Ep. 469 - Western Lunatic Asylum of Virginia

History Goes Bump: Ghost Tours For The Mind

Diane Student

History, Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.6 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 12 January 2023

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Imagine a luxury hotel in an old insane asylum. That is precisely what has happened with the Western Lunatic Asylum or as it was later known, the Western State Hospital. The main administration building is now the Blackburn Inn and Conference Center. This is a good setting for the hotel as this was an asylum meant to be a beautiful, tranquil and moral place for treatment of the mentally ill. This was Virginia's early attempt to provide enlightened care to suffering people. Later this was a medium security prison. Today, it stands as a possibly haunted hotel and complex of condominiums. Join us as we explore the history and hauntings of the Western State Hospital. The Moment in Oddity features Cirque du Sewer and This Month in History features the birth of Dolly Parton. Our location was suggested by Cara Danelle.

Check out the website: http://historygoesbump.com

Show notes can be found here: https://historygoesbump.blogspot.com/2023/01/hgb-ep-469-western-lunatic-asylum-of.html

Become an Executive Producer: http://patreon.com/historygoesbump

Music used in this episode:

Main Theme: Lurking in the Dark by Muse Music with Groove Studios

(Moment in Oddity) Vanishing by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4578-vanishing
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

(This Month in History) In Your Arms by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3906-in-your-arms
License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Outro Music: Happy Fun Punk by Muse Music with Groove Studios

The following music was used for this media project:

Music: Inevitable Collision [Original] by German Tretyakov
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/9802-inevitable-collision-original
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Music: The typical horror strings by Sascha Ende
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/17-the-typical-horror-strings
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Music: Train Station by Michal Mojzykiewicz
Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/10058-train-station
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	History tells the story of the world and of our lives.
0:21.8	Sometimes that history goes bump in the night, broadcasting from the Central
0:35.0	Apodity and the Supernatural in Central Florida, it's the History Goes Bump Podcast.
0:48.0	Hello, you spectacular people. Welcome to this 469th episode of the History Goes Bump Podcast.
0:54.1	Ghost tours for the theater of the mind. I'm your host, Diane. And this is Kelly.
0:58.4	Kelly, the sick one. Yes, indeed. So her voice is going to be a little bit off on this one,
1:03.6	and you may hear a little bit more of me rather than Kelly, but we're glad that you are on the
1:08.8	other end of what we think is probably the flu. I don't know. I had you in bed for three days.
1:13.0	Yeah, it's, it's been a lot of years since I climbed up above 103, but I'm on the rebound now.
1:19.2	And you're not talking age or talking fever. Can I beat you? Well, anyway, on this episode,
1:27.4	we're talking about the Western lunatic asylum of Virginia. And this one is very different than
1:32.4	a lot of the asylums that we've talked about before. Most of them had a Kirkbride system,
1:38.0	the way the buildings were set up. This wasn't built that way. And today it actually runs as a hotel.
1:44.8	And since we're covering it on the podcast, it clearly has some rumors of hauntings going on here.
1:50.4	And this location was suggested by our listener, Cara Dennell. Before we get into that,
1:54.9	we want to welcome into this spectacular crew drum roll. We have one more again. And she spells
1:59.9	her name very coolly. It's with a Y-G-Y-N. Awesome. Thank you so much for joining our Facebook group.
2:06.4	And now this moment, Naughty.
2:17.5	Many of us have enjoyed one of the various Cirque shows which incorporate acrobatics
2:22.0	and sometimes death-defying feats. Well, let me introduce you to Cirque du Suer.
2:28.0	This troop is comprised of two humans, some cats and rats. You heard me correctly.
2:34.1	Melissa Arleth and her assistant Vitale have trained her furred feline and ran bunches
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Diane Student, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Diane Student and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.