took place here over the years. We left feeling contemplative and fairly heartened.

We visited the asylum on a cold night in December but we’re not disappointed at all. Our tour guide Paul did a great job sharing the history of this amazing building as well as his personal stories and experiences inside this building. It was nice that we were broken into smaller groups and each group had the run of a specific floor so that there weren’t to many ppl trying to do things in the same place. This trip was definitely worth the price of admission. We’re already considering plans to return in warmer weather.

We did the overnight hunt this past weekend. It was great for the most part! I wish our guide, Paul had been more helpful and hadn’t wondered back tot he break room every chance he got. I understand it was very cold but a lot of the people in his group wanted some guidance and had questions but he was nowhere to be found. Aside from that it was everything we had hoped! The building is beautiful and creepy all at the same time!

Always a good time. We drive up from Orlando for the Halloween Ball, second time visiting the asylum but first time at the ball. I recommend the 4 floor history tour to anyone visiting for the first time, and the Halloween party was amazing! We plan on going next year again. Highly recommended if you’re in the area.

What a fantastic and incredibly interesting place to visit. We took both a 90 minute historic tour and a 90 minute paranormal tour on the same afternoon, and enjoyed both immensely. The staff is obviously very dedicated and enjoy their jobs as a labor of love. You will not be disappointed with any tour of this awe-​inspiring aged institution.

This weekend was my second time at the asylum and it has been an interesting experience both times. I really need to drive up there for the day and see what it looks like in the light. I have gone for a public investigation and now a private investigation as well.
When you drive up to this amazing building, it kind of pops up randomly in a neighborhood. It has an ominous and stately presence that makes you take notice. If you didn’t know what the place was you would definitely want to stop and find out. The clock tower on the top is intriguing and you just know that something went on there.
There is a parking lot across the street, and the Asylum offers tours of all sorts. During October they even have a haunted house which I hear is fantastic! To really see this place you must spend several hours here and really soak it all in. They have been featured on many shows and for good reason. The staff have painstakingly put hours of their time into the place to rebuild this historical gem back into what it once was. The first time I went it was still showing the signs of it’s age. Now a few years later, it has furniture throughout and fresh coats of baby blue paint to liven it back up. You can almost picture what the patient and staff were doing from day to day.
There are 4 different floors to check out, and you will seriously get a different feeling from each one. Back in it’s hey day, the asylum actually used to host proms for the local high school, and the guides will take you to the old auditorium room to show you where many twirls and perhaps even some first kisses happened. It’s oddly romantic to picture such an intimate night in a teenagers life, in a place where the mentally ill called home.
If you are lucky enough to get Copperhead as your guide, he is extremely charismatic and friendly. He has been around the place since 2009 and has had a numerous amount of personal experiences with those who decided to never leave Trans Allegheny even after death. Even at 5 am, he has all the energy in the world!
If you are into history, go! If you like haunted locations, go! If you are into both, then bonus. You’ve just found your next bucket list location. I promise, for the architecture and history alone of this beauty, you will want to return. I love this old place.

In a word… AWESOME! This could possibly be the ONLY reason to visit the town of Weston, West Virginia. This asylum tour was great. We took the 4 floor tour and it was a good 1.5 hours of awesome information and a delightful tour guide. The only annoyance was a woman in our tour group who kept asking stupid questions, but there is usually one in every tour group. We should have left her locked up in a cell on the fourth floor! I would def recommend this place for anyone who is interested in doing something out of the ordinary in a very drib-​drab town that is Weston.

Beautiful scenery and enchantingly haunting architecture, this imposing landmark is a staple visit for any tourist looking for somewhere to visit. The minute you find your way to the grounds facing the asylum, admire the timeless craftsmanship of the institution and peer up to the aged glass windows. Who knows, maybe you will see something unexplainable lurking behind their weather-​worn panes!

This was one of the greatest tours I’ve taken, historical AND paranormal. The staff was so knowledgable on the history of the hospital and the city. We even took time to chat with a nurse who used to work there. This is a must see place to go!

Very interesting place to visit. Definitely a must if you are in the area. If you are not into the paranormal lore, the historical tour is quite interesting. This month’s haunted Halloween attraction, Delirium, is definitely worth the price of admission! Highly recommend that you don’t leave Weston, WV without stopping to check this place out.

Freaking creepy!!! On my way back from my sisters graduation my mom told me I just HAD to see this place (and on mothers day of all days). This is the largest stone cut building in North America, and just second to the Kremlin in Russia. It also pre-​dates the Civil War. In other words allot of history, hardships, and death have occured on and around these grounds. The whole Asylum was also totally self sufficient, and had it’s own garden, dairy farm, and made all the bricks for the building itself amongst other things.
We took the 45 minute tour which includes the first floors of several buildings, which costs $ 10 (which goes to the restoration of the building). Let’s just say a few creepy things happened, smoke magically appeared in some pictures, and my mother who is a huge skeptic swore she heard a voice. They have a museum of sorts in the front of the building which showcases the tools they used to perform lobotomies, coffins, and other possessions belonging to former patients. If you are a history buff or into the paranormal this place is a must see. Just keep in mind that this is pretty much the only thing in the town of Weston.

My friends and I work at a Mental Health Facility, so it was an amazing experience to see how much the field has changed. Violent males and females were secluded and chained to tiled walls using 5-​point restraints and double doors, now they have «quiet rooms» with padded walls, no restraints at all and open doors. The nurse who put you in, was the only one that could take you out, so sorry if you were in there for two weeks while I went on vacation.
We went for an overnight ghost hunt. There are 4 floors to explore and you have a tour guide to give you quick rundown of the place — the history behind it, rooms they have made contact with spirits, and ghost hunting tips. Once the guide shows your group around, you are free to roam the place yourself.
I’m pretty much a skeptic but I must say, we did have an interesting flashlight session and there was Lili’s room that had balls in it that moved slightly when asked questions. At first I thought it may have been a draft but none of the windows were busted out and no one was close enough to cause a disturbance. It was definitely creepy.
Art therapy is one of my favorite things to do with my patients so the collection of patient art at TALA was really awesome to me. The whole experience was surreal and we now have something very unique too look back on.
Beautiful architecture and a rich history!

Very «ACTIVE» place .
We did the night ghost tours and I have a habit of wandering off sometimes or sticking to myself. This night except for the top floor I very rarely felt alone.
Now I’m not a true believer in ghost but i don’t disbelieve in them either. however quiet a few of my pics contain strange VERY BRIGHT balls of light when i sensed someone watching or following me. Dust? Doubt full has i have allergies and asthma and neither one kicked in that night.
I’ll just call the photos «strange» and leave it at that.
Anyway, at the very least it was fun and education to walk around at night in a building that is 150 years old…
Awesome time

Trans-​Allegheny Lunatic Asylum — wow. Where do I start? This place is a MUST SEE.
I was visiting family in West Virginia, I heard about this old (supposedly haunted) Lunatic Asylum that offers tours daily & I just had to go as I am fascinated by things such as this. TAPS Ghost hunters did an episode on this location. Link:
We drove two hours to Weston, West Virginia specifically to visit this asylum.
When we initially drove up I was in awe of the size of the building. It is the largest hand-​cut stone masonry building in North America (242,000-square-foot!) = 0
Once inside, we bought our tickets (I must mention the lady at the front desk seemed sort of. «stressed» to put it nicely. She came off as rude & didn’t seem to have much patience — reason I am not giving a full 5 stars). However, I quickly got over it as I was busy admiring the inside of the asylum while patiently waiting for the next tour to take place.
For day tours (7 days a week), there are two options: To view and visit the first floor for $ 10.00 or to see four floors at $ 30.00. I went ahead and purchased the $ 30.00 ticket to see all four floors as I am into photography and wanted to have all the photo ops possible, it’s a one time experience so why not. and the money is going towards the preservation of the building itself. However, the tour did take about three hours to complete. So if you’re not totally fascinated by things such as this, are in bad health, have bad knees, etc. purchasing only the first floor would be perfectly fine.
At night they offer «ghost tours». where they show you the «hottest» spots in the asylum… not for me, as I’m a major pansy.
We went on a weekday I believe. I was in a group of five and there were only three other people that accompanied us in the first floor tour so it was not crowded and we were able to ask many questions. After the first floor, it was just my group of five touring the asylum on the upper floors.
Our tour guide, Sue, actually worked at the asylum as a nurse (in the 60s I believe). We LOVED her — everything she said had more meaning behind the words just knowing that she worked here when the asylum was open. She shared some of her personal experiences while working at the hospital & I just couldn’t stop asking her questions! I learned so much history about the location — I wish I could share all that I learned but you’ll just have to check out one of the tours for yourself ;) I am pursing a degree in psychology — so it was also very interesting to learn of the medical procedures (torturous by today’s standards) doctors used in those days to «treat» mental illness. This asylum performed numerous frontal lobotomies daily (with no anesthetics!), electrotherapy, hydrotherapy, etc. It was an indescribable feeling knowing I was walking in the exact spot where these patients were held (and «treated»), especially the seclusion rooms. I’m a major skeptic, but if there is anywhere that is haunted, I have no doubt this would be the place.
It’s crazy to think that this asylum was actually a «sanctuary» for the mentally disturbed. An exerpt from the trans-​allegheny website: ‘Prior to insane asylums, those who had mental illness without family or friends who took responsibility for them were mostly placed in prisons in the company of common criminals, often chained to walls, unclothed regardless of temperature, and mired in their own filth. Some families did take responsibility although they were more concerned with hiding their problematic relatives to avoid embarrassment than trying to help them. They stashed them away in attics, secreted sheds, and even holes in the ground. It wasn’t until the 1770’s that facilities began to be constructed specifically to house the insane. But again, these places were designed to extricate the individual from society, not to help him or her reassimilate through curative methods because insanity was universally regarded as incurable.“
Bear in mind, in these days. not so long ago, women were considered «property» so many normal functioning people were placed in this asylum for the remainder of their lives simply based on domestic reasons. If the woman had children, they would automatically «assume» the children were mentally disturbed as well and the children would live their lives within the asylum walls as well. Some have reported hearing children laughing in the hallways.
After leaving this place, I was extremely thankful to live in today’s society. Check out the photos I posted (please. don’t steal them), one photo is a list of all the reasons you could be admitted into the asylum between the years of 1864 – 1889, you will be shocked…
So I guess this review ended up being more of a history lesson that a review, but other than the history, the building itself is absolutely fascinating — the architecture was advanced for it’s time. As I said, it’s a MUST SEE if you’re in the area!