Forensics Building

The Forensics Building at the Trans Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston West Virginia. This building is in the back of the main Kirkbride structure constructed in the early 1950’s. 

The architectural work was done by a Clarksburg company and the construction by a Morgantown company, and it was “one of the most modern of its kind in the nation.” (A later annual report, in 1976, mentioned that this building, originally built as a security building, had at some point been converted to an activities building. Then in 1976 it had been renovated to become, once again, a new forensic building for patients considered highly dangerous, the criminally insane.)

From a dissertation, I found online..Care of Kim Jacks-

Mrs. Haller, in the business office, chuckled about the new forensic building that was constructed in the early 1950s. She and the other office workers were given a tour before it opened. It was supposed to be a perfect, foolproof building designed by a famous architect. She said they had to go through several locks to enter. Within a few months of its opening, however, patients were escaping. Mrs. Haller did not know whether they went out windows, or stole keys, but they escaped the perfect forensic building.

An outside view of the Forensics Building 2019

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