KHA_5066-50"This is a sad place." - Stephanie Hanzalik, 2013 (inaudible)

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, Weston, West Virginia.
This is the largest cut stone building in the Western Hemisphere, used to house patients with a wide variety of conditions. They suffered from everything - from book reading, to seizures, to murderous rage.
July 2018

The sleepy town of Weston, West Virginia, population 4,110, is home to the largest cut stone building in the Western Hemisphere - the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum. It stands as a dark testament of an earlier time. Operational from 1864 until 1994, the facility housed patients suffering everything from seizures to literacy during its tenure as a mental health institution.

KHA_4982-41"This is a sad place." - Stephanie Hanzalik, 2013 (inaudible)

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, Weston, West Virginia.
This is the largest cut stone building in the Western Hemisphere, used to house patients with a wide variety of conditions. They suffered from everything - from book reading, to seizures, to murderous rage.
July 2018

Arriving in Weston, I felt like I had traveled in time to 2014 when I photographed the most infamous Nazi death camp - Auschwitz.

"This feels just like Poland," I kept saying to the photographer I was traveling with.

The town surrounding the Asylum felt like Oświęcim, the Polish town in which the Nazis instituted the camp. The river running through the town, the long-established urban buildings all connected to each other, flowerbeds under flat windows, the blue collar atmosphere.

KHA_5255-66Weston, West Virginia felt a hell of a lot like Osweicim, Poland. Wonder why.

KHA_4818-7

Normal towns with massive instruments of human experimentation. Their major tourist attractions.

KHA_4873-20"This is a sad place." - Stephanie Hanzalik, 2013 (inaudible)

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, Weston, West Virginia.
This is the largest cut stone building in the Western Hemisphere, used to house patients with a wide variety of conditions. They suffered from everything - from book reading, to seizures, to murderous rage.
July 2018

KHA_4871-19"This is a sad place." - Stephanie Hanzalik, 2013 (inaudible)

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, Weston, West Virginia.
This is the largest cut stone building in the Western Hemisphere, used to house patients with a wide variety of conditions. They suffered from everything - from book reading, to seizures, to murderous rage.
July 2018

"This is a sad place," my mom mouthed to my father after being transferred to a neurological rehab facility. Inside the asylum, I heard her voice say the words in my head. I knew it's the kind of place she would have ended up.

KHA_5186-59"This is a sad place." - Stephanie Hanzalik, 2013 (inaudible)

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, Weston, West Virginia.
This is the largest cut stone building in the Western Hemisphere, used to house patients with a wide variety of conditions. They suffered from everything - from book reading, to seizures, to murderous rage.
July 2018

KHA_4983-42"This is a sad place." - Stephanie Hanzalik, 2013 (inaudible) Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, Weston, West Virginia. This is the largest cut stone building in the Western Hemisphere, used to house patients with a wide variety of conditions. They suffered from everything - from book reading, to seizures, to murderous rage. July 2018

KHA_5181-58"This is a sad place." - Stephanie Hanzalik, 2013 (inaudible) Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, Weston, West Virginia. This is the largest cut stone building in the Western Hemisphere, used to house patients with a wide variety of conditions. They suffered from everything - from book reading, to seizures, to murderous rage. July 2018

KHA_5090-52"This is a sad place." - Stephanie Hanzalik, 2013 (inaudible)

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, Weston, West Virginia.
This is the largest cut stone building in the Western Hemisphere, used to house patients with a wide variety of conditions. They suffered from everything - from book reading, to seizures, to murderous rage.
July 2018

KHA_5163-57"This is a sad place." - Stephanie Hanzalik, 2013 (inaudible)

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, Weston, West Virginia.
This is the largest cut stone building in the Western Hemisphere, used to house patients with a wide variety of conditions. They suffered from everything - from book reading, to seizures, to murderous rage.
July 2018

KHA_5190-60"This is a sad place." - Stephanie Hanzalik, 2013 (inaudible)

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, Weston, West Virginia.
This is the largest cut stone building in the Western Hemisphere, used to house patients with a wide variety of conditions. They suffered from everything - from book reading, to seizures, to murderous rage.
July 2018

KHA_4866-18"This is a sad place." - Stephanie Hanzalik, 2013 (inaudible)

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, Weston, West Virginia.
This is the largest cut stone building in the Western Hemisphere, used to house patients with a wide variety of conditions. They suffered from everything - from book reading, to seizures, to murderous rage.
July 2018

How many lives have been lost! How many have suffered! All for the sake of Reason!

To see the full Gallery, please visit https://www.lamblyoptic.com/asylum