Disability advocates continue to protest the name and some practices of the historic Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, a name they say the former mental healthcare facility in Weston never really had.

Groups from around the state will hold a demonstration at the former Weston Hospital at 1 p.m. on Saturday, during one of the attraction's mud bogging competition days. They hope to attract attention from the owners and the community to their quarrel about the operation of the nationally recognized historic landmark.

The main point of contention is the hospital's new name. Advocates say that referring to the hospital as a lunatic asylum is inflammatory and hurtful to people in the mental health community.

The former Weston Hospital was christened Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum after the deteriorating building and 300-acre complex were purchased from the state by Morgantown contractor Joe Jordan for $1.5 million in August 2007.

The Jordan family began offering tours of the facility in March. The growing mud bog motor sport events began in May to help raise funds for upkeep and repairs of the blue sandstone behemoth, one of the largest hand-cut stone masonry buildings in the United States.

The summer travel season and some national publicity from a spot on the SciFi Channel's "Ghost Hunters" program have boosted business and given the hospital national attention, said Rebecca Jordan-Gleason, operations manager.

She said 350 people have visited the hospital in just the last week, to experience tours catering to either history or horror buffs.

"We're helping the community, but people can't seem to see past their own fears," Jordan-Gleason said.

But advocates said they are concerned that the Jordan family is trying to make money by sensationalizing the hospital's past.

Representatives from Northern West Virginia Center for Independent Living, the West Virginia Mental Health Consumers Association and ADAPT WV are protesting because they think the ghost tours and motor sports are insensitive to patients and families who suffered because of the hospital. Activists said the term "lunatic asylum" stigmatizes people with mental disabilities.

"They're taking something to be historically preserved and turning it more into an amusement park for ridiculing the insane. In the community I live in, I like seeing mental health being promoted, people welcomed into an inclusive environment," said Michelle Wakely, compeer coordinator for the Northern West Virginia Center for Independent Living. "I just really feel like it's exploitation more than preservation."

Advocates say they want the hospital to be preserved and they don't mind if the Jordans have a thriving business, as long is it is historically accurate.

According to "A Short History of Weston Hospital," a record compiled by the Weston Hospital Revitalization Committee in 2001, the hospital was originally commissioned as "Trans-Allegheny Asylum for the Insane" in 1858.

Disability advocates continue to protest the name and some practices of the historic Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, a name they say the former mental healthcare facility in Weston never really had.

Groups from around the state will hold a demonstration at the former Weston Hospital at 1 p.m. on Saturday, during one of the attraction's mud bogging competition days. They hope to attract attention from the owners and the community to their quarrel about the operation of the nationally recognized historic landmark.

The main point of contention is the hospital's new name. Advocates say that referring to the hospital as a lunatic asylum is inflammatory and hurtful to people in the mental health community.

The former Weston Hospital was christened Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum after the deteriorating building and 300-acre complex were purchased from the state by Morgantown contractor Joe Jordan for $1.5 million in August 2007.

The Jordan family began offering tours of the facility in March. The growing mud bog motor sport events began in May to help raise funds for upkeep and repairs of the blue sandstone behemoth, one of the largest hand-cut stone masonry buildings in the United States.

The summer travel season and some national publicity from a spot on the SciFi Channel's "Ghost Hunters" program have boosted business and given the hospital national attention, said Rebecca Jordan-Gleason, operations manager.

She said 350 people have visited the hospital in just the last week, to experience tours catering to either history or horror buffs.

"We're helping the community, but people can't seem to see past their own fears," Jordan-Gleason said.

But advocates said they are concerned that the Jordan family is trying to make money by sensationalizing the hospital's past.

Representatives from Northern West Virginia Center for Independent Living, the West Virginia Mental Health Consumers Association and ADAPT WV are protesting because they think the ghost tours and motor sports are insensitive to patients and families who suffered because of the hospital. Activists said the term "lunatic asylum" stigmatizes people with mental disabilities.

"They're taking something to be historically preserved and turning it more into an amusement park for ridiculing the insane. In the community I live in, I like seeing mental health being promoted, people welcomed into an inclusive environment," said Michelle Wakely, compeer coordinator for the Northern West Virginia Center for Independent Living. "I just really feel like it's exploitation more than preservation."

Advocates say they want the hospital to be preserved and they don't mind if the Jordans have a thriving business, as long is it is historically accurate.

According to "A Short History of Weston Hospital," a record compiled by the Weston Hospital Revitalization Committee in 2001, the hospital was originally commissioned as "Trans-Allegheny Asylum for the Insane" in 1858.

However, no patients were ever treated in the facility under that name. The Civil War stopped construction and the hospital was re-named West Virginia Hospital for the Insane under the newly formed state of West Virginia before the hospital opened its doors in 1864. It remained under this name until 1913 when it became Weston State Hospital, and later, Weston Hospital.

The facility closed in 1994, its history a mixture of revolutionary mental health care and tragic overcrowding and isolation for patients.

Jordan-Gleason acknowledged that the hospital never housed patients under the Trans-Allegheny moniker, but said "it was the original name given when it was being built and we want to preserve that history."

The motor sporting events, while not historically accurate, are helping to preserve the hospital's legacy. The building needs a new roof, which could cost the asylum $5 million.

"A hundred percent of the money from all of our events go toward the operation and preservation and they're saying we're making money off of this. We're not going to make money off it for 20 years. We've got to rebuild the building and rebuild the Weston community," she said.

Brandon Smoot, also of the North Central West Virginia Center for Independent Living, said he was shocked by the building's dilapidation and the "misrepresentation of history" he observed on a tour in late April.

Besides a name change, Smoot said he wants to see more accuracy and less ghost hunting at the former hospital. He hopes the owners will consider making accommodations for the handicapped, like doing a video tour for the top floors, which are not accessible.

He said maintaining a museum at the hospital would be less sensational than placing bedpans and gurneys around the tour site and telling guests that patients died in certain rooms.

Jordan-Gleason said Wednesday that she had not been made aware of the protest plans, but that she did not expect it to interfere with the mod bogging competition.

"We've had a lot of people who have actually taken the time to go on a historic tour, and when they come and visit and see what we're doing, they don't have a problem," Jordan-Gleason said.

She said the disability advocates have an open invitation to visit the hospital and talk about the hospital's history during the public preservation meetings, every Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

But the activist said their resolve to change the practices, like the fake blood that stains the asylum's walls from past Halloween parties and the scars left by police paintball games in the derelict building, will not fade easily.

"It's really just sensationalizing and stigmatizing. Imagine a monument to slavery or the Holocaust where derogatory terms were used. A lot of people suffered here," Smoot said. "Something has to happen and we're not going to rest until it does."

To contact staff writer Kellen Henry, use e-mail or call 348-5179.