History Cont.

TheHospitalRudeAwakenings.com

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History Cont.

Into the 20th Century

Hospital Grounds, Circa 1904. NOTE: Greenhouse in lower-left.

Despite the much publisized scandal involving Superintendent Strathers, the West Virginia Hospital for the Insane started off the 20th century on a very positive note. Shortly after the turn of the century, several of the old and crummbling buildings behind the center section were either demolished or renovated and new, much more modern buildings errected in their place. This included the completion of an ultra-modern boiler house...as well as a magestic, new, greenhouse on the Southern part of the front lawn.

During an effort to alliviate the constant water famine, Hospital officials attempted to drill a water-well...and struck natural gas instead. Once it was determined that the gas could be easily obtained in paying quanities, the wells were harnessed and hooked into the hospital's infrastructre. The addtition of the these on-site wells saved the hospital an estimated $5,000.00 per year. Water, however, remained ellusive.

Sometime in 1900, a flagstand was errected upon the hospital's center section and for the first time, the Stars and Stripes were flown from it's heights. Later that same year, Hospital officials were oblidged to lower the banner...a gift to the hospital from Ms. Stokes Tunsill of the "Bailey House"... to half-staff upon learning of the assassination of President McKinley. All other State institutions in W.V. soon followed suit.

On Spetember 30th, 1900, the official Hospital Census showed 998 patients under roof and care.

Southern Grounds 1906

Changes at the Top

Since 1864, The West Virginia Hospital for the Insane had been governed and controlled by an elected group of directors in conjunction with the Hospital's Superintendent. The original Board of Directors...selected in 1858...quickly disbanded following the outbrake of the civil war and a new panel did not reconvien until 1864

Original 1858 Directors

Minter Bailey President

J.N. Camden Clerk

John Brannon

RO. J. McCandlish

George J. Arnold

James T. Jackson

William E. Arnold

Caleb Boggess

Joseph E. Spalding

Administration Section, 2nd Floor, circa 1902

For fourty-plus years, the Directors and the Superintendent kept tabs on every aspect of day-to-day life at the hospital. They would then compile their anual or biennial findings into a condensed report and submit them directly to the Governor's office in Charleston. These highly detailed reports included yearly budget estimates, patient census reports, staff organization, farm imports and exports and even personal reports made by the Superintendent himself.

Final Board of Directors

1906-1908

C.A. Swearingen President

J.S. Vandervort Treasurer

B.D. Gibson

Charles S. Dice

Amos Bright

Thomas O'Brien

W.H. Lantz

James F. Thompson

O.W.O. Hardman

S.M. Steele M.D. Superintendent

However, starting with the administrative year of 1909, control of the hospital and it's infrastructures was taken out of the hands of its Board of Directors and placed into the care of the newly created "West Virginia State Board of Control." The Hospital's board of directors virtually ceased to be. Now, only condensed reports by the Superintendent,the hospital treasurer, and Farm would be submitted.

Main Gate, 1920s

This change in control would pale in comparison to what was coming next. With institutions around the state and the country increasing in capacity every day, governments were begining to step back and re-examine the entire subect of Mental Health as a whole. Based on the up-coming over-haul of the system...they must not have liked what they saw. In 1915, the West Virginia Stat Legislature passed new laws and regulations which were to bring about sweeping changes in how mental institutions throughout the state funtioned.

The first to go in Weston was teh hospital's name. The "West Virginia Hospital for the Insane" became simply The "Weston STATE Hospital"...the same titling applied to the institutions in Huntington and Spencer as well. Commisions of Lunacy were set up in every county in the state in order to deermine if commitment was needed.

The most radical change instituted by the legislature was a provision for "voluntary admission." Hospitals world-wide had complained for many years that they key factor to succesful treatment of mental illnesses was to catch the disease early and begin treatment before it had a chance to gain a foothold on the individual. Hospital's claimed that too many patients were being denied treatment at the very time that their afflictions were in the preliminary...and "cureable" stages.

The entire report made to the State Hospitals in West Virginia may be read at the link below. It is shown just as it appeared in the Fourth Biennial Report of the State Board of Control, 1914-1916.

Click here to read the 1915 Reorganization Report

Click here to see the Huntington and Spencer State Hospitals

Building Up and Tearing Down

A New Kitchen and Dining Hall

By 1914, space was at an all-time premium at the newly designated Weston State Hospital. Admissions were rising and the maxiumum capacity of the institution's facilities were being stretched to the breaking point. One key reason for this was the obvious need to provided warm, healthy, food to the 1,500 plus patients and staff. Early attmepts at streamlining the process of food delivery had resulted in the construction of an elaborate system of underground railways, running from the kitchen in the rear of the hospital to every ward in the stone section. Food was then hauled up via pulleys and dumbwaiters for distribution throughout the various wards.

With the contruction of the second kitchen in 1898, this hopelessly complex system was phased out and eventually replaced with 4 small, kitchens, and 26 seperate dining areas scattered about the hospital's many wards and floors. While simpler and safer, the new system took it's toll on available space for patients. Superintendants throughout the early 1900s began to call for a change. Most proposals were of the "Cafeteria" variety...one very large kitchen and a congregate dining area, along with space for cold storage, a patient store, sewing room and canteen.

Twice during the administration of superintendant S.M. Steele, appropriations for such a structure were made...yet the amounts of each appropriation fell well short of what was needed and were instead used for reapairs and other "band-aid" applications. The grounds and buildings behind the administration section of the hospital were long neglected during this time. The main kitchen, sewing room, store room and ice house all were near colapse by 1915.

Main Kitchen/Dining Hall, 2005

More to come

The Medical Center

For many years, psychiatric patients at the Weston State Hospital were forced to be transported "off-campus" to other institutions or chartity hospitals should the need arrise for even the most basic of non-mental medical treatment. In addition to the simple logistics of transporting unstable individuals from Weston to a medical facility...time, transportation and liability...the high cost of off-site treatments were a strain on the hospital's, already tightly stretched budget. As early as the teens, superintendants and doctors were calling on Charleston to solve this problem. Charleston's answer would not come until 1930.

For the fiscal year of 1930...in the very early days of the great depression...the State of West Virginia authorized, by legislative appropriation, $200,000.00 for the express purpose of constructing a modern, state-of-the-art medical facility to treat both paying and non-paying patients at Weston and patients from other state institutions. With architect R.A. Gillis of Fairmont WV at the healm, construction of the 4-story, red brick structure began later that year. In 1932, the "Medical Center" of the Weston State Hospital was established and the clinic formally opened to both patients and staff in 1934.

Medical Center facade, 2000

Rear of Medical Center, 2006

     Situated on the slope behind the hospital, just south of the castle-like Ward 13 (Male Geriatric Ward) the colonial-style structure, composed of blazing red brick with white trim, stood out in sharp contrast to the other drab, aging, buildings of the 70 plus year old hospital.

     From the very start, the Medical Center was well equipped to handle the myriad of cases it would be faced with. A Class "A" Laboratory complete with a shock-proof X-ray machine and an electro-radio knife were among the most up-to-date medical tools at hand. It's operating room was ranked among the best in the state, handling 40 major and 155 minor surgical treaments in it's first 2 years alone, in addition to 1,500 "emergency" treatments. Facilities were also in place for elcetro, hydro and light therapy treatment...all in their infancy at the time of the center's completion.

     Space for 114 beds was available on levels 2-4, with the ground floor dedicated to dental, medical, and "modern" treatments, as well as space for patients suffering from venereal diseases. Unlike most rooms in the older sections, most rooms in the Medical Center were private, allowing for more controlled, one-on-one treatment across the board.

     A full-service dining room was located on each floor. All table clothes, linen, and uniforms of those employed in the center were marked with an "M.C." sewn into the fabric by female patients.

     The Medical Center was the first department at Weston to make extensive use of the newly created "Out-Patient" serivce. Introduced as a means of providing state funded care to alcoholics, drug addicts, and other individuals who were not suitable for hospital admission, Weston's out-patient program was funded primarily buy revenue generated by paying patients...revenue which also was used to continuely improve and update the Medical Center's methods of treatment until the "medical" designaiton was dropped in the 1980s.

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