Sold for $1.5 Million: Morgantown Contractor Wins Bidding for Weston State Hospital
By Rick Steelhammer
rsteelhammer@wvgazette.com
WESTON – Its fate in limbo for more than 10 years, Weston State Hospital was sold at auction Wednesday in less than 10 minutes.
Morgantown asbestos abatement contractor Joe Jordan, who pledged to preserve and revitalize the 150-year-old main building, topped a field of five bidders with an offer of $1.5 million.
The property includes 455,725 square feet of hospital buildings, including the Civil War vintage main hospital building, a National Historic Landmark. It includes 307 acres of land, including 38 acres of flat terrain within the Weston city limits.
Mineral rights to the property, which once produced coal for the hospital’s furnace and several natural gas wells, will remain with the state. The new owner will assume responsibility for a major asbestos liability on the grounds.
Construction of the hospital, initially known as the Trans- Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, began in 1860. It was interrupted by the Civil War, but the first patients were admitted in 1864.
The hospital continued to operate as a state mental health center until May 1994, when it was replaced by the opening of the new William R. Sharpe Jr. Hospital, also in Weston.
More than 200 Weston-area residents gathered around the Lewis County Courthouse steps in mid-90s heat to watch the fate of the town’s historic centerpiece.
"A lot of you have worked at the hospital for years and you all know what the hospital’s meant to Weston and Lewis County," auctioneer John Spiker told the crowd moments before starting the bidding. "We will be making some history today when we see what will become of it."
"I feel like a mother who’s sending her child off to war," said Joy Gilchrest-Stalnaker, who worked nine years with a committee to find a suitable use for the hospital after it closed in 1994. "All you can do is pray for the best."
Spiker tried to start bidding for the hospital complex, which was appraised at $1.91 million last year, at $3 million, but didn’t draw a bidder until the opening figure was dropped to $500,000.
From there, Jordan and Pittsburgh clinical psychologist Karla C.D. McNamara traded bids, until Jordan trumped McNamara’s final offer of $1.4 million.
"That’s as high as I was going to go," Jordan said after the auction. "I was hoping to get it for $1 million, but things went a little higher than that."
Among others who registered as bidders at Wednesday’s auction was former Randolph County state senator Mike Ross, who declined to bid as Jordan and McNamara quickly raised the price.
"The property was devalued a great deal when they separated the minerals from it," said Ross. "It would have been nice to package the whole thing up and see what it would have brought.
Ross said he lost a personal bet, as well as the urge to bid, when the purchase price for the hospital surged above $1 million.
McNamara said she hoped to buy the hospital and "make it like a Mayo Clinic" for diagnostic and rehabilitative services, with an alternative medicine component.
"My dream is to operate a multi-dimensional health facility, and this would be a great place for it," she said.
She said she would talk to Jordan about working out a deal that would make her dream a reality. "I’m still hopeful that this property will continue to serve the community as a hospital in the future," she said.
Jordan looked over the property three years ago when the Weston State Hospital committee was trying to attract buyers, and visited the site again recently to assess its asbestos content.
"I know where the asbestos is and how to get rid of it," he said, as he gazed across the hospital’s vast front lawn at the timeworn main building after making the winning bid.
"The first thing we’ll do is fix the roof and clock tower so we can protect the building, because it’s here to stay," he said. "We might try to rent some of the outbuildings to the state."
While Jordan said he appreciated the aesthetics of a cut sandstone building – perhaps the largest in North America – he bid on the hospital mainly for commercial reasons.
"I’m not married, so I might just move in," he joked. "But I’m looking to make money with it. "I’m not all that interested in history."
He said he had some specific development plans for the property, but wouldn’t discuss them before speaking first with city and county officials.
"If you know any investors, have them send checks to Joe Jordan," he said.
"It’s been an exciting day," said Weston Mayor Julia Howes. "We’ve been in limbo with the hospital for so long, it’s a relief to have a buyer and something to look forward to. And if he keeps the main building and restores it, that would be wonderful. It’s a treasure."
"If they keep the main building fronting downtown, I don’t care what else they do with the property," said Weston resident Betty Reed. "That building’s Weston. You’ve gotta have it."
Gov. Joe Manchin must approve Jordan’s bid before it is officially accepted. Jordan must then submit a cashier’s check or bank draft for $10,000 within five days, then pay the remaining $1.49 million when presented a deed to the property.
The hospital was designed by Richard Snowden Andrews, whose previous work included the Maryland Governor’s Mansion and the South Wing of the U.S. Treasury Building in Washington, D.C.
Both Union and Confederate troops camped on the hospital grounds during the Civil War. After Virginia seceded from the Union, officials in Richmond demanded the return of $38,000 in construction funds being held in a Weston bank. Troops from the 7th Ohio Volunteer Infantry seized the money and brought it to Wheeling, where it was used to help bankroll the Reorganized Government of Virginia, which sided with the Union and helped bring statehood to West Virginia.
Originally designed to house 250 patients, the hospital had as many as 2,400 patients in the 1950s.
To contact staff writer Rick Steelhammer use e-mail or call 348- 5169.
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