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Exterior
Photographs
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Western Lunatic
Asylum was founded in 1825 and admitted it's first patient on July 24,
1828. In 1894, it's name was changed to Western State Hospital. The Main
Building on the original/old site was designed by Baltimore architect
William F. Small, Jr. Architect Thomas Blackburn, a former employee of
Thomas Jefferson, designed and constructed the remainder of the complex.
In 1969, the Main Building and four others were listed on the Virginia
Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places.
Western
State Hospital opened it's second site in 1949-1950 in response to an
increase in patient population during the 1940's. In time, the patient
population increased to an astounding 3000 patients between the two
sites. In the 1970's, the trend toward deinstitutionalization
brought the patient population down to approximately 1,350. At this time
the Virginia Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation built a
new hospital and abandoned the old site. The old site was then acquired
by the Virginia Department of Corrections and became the Staunton
Correctional Center, a medium security prison. The Department of
Corrections abandoned the old site in 2003.
The century-old wrought iron
fence that still surrounds the old site was originally erected not to
keep patients in but to keep picnickers off the asylum's beautiful
park-like grounds.
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