In honor of it being October and with Halloween fast approaching, I wanted to take the time and make a post that didn’t include any racecars. I revisited and re-edited a few images from a trip I took several years ago while in college to the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia. I feel that many photographers go through a phase where they have an infatuation with the abandoned; I too was part of the cliche. To be honest, there is still something fascinating about those things today. The deserted, the forgotten. But in fairness, the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, or Weston State Hospital, isn’t truly abandoned in the literal sense, though it is rumored to be haunted. I didn’t have to hop any fences or climb through any windows to gain access; they offer daily tours. It is the largest hand-cut stone masonry building in North America (second largest in the world behind the Kremlin), a nationally recognized landmark, and had a lasting cultural and economic impact on the area. For those reasons, large efforts are made to preserve the facility and keep it open for visitors. With construction beginning in 1858 and lasting over twenty years, the original hospital was designed to maximize sunlight and open air with a capacity for 250 patients. Population at the asylum peaked at almost ten times that in the 1950’s with 2,400. A combination of overpopulation, deteriorating conditions, and a changing mental health landscape lead the doors to finally be shuttered in 1994. My brother and I had planned to make the trip together, however he ended up not being able to go. With no classmates willing to fill in, I made the trip through the mountains solo. That part was fun. There was a portion of the tour where we were allowed to separate and practically given free reign to go where we please throughout the grounds. That part was unsettling.