Path Clear for Sale of Weston Hospital Site

By JUSTIN D. ANDERSON

DAILY MAIL STAFF

The state Department of Health and Human Resources has a clear path now to sell off the entire site of the former Weston State Hospital in Lewis County. Gov. Joe Manchin signed into law a bill that allows the department to sell a huge portion of the land at the site, rather than be bound to use it for behavioral health care purposes. The old hospital complex sits on about 38 acres. Another 265 acres that used to be a state-run cow and hog farm had been held by the state Department of Agriculture until 1995 when it was transferred to the DHHR. But the law that allowed this specified that DHHR could not use the land for anything other than a behavioral health facility, so much of it including the old Weston hospital has been sitting vacant for years. The William R. Sharpe Jr. Hospital opened on roughly 230 acres on a corner of the Weston site in 1994. The old hospital, built in 1880, closed on the same day the new one opened. State health officials didnt need the extra farmland for use as a behavioral center, so there has been a cloud hanging over the title to the land for more than a decade. The hospital site has been available for sale to any outfit that could refurbish the structure for use. But David Hildreth, assistant secretary for operations at DHHR, said no developer has been able to prove they had the financial wherewithal to pull it off. The hospital was named a National Historic Landmark in 1990 because its the largest building in the United States made out of hand-cut stone. Neither the state nor anyone else in the community has wanted to tear the hospital down, which is usually what the DHHR does with such excess property. We were somewhat left in a quandary, Hildreth said. The property has sat vacant for more than a decade and now is mostly a tourist site. Meanwhile, developers have been knocking on the states door and DHHR has spent around $100,000 every year to keep the grass cut and secure the place. But as long as DHHR holds the titles, the place will slowly deteriorate, Hildreth said. No decisions have yet been made about putting the entire site out for bid, Hildreth said. But he said he has some specifications prepared and has been talking by telephone with some developers, whom he declined to name. The state is authorized to put the land up for sale 90 days after the governor signs the bill, and he did so last week. A feasibility study conducted two years ago had suggested that a residential subdivision or some kind of business could be built on the site. The hospital could be renovated and used for anything from a museum to office space to a Civil War-era theme hotel, Hildreth said. There was talk of turning the place into a casino, but Hildreth said that has died down for now. Buddy Davidson, spokesman for the Department of Agriculture, said the farm was active from 1976 to the late 1980s. Five or six state workers tended to the farm, handling mostly beef cattle, a small dairy operation and a small hog contingency. Patients at the hospital tended a little garden on a portion of the property, Davidson said. Any developer who buys the land has to grant easements for a communications tower at the site to be owned and maintained by the Lewis County Commission, according to law. A buyer or developer also will have to work around three cemeteries on the property where patients are buried, Hildreth said. Contact writer Justin D. Anderson at justin@dailymail.com or 348-4843.

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