What was a relatively small hospital in the capital city of Charleston, West Virginia at Corner of Virginia and Morris Street, was closed in 1999 and demolished in 2005, leaving no traces of its past.
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Mountain State Hospital
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Sometime during the late 1950′s, my great uncle was a patient at Mountain State Hospital, and Mother, Grandma, and I went to see him there. I would guess that the main drawing force for my uncle and those other patients who chose Mountain State might have been the loving care that was at least perceived as being absent from other facilities. Perhaps it was its great age, a factor which helped many of advancing age to feel more comfortable in its surroundings. It was too old, too institutional for me, and I, still a growing youngster, did not like it. In later years, it became a nursing home, and I believe it had a good reputation.
I have always been puzzled by Mt. State and have wanted to know more of the building’s history. It appears to have been a house built by an affluent family of Old Charleston, in what originally was a prime residential neiborhood. Then the area changed, and the house was no longer needed as someone’s residence. Having been converted to an institution, it was probably added to several times.
I want to respect the old, and I usually do. Sometimes, though, the old loses its original dignity, and I believe Mt. State gradually lost its original dignity which was not preserved, while its purpose was being altered until the only way to grant it rest was to allow it to die in peace.