There is a little controversy (about the new name) because a family has bought this asylum, renamed it and is now giving tours of the building. They do haunted tours and have mud rally’s on the grounds??? I dont get that part

I was wondering if anyone has been on a tour, or knows of any history on the place other than what’s listed on the web site?

Its a massive building and I bet there has to be a few things still hanging around.

It looks really creepy.

http://www.trans-alleghenylunaticasylum.com/History.html

My uncle was in charge of this place, and a lot of others as well. I was only there once on a quick run by with my older cousin who did some work there. They opened a big vault like door to let us into a hallway where a man immediately came running at us to attack us. Right behind him were a group of white coats that tackled him. Since I was a kid this made quite an impression on me and since then I have always associated insane asylums with violence and horror, and this one in particular.

Oh Wow that would scare me too., When I was right out of college, I majored in Social Work, I took a job with a company where it was my job to evaluate The disabled individuals living in state run hospitals and see if they were good candidates to live in an ISL, (individual supported living). House. The goal was to get rid of these hospitals and help support these individuals in a home setting, to help them maintain an active an productive life.

The sad part is most of these people were severally mentally disabled and their families would put them in these hospitals and just leave them because they did not want to "deal" with them.

It was very heart breaking to walk into these hospitals or asylums; I could just feel the dread as soon as I walked into the building. It was absolutely brutal the way they were treated; this was in 1999-2000 believe it or not. Lots of regulations are set up on the treatment of patients, but it did not stop the staff from being cruel.

So anyway there was a man who was about my age who was going to have to get all his teeth pulled out because he would attack and bite people. They sent me in to evaluate him and he kept saying "tell that man to stop looking at me" He would look in the corner and just scream at the "man" in the corner.

I would spend hours in the rooms with the patients, and the ones that could talk would sometimes say things like that. I was scared sometimes because who knows maybe they show themselves to people who are mentally disabled because they know most people won’t believe them.

I never saw anything I would call tangible, but I would sometimes feel like people were walking past me in halls, when I was alone you would feel a gush of wind like a person who is running past you. Doors would sometimes close or open on its own, but I just chalked it up as an old building. Some of the hospital staff would refuse to go into certain areas of the hospital alone. I heard lots of stories but I was just hoping they were trying to scare me, because I was the one taking “their people” out of the hospitals and they wanted to freak me out.

I have always been interested in the old closed down buildings, so much hurt and suffering went on with the mentally disabled, It would not surprise me that some didn’t stay behind after passing on.

I got to tour the Asylum in 2004. While most of the building was off limits due to disrepair. I did get a few photos. http://ziggum.com/0904wvtrip.htm

If you care, the show Ghost Hunters just did an investigation of that place tonight actually, you can probably catch it on replay or just go to the SciFi channel's website and watch it. Freaky place.

OMG THey said tonight on TAPS that a doctor would come in and perform over 100 Labotomies a day with NO anesthesia OMG OMG..No wonder its haunted, that is totally inhumane..That must have been scary for you...JN

It was actually 100 labotomies a week, which is still insane.
This episode was really good, though. Very scary place. Some of the recordings they got were just down right creepy. Especially the one with the growling/moaning that the woman said it sounded like "Go home". I just wish they had caught that apparition that crouched down. That would have been something to see.

I wish they would have too. I would have seriously flipped out if they caught the crouching apparition on film. It would have been amazing, if it was as I imagined. Maybe they did get the footage but it was edited out, so viewers wouldn't have the literal crap scared out of them.
I feel so terrible for all the people who suffered in that asylum. Its sad to think that with modern treatment, many of those people could have been functional members of society.

This was an awesome episode! They got alot of disembodied voices that were pretty distinct. That would've been great if they would've caught that apparition crouching down boo hoo!. Maybe next time-eh? Oh- and what kind of Dr. gives a labotomy with no anesthesia? Maybe after he performed his surgeries they should've kept his butt in there with the rest of the loonies. Who's to say that everyone in there was truly insane though. Look what they did to Francis Farmer--just because she was an outspoken woman back in the day. They said she was crazy and gave her a labotomy. I would've gotten one long ago if I was born in a different time. Anyway, it was a great show. I just love TAPS!

OOPS Sorry, and yes regardless, its totally insane and those poor people were treated back then like wild animals. How devastating for the poor souls. I wish they would send someone out, to maybe attempt to set some of them free, and allow them to move on. I know, I would have like to see that apparition too. That place is full of angry, sick, sad and lost souls. It WAS a scary place, but at the same time it tore at my heartstrings knowing human beings were treated like that. It was a pretty good episode..JN