// Workers AI · dad joke modeWhat did Lakin State Hospital say to its patient? You're admitted to our care.
| Lakin State Hospital | |
|---|---|
State Hospital for the Colored Insane | |
 | |
| Former names | Lakin State Hospital for the Colored Insane |
General information | |
| Status | Repurposed Partially Demolished |
| Type | Institutional |
| Location | Lakin, West Virginia, United States |
Construction started | 1919 |
| Opened | 1926 |
| Closed | 1979 |
| Owner | State of West Virginia |
| Technical details | |
| Material | Foundation-Stone, Exterior-Brick, Roof-Slate |
| Design and construction | |
| Known for | The only state hospital with an all black staff, including the superintendent |
Lakin State Hospital for the Colored Insane — later called simply Lakin State Hospital — was a publicly-funded psychiatric hospital located along West Virginia Route 62 in Lakin, Mason County, West Virginia, near Point Pleasant. It operated for 53 years from 1926 until 1979.
During segregation and Jim Crow, the asylum was designated by the State of West Virginia to care for the "colored insane".[1] It would become one of only two known psychiatric institutions that was entirely run by people of color serving an all black population.[2][3]
According to a former attendant, the institution was so underfunded it could not afford to give every patient a sheet. The institution was a "favorite stop" of Walter Jackson Freeman II during his so-called West Virginia Lobotomy Project, with Freeman pitching the discredited procedure as a way to send patients home and save money for the state.[4]
Governor of West Virginia Patrick Morrisey stated he planned to sell Lakin and the state's other three long-term care hospitals to Marx Development Group for $60 million in 2025, which intends to construct new facilities.[5]
References
[edit]- ↑ "Lakin Hospital". gallipolis.uber.matchbin.net. Retrieved September 4, 2020.
- ↑ Stine, Alison (May 7, 2015). "No Marker, No Memorial: The Lakin State Hospital for the Colored Insane". The Attic. Archived from the original on August 5, 2021. Retrieved September 4, 2020.
- ↑ "Gone but not forgotten — The Point Pleasant Register". www.mydailyregister.com. February 17, 2017. Retrieved September 4, 2020.[permanent dead link]
- ↑ "The Lobotomist Program Transcript". American Experience. PBS. Archived from the original on January 13, 2008. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
- ↑ Sonis, Larry. "Lakin Hospital". West Virginia Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on June 12, 2026. Retrieved August 24, 2026.
See also
[edit]- Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum (Weston State Hospital), West Virginia's facility for white mental inmates
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