The American Lung Association was formed in 1904 in response to the epidemic of tuberculosis, a serious infectious bacterial disease that was the leading cause of death in the United States. Commonly referred to as consumption, tuberculosis was characterized by fatigue, sweats, and general wasting of the patient. There was no reliable treatment for the disease. Some doctors prescribed bleeding and purgings while others advised their patients to rest and exercise. Very few recovered and about 450 Americans died of tuberculosis each day. Typically, tuberculosis sanatoriums were privately operated or locally controlled facilities. For Kentucky, Louisville was the only city to take on such a task after they established a tax, levied by the city and county, which enabled the construction of Waverly Hills Tuberculosis Sanatarium in 1909-11. It was followed by Hazelwood Sanatorium, also in Louisville, and Jackson Hill Sanatorium in Paducah. Provisions were also made for tubercular inmates at the Eddyville Penitentiary and the Western State Asylum for the Insane. All of those facilities were designed for incipient cases and those who had a more advanced case of tuberculosis had to seek medical attention in other states if they could afford it. Furthermore, the state institutions could house less than 100 patients altogether. In 1912, the General Assembly of Kentucky established the State Tuberculosis Commission that authorized the construction of specific hospitals for the care and treatment of people affected with tuberculosis. It wasn’t until 1944 when the General Assembly created the State Tuberculosis Hospital Commission and six…
Tag: Abandoned
often passed by an abandoned roadside curiosity in southern West Virginia for years. During a Sunday drive through the countryside with my girlfriend, I decided to pull off the road and check out a rambling collection of five buildings.
I had expected to come across a waterfall or two along a road that was aptly named Falls Run Road, but instead, I came across a beautiful 1969 Chevrolet C10 step side pickup truck. Based on the license plate, it has not been registered since 1990.
People always seem to gravitate toward the latest “Instagram” hotspot in West Virginia, but there is so much to discover—sometimes even alongside the road!
A deeply overcast morning provided the perfect setting for aerials of the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, later known as the Weston State Hospital, in Weston, West Virginia.
Imagine standing in the heart of the Pocahontas Coalfield region of southwest West Virginia, surrounded by the rugged topography of the mountains. Amidst this landscape lies the abandoned Algoma Company Store and Offices.
Tucked away inside an abandoned and collapsing funeral home in the coalfields of West Virginia is a beautiful 1963 Chevrolet Impala. Based on the license plate, it has not been registered since 1989.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, West Virginia had thousands of schools that were gradually closed through consolidations. The isolated Prosperity School atop Great Flat Top Mountain remained open far longer than others.
Mining in the Winding Gulf coalfield of West Virginia began in the early 1900s, producing low-volatile smokeless coal, including metallurgical coal suitable for use in steel making. Mining was centered on the thick Beckley seam until it was economically exhausted by the 1950s, and the Pocahontas seam until the late 1980s.
But after the coal seams were exhausted, these coal camps were all but abandoned and today, only a few reminders of this booming era remain.
I was pretty excited to come across two notable churches in the Winding Gulf that are still extant.
Years ago, when I first started to explore the coalfields of Appalachia, I would venture down the Tolsia and King Coal highways toward Williamson, West Virginia. Atop College Hill was the old Williamson Memorial Hospital, a place that I had long wanted to venture inside of. On April 11, 2021, I finally had my chance.
The abandoned Lake Shawnee Amusement Park in southern West Virginia is probably home to more ghostly tales than any other place in the region—but they are just that, stories told as truths that have at times come at the expense of Native Americans.
The introduction of the railroad to West Virginia’s New River Gorge turned the area into a globally significant coal mining region.
Many years ago, I hiked out to these derelict cabooses, passenger cars, and miscellaneous cars along the former Louisville & Southern Railway Lexington to Lawrenceburg Division in central Kentucky.
With the inauguration of United States President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. today, I wanted to share a history and gallery of 43 crumbling effigies of the presidents of the United States that stand in a field near Williamsburg, Virginia.
It’s been a long ten years since we had a white Christmas down in northeast Kentucky. I took advantage of the serenity and beauty to stop at Limeville.
The aptly nicknamed “Granny’s House” is an abandoned circa 1840 Colonial-style residence filled with furnishings and antiques in Massachusetts.
Regretfully, the roof of the long-abandoned Church of the Transfiguration in Buffalo, New York collapsed during a storm yesterday.
The Totuskey Creek Store is an abandoned mercantile stand along the still waters of Totuskey Creek near Warsaw, Virginia.
See what’s inside Poplar Hill, an abandoned mansion most famously owned by the Dunnington family in rural Virginia.