The State Hospital
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The deadly 1952 fire at the Huntington State
Hospital came
at a time of growing public concern about the antiquated,
overcrowded hospital. The Thanksgiving Eve blaze
claimed the lives of 17 patients.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In Huntington’s deadliest fire ever, a 1952 blaze at
Huntington State
Hospital claimed the lives of 17 patients. The Thanksgiving Eve
fire came at a time of growing public concern about
conditions at the old hospital, established as an
insane asylum in 1897 and originally
called the Home for Incurables.
In 1901 the name was changed to West
Virginia Asylum, and in 1916,
the name was changed again, this time to Huntington State Hospital.
Although its name was changed, the institution’s operating
philosophy remained much the same as when it first
opened — to protect society from the mentally ill
by locking them away in a place where they
received little, if any, treatment. A tall,
wire fence and iron gates gave the
facility the appearance of a
penal institution rather
than a hospital.
By the time of the fire, a hospital
originally designed to accommodate
500 patients was home to nearly 1,800. Medical staffing was grossly
inadequate, with only a handful of trained doctors and nurses
and attendants who were few in number, virtually
untrained and poorly paid. The hospital’s
buildings were antiquated and
poorly maintained.
Despite sporadic improvements, conditions at
the
hospital remained a subject of concern until the
1970s when the patient population began to
decline as a result of deinstitutionalization
measures.
In 1995, the West Virginia Legislature
changed the
facility’s name to Huntington Hospital. And
in 1999, Gov. Cecil Underwood announced
its renaming as the Mildred Mitchell-
Bateman Hospital, a tribute to her
lifetime career of helping the
mentally ill. Today, the
hospital is a 110-bed
acute care mental
health facility.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Note: This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on May 28, 2024.
-----------------------------------------------------------
[ Back ]