Hopemont State Hospital
| Hopemont State Hospital | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Established | 1911 |
| Opened | 1913 |
| Current Status | Active |
| Building Style | Cottage Plan |
| Alternate Names |
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History[edit]
Hopemont is an unincorporated community in Preston County, West Virginia, United States. It is located to the east of Terra Alta and is the home of Hopemont State Hospital, originally created as the West Virginia State Tuberculosis Sanitarium, Hopemont accepted all ages of white Tuberculosis sufferers. According to the Geographic Names Information System, Hopemont has also been known as Rinards Crossing. Originally built to care for the state's citizens with tuberculosis. Hopemont has operated as a Medicaid certified long-term nursing facility since 1987.
The 600 acre tract owned by the state hospital provided land for the farm operated by many southern institutions into the 1970s. In addition to four wards in the main hospital itself, Hopemont was also home to the Conley Hospital for maximum security inmates suffering from tuberculosis. Two of the wards were set aside for children, with a capacity of fifty each and a qualified teacher to continue courses to the secondary level.
Today Hopemont Hospital provides services to geriatric residents of West Virginia requiring long-term care and behavioral interventions to maximize their functioning ability and independence, enabling them to become successful and satisfied in their environment. Hopemont, through lease space agreements, provides operation areas to Valley Community Mental Health for a Day Treatment Unit for Adults and United Summit Center for the John D. Good substance abuse unit.
Images of Hopemont State Hospital[edit]
Main Image Gallery: Hopemont State Hospital
Cemetery[edit]
In 1995 Warden Stephen Yardley and his staff at the Denmar Correctional Center compiled a list of 277 names of sanitarium patients believed to be buried on site. William P. McNeel and members of the Pocahontas County Historical Society scoured the county death records from 1923 to 1946 and made many corrections and additions to the original list. Staff at the West Virginia State Archives conducted a search of the state death records from 1919 to 1946 and discovered several hundred names that did not appear in either hospital or county records.
