The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum (subsequently renamed the Weston State Hospital) was a state psychiatric hospital that operated in Weston, WV from 1864 until 1994. It was constructed from 1858-1881. Originally designed to hold 250 people, it became overcrowded in the 1950s with over 2,400 patients.

A 1938 report organized by a group of North American medical organizations found that the hospital housed "epileptics, alcoholics, drug addicts and non-educable mental defectives" among its population. A series of reports by The Charleston Gazette in 1949 found poor sanitation and insufficient furniture, lighting, and heating in much of the complex. Those patients that could not be controlled through other means were often locked in cages. By the 1980s, the hospital had a reduced population due to changes in methods of treating mental illness. The facility was finally closed in 1994.

The hospital's main building is the largest hand-cut sandstone masonry buildings in the United States, and is the second largest in the world. The only larger structure of its type is The Kremlin in Moscow. Since the hospital was closed, the building and its grounds have been mostly vacant. More recently the lobby area and some rooms have been operated as a museum.

My eye has been increasingly attracted to urban decay. Exploring, researching the history, learning what I can from the past, and photographing the relics that remain. Many don't understand the appeal of a subject like this. But, within the aging structures I can still see the vitality of decades past, and a haunting beauty in the rust, crumbing plaster and peeling paint.

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