HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
A 1936 PWA-built TB hospital that became a criminal asylum before closing in 1972 — its ruins and patient cemetery sit on an Ohio County hillside above the Ohio River.
Roney's Point Road off US Route 40, Triadelphia, WV 26059
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Ruins on former state-owned land; verify current access status before visiting. No facilities on site.
Access
Limited Access
Hillside terrain with crumbling structure and overgrown grounds. Site access status should be confirmed before visiting.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1936 · PWA-funded tuberculosis hospital constructed 1936, one of West Virginia's New Deal institutional projects · Transitioned from TB care to housing criminal, indigent, and mentally ill patients in the early 1950s · Closed 1972 and left to deteriorate; patient cemetery on grounds · Documents the dual-use repurposing of TB infrastructure as tuberculosis declined nationally
The tuberculosis hospital at Roney's Point was constructed with Public Works Administration (PWA) funding in 1936, designed as a 40-bed facility in a deliberately remote location on a hillside in Ohio County, West Virginia. The isolation was intentional: standard TB treatment practice in the era required long-term patient separation from the general population, and hillside sites with good ventilation were preferred. The Living New Deal project documents the facility as part of the West Virginia PWA infrastructure program.
As antibiotics brought tuberculosis under control in the late 1940s, facilities designed for TB patients were repurposed across the country. Roney's Point transitioned in the early 1950s to house a combination of criminal, indigent, and mentally ill patients — a mixed population that reflected the limited options available to Ohio County and the state for housing individuals who didn't fit neatly into other institutional categories. The Weelunk regional news site, which covers Wheeling and the Ohio Valley, documented the facility's transition and the community's memory of it.
The hospital closed in 1972. Ohio County subsequently sold the property to the state of West Virginia. The structure, never repurposed after closure, deteriorated over the following decades. A patient cemetery on the grounds served as a burial site for individuals who died at the institution and whose remains were not claimed by family. The sanitariums.wordpress.com documentation records the Ohio County Tuberculosis Sanitarium's institutional timeline and physical history.
Sources
Roney's Point occupies a specific and uncomfortable place in Ohio County's institutional memory. The site housed three overlapping populations over its 36-year operational life: tuberculosis patients in the first decade, then a combined group of criminal, indigent, and mentally ill individuals from the early 1950s through closure in 1972. The patient cemetery on the grounds holds individuals from all phases of the hospital's use.
The Weelunk piece — headlined 'Legends of Roney's Point: Examine' — documents local accounts and the community's ongoing engagement with the site's history. Reports from people who have visited the deteriorating structure include unexplained sounds inside and around the ruins, and a general sense of presence attributed to the mixed and largely unclaimed population buried on the grounds.
The physical isolation of the site — deliberately chosen at construction, maintained through closure — has contributed to the persistence of the lore. The ruins are not stabilized or maintained, and the cemetery has no active caretaker. Visitors who have documented the site note the combination of structural decay and the visible markers of the patient cemetery as reinforcing the weight of the place's history.
The crumbling remains of the Roney's Point Tuberculosis Hospital sit on a hillside off US Route 40 in Ohio County, WV, with an associated patient cemetery. The facility was built in 1936 with PWA funding, converted to a mental asylum in the early 1950s, and closed in 1972. Verify current land access before visiting.
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