Western State Hospital

In January 1825 the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation providing for the construction of an asylum in the western part of the state. A Court of Directors was commissioned by the Governor to serve as the asylum's governing body and charged with purchasing a site close to the town of Staunton, west of the Blue Ridge Mountains, on which to build an asylum to house the mentally ill of western Virginia. The institution, which became known as Western Lunatic Asylum, was the second mental health facility built in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The buildings and surrounding gardens were designed to embrace the idea of "moral therapy" for mentally ill patients by providing an aesthetically pleasing and tranquil atmosphere in which patients lived comfortably, exercised and worked outdoors.

Western Lunatic Asylum opened in 1828, accepting both male and female patients suffering from a variety of mental disorders. Common diagnoses included "hard study," "religious excitement," and "debility of the nervous system." The asylum was overseen by a Keeper, a Matron and a visiting physician during its earliest years. The hospital also employed attendants, gate keepers, night watch personnel, farm hands, and a steward who handled the day-to-day financial operations. The first superintendent appointed to oversee Western Lunatic Asylum was Dr. Francis T. Stribling. Dr. Stribling was a proponent of the moral therapy approach, and was a leader in the early mental health community. Dr. Stribling was one of the thirteen founders of the Association of Medical Superintendents of American Institutions for the Insane, which later became known as the American Psychiatric Association. Dr. Stribling served as the hospital superintendent and as a physician until his death in 1874.

...