The Trans Allegeny Luntic Asylum has a gift shop, which sells t-shirts. On one side of the shirts is a photo of the building; on the back is a list of reason patients could be admitted to the hospital in the 1860s-1880s. Part of it reads: ”Laziness, Egotism, Disappointed Love, Women, Female Disease, Mental Excitement, Cold, Snuff, Greediness, Imaginary Female trouble, Gathering in the head, Exposure and Quackery, Jealousy and Religion, Asthma.” That’s just the start. It was a fitting beginning to a creepy tour into the eventful history of the building.

The Trans Allegeny Lunitic Asylum offers and array of tours. The historical “Heritage Tours” either tour the first floor ($10) or all four floors ($30). The “Ghost Tours” run at night – from 10:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. — and cover the hottest spots of the building. Many of the dates near Halloween are already sold out.  The asylum will also operate a haunted house for the month of October.

We opted for the tamest tour — the “Heritage Tour.” I, ever squeemish, found that the meer history of the building disturbing enough.

The hour and a half tour covered the first floor. With the heat switched off for the past several years, the buidling had quickly decayed. At points, water from cracked pipes ran down the walls. The air was as humid as in a shower house, and mold grew on the drywall. The metal pipes running vertical against the walls were dented where the patients kicked and hit them.

The appearence of the asylum wasn’t the only creepy part. The tour had it’s gruesome stories — a record number of labotomies preformed there, people dumped at the asylum by realitives looking for a way to snatch their money, higher-functioning patients abusing the lower-functioning ones.

Like any look in to the history of medicine, the tour left me very glad to be a citizen of the 21st — not 19th — century. I think I’ll skip the haunted house: this visit was disturbing enough for me.