Totally of Topic...

...So, earlier I was surfing the net and came across some pictures of an old asylum in black and white, and thought to myself.... Hey! I can do that with my pictures over in photoshop! And so I did.....Here's some of the pictures from Weston State Hospital, this time in black and white.

I just love how much it ages everything. Shows every bit of dirt and grime.....makes the rough edges rougher, Ya know?!


Makes this picture look like something creepy happened on that wall there...


I love all the different layers....the peeling paint, the texture of the walls, and that grimy sink.....
"Oh, if only the walls could talk....."

Sorry...just wanted to share my pictures with someone:)

Minis later, I promise :)

Inside the Asylum

Today, I want to show you some pictures from the inside of The Trans-Allegheny Insane Asylum. I love the aged look of this place. The paint is coming of the walls....the floors are stained with water marks.....Windows are broken, doors are falling off the hinges~ Mind you someone came in and stole the middle hinge out of all the doors on one floor.....and they stole a lot of shutters and door knobs. Sad!! That stuff has history in it, and when your butt's getting haunted, don't ask yourself why...DuH!! You shouldn't steal for a place like this, that's just asking for bad karma!!

OK...So he we go. These pictures are in no particular order...I won't show you everything....Wouldn't want to ruin any one's visit. I do highly recommend getting out here and seeing this thing, It's so Neat!! So here's my take on it...

I believe this room was used to house people-troops durning the Civil War.

Like I said, there's a lot of history in this place. If you check out yesterday's blog...You can find a couple of links to more information. And, before we went I found this link: http://garritygal.blogspot.com/2009/04/trans-allegheny-lunatic-asylum.html
Turns out it is a blog to a Polymer Clay Artist.......:)
She has a lot of useful info in her post! So check it out when you can.

Now this was cool......They didn't have wallpaper back then...So they used stencils. And it was the patients that did this.....Go ahead and make it bigger so you can see how awesome of a job they did!!

And what about a Nice Pink Bathroom, hehe (the patients got to pick out the colors you see around the hospital)......Our tour guide was telling us that the nurse was in charge of the toilet paper, and depending on how much she trusted you......you either got only a few squares, or you could borrow the whole the roll. Crazy people might try and eat it, or put several layers together and try and strangle someone with it....or if they got bored they might clog up the toilets with it~ so they could watch it flood. Eating toilet paper! Could you imagine???

Now I thought this was strange....Look all those dead bees in the window.

The wash room made me think of Nikki and her green algae stuff she paints.....

lol.....People leave candy for the ghosts, and then the raccoons break in here at night and have a party:)

Look out the window....see the circus?.......What about that vine that is growing through the window?

Or this window shot.... This is what this person saw Everyday.

This gurney was in one of the halls. Not much has changed about those, huh......

This place has been vacant since 1994, and no one was able to keep up with the grounds, so paint is peeling, floors are starting to rot.......Just look at how this paint is coming off this door....

The Seclusion Room......a place they'd put 'rowdy' patients to calm down.......Nothing in here but a drain in the floor...

Well.......one room did have this: So they could chain them to the wall so they wouldn't hurt anyone or them selves.

But what I don't understand....You'd think the room would be padded or something......But instead, it's all tiled.....So it could be easily cleaned, hence the drains in the floor. Love that blue door!!

This window is rotting out....You can see all the way down to the brick.

Hehehe......Here's the bf posing for us. I think we'd of fit right in here, LOL!

LOL....BF also noticed that I took a lot of pictures of windows....wonder what that says about me?? LOL....Not that this building didn't have like 200 windows or something.....Yes, it was designed to have lots of windows. The theory was that the sunlight would make people happier.........I think they were on to something there!!

And on the fourth floor, there were sky-lights! If you looked up, you could see the clock tower.....the staff lived up here and were able to see the time as they came through the hall.

I thought these heating grates were neat....I love what paint does over the years....

And now what I think was the strangest picture I took. Now let me tell you that when we were in here, neither I, nor the bf got any sense that we were surrounded by anything abnormal. My camera, however, acted like an idiot the whole time. It wouldn't turn on when I wanted it to...or off for that matter.....When I turned it on, the lens would come out, then go right back in, or it would pop out but not pick up anything but a black screen....I tried to ignore it, but this nonsense followed me right though the asylum. Never once did I feel odd.....actually felt quite comfortable in this big 'Home away from home'! So......it wasn't till we got back that I got a chance to actually look at my pictures, and when I got this picture loaded up, I spotted this: Go ahead make the picture bigger, and look....there's 4 of them......one in the middle, on the left....one in the middle of the floor...and 2 on the right....

They look little halos/bubbles.... floating through the air. As you can see I didn't have any spots on any of my other pictures, so I know it wasn't the camera. The bf thought maybe it was dust particles.....But when I blew up the picture.....it didn't look like dust, See.......(Look at the right hand side, in the middle of the first picture...see...that's the area I enlarged for you~ I put a green circle around it so you could find it easier!) It looks like a 'orb' of light or something.......Can you see what I'm getting at here?? Pretty eerie, huh?? Makes one wonder!

I hope you enjoyed these pictures...... I tried to show you things that may help jog your imagination~ I know it's got me thinking. All the texture, the peeling paint and the rust....the bars on the windows......the circus out front.......What an interesting trip!!

I'd love to go back to this place. Hopefully the people who bought it, can bring back some of it former beauty!! I think it would be neat to do different rooms from different periods of time. Show us how far we've come in this 'profession'...They need pictures on the walls of the renovation projects to show people what happen when it was abandoned, and how they brought it back. I'd like for the grounds to be open so one could walk around and take pictures of all the buildings. Listen to me....Like what I want matters, lol.....Just hoping someone out there reads this, and goes: Hey! That might be a neat idea!!!.....Hopefully next year, we can return to this place:)

The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum

Sunday, after we dropped the kids of at camp, we headed over to the The Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston, WV. Please take a minute to check out it's history here: http://www.trans-alleghenylunaticasylum.com/main/history.html; it's also a link to their homepage....you can find out more info about visiting here, too! Lots of interesting things go on at this place!! So...

When we first pulled into town, we could see the clock tower over the once lived in town. Yes, they're are people who still in town, but there's also a lot of abandoned buildings, too!

This place is BIG!! This is the front Entrance: Could you imagine driving up to this place on a dark night??

It's a 1/4 mile from one end of this building to the other...

The stonework is just something that makes you think.....This whole place was hand carved!

The detail is incredible!!

Remember, this hospital was built in the late 1800s, but stayed open until 1994. You will see a lot of old things, as well as newer things....

Don't forget to click on the pictures to make them bigger...

There's a lot of detail to see!!

These pictures are still of the front side of the main building....We were only aloud to explore the front outside. Due to gopher issues......there's lots of holes, and they don't won't anyone to get hurt.

Click on this one and check out the 'gargoyles'....interesting theory, huh....keeps out evils spirits.

One thing that really blew my mind was there was also a small traveling circus out front. Now how crazy is that??? A traveling circus on the front lawn of the asylum, lol! What a site!

We had time to kill before our tour started, and naturally we were drawn to the 3 tigers that were behind the circus tent!

This one used her (We know it was a girl because their handler told us that all of them were females!!)....anyways, she's using her paw to scoop all the water out of their water bowl!! It was neat to stay and watch her...and when she got done, she went over and sat in it! The water that is, not the bowl:)

After we got done drooling over the tigers, we walked over to a building that flanked the left side of the asylum. It was known as the Psychiatric Unit. I found another great site with some really useful information if you want to know more. You can find it here: http://www.thehospitalrudeawakenings.com/id5.html

You couldn't go in here......It's not safe. But, I tell ya.....We really wanted to, we'd of explored all of the building if we could of.....But the only one that is safe, is the main one. Even so, I was still able to get a couple of neat photos from it!! I would love to see what the inside of these buildings looked like when they were first built, and when they closed. From a miniaturist's stand point, I'm very intrigued!! Who knows....maybe one day I can do a mini asylum!! Now wouldn't that be something?

Look to the top right of this building.....see the caged in area....interesting! This is the other end of the Psychiatric Unit.

Next is the cafeteria...Look at the catwalk.....It was built so patients could get to the cafeteria from the second floor.

This next brick building is the Medical Building....I'll get to that in a minute.....but first look at the back right of this picture...it's the 'Forensics Building'...also known as Criminally Insane Building....the worst of the worst were housed here...I read somewhere that Charles Manson spent time here, but I'm not sure if that's a rumor or not.

Back to the Medical Building....It is what it sounds like....a hospital. After awhile it made more sense to have a hospital on the grounds than it did to take 'sick' people across town. Here's where everything from a cold to depression was 'treated'........ Although I still don't know what good all those Lobotomies they were doing, were actually doing. I spent some time reading about them before we left for the trip, and all I can say is WOW!! If you care to see what one is, watch this You Tube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0aNILW6ILk Let me warn you now....It's harsh!!

We heard a few stories, but nothing tops that video...That man actually did Lobotomies here, too....He drove around in a van, and did on average 10 a day...And we were told he did over 20 one day!

These are all the pictures I have of the outside buildings...There are more buildings.....but like I said, we we told to stick to the front, and stay with our tour guide. Next time, I will come back with the pictures I took inside the main building.