Right before you cross the bridge into Radford, a brick building sits high on a hill, overlooking the New River. For many people in the area, St. Albans is best known for one thing: its annual haunted house, where scare actors, dark hallways, and plenty of screaming turn the historic building into a Halloween attraction. But St. Albans is much more than what happens there during the fall season.

Long before it became a Halloween attraction, St. Albans had a very different purpose. The building was first established as an all-boys school, then later became a psychiatric hospital. Its history is filled with stories of the people who lived there, the lives that unfolded behind its walls, and the reputation for paranormal activity that followed.

Today, that history has become part of what makes St. Albans so intriguing. Every Halloween, the building is transformed into a haunted house, complete with actors whose job is to scare the people walking through its halls. But there is something almost ironic about turning a place already surrounded by ghost stories into a haunted attraction. Therefore, when you walk through St. Albans on a dark October night, are you only being scared by the people who were hired to frighten you, or was that face you saw in the corner someone whose name was not on the cast list?

To fully understand something, it can be important to look back to where it began. Before there was a building, there were just acres of land. However, even the soil in which the building would one day sit has some history. The land on top of the hill was once a colonial settlement. However, in 1755 the settlement was ambushed during the Draper’s Meadow Massacre. 

Then the land was finally developed. Founded by George Miles in 1892, St. Albans School was a preparatory school with classes focused heavily on languages and mathematics. When it first opened, its roster included twenty-two boys and five masters. While things seemed to start perfectly, over time George Miles lost interest in the school and eventually sold it around 1902. The school then had various owners over the next few years, and things began to change. It was reported that the school became a place of hostility, with bullying and faculty abuse being a common occurrence. 

Eventually, the school’s doors were closed for good. However, the building did not go to waste. In 1916, the building was purchased by J. C. King. King chose to go a different route with what the building would hold. It became a treatment place for the mentally and nervously disturbed. What was once the St. Albans School was now the St. Albans Sanatorium. Sadly, this wasn’t a place where patients got better. Most patients were tortured with outdated practices. Hydrotherapy and shock therapy were common, along with lobotomies and insulin-induced comas. Those patients who didn’t end up dead were left with little to no brain function. In addition to the torture, there was also a common lack of staff, which in turn furthered the abuse and lack of true care. 

It is said that the traumatic and hostile environment that the building witnessed is why so many stories of paranormal activity have followed St. Albans. Visitors and investigators have reported hearing footsteps throughout the halls, even when no one else is around. Voices and unexplained sounds like doors closing on their own have also been heard within the brick walls. Whether these experiences are based in truth or not, the stories have become just as important to the building as its history. 

While J. C. King’s vision for St. Albans as a mental facility was diminished in 2003, the building was not left to be forgotten. It was eventually purchased by a former patient and has now taken on a separate spooky role.  During the Halloween season, St. Albans becomes one of the most famous haunted attractions of the New River Valley. Scare actors fill the rooms and halls as visitors willingly enter through the front doors hoping for a scare. However, it’s St. Albans’ history that makes you stop and wonder. Was that scream, the door seemingly opening up on its own, or a shadow flying across the room, a part of the act? Or was it something from the history held within the walls making itself known?

Works Cited:

Dienstman, Allison, and Rick Stillings. “The Tortured Souls of St. Albans Sanatorium.” The Moonlit Road, https://www.themoonlitroad.com/tortured-souls-st-albans-sanatorium-haunted-virginia/. Accessed 30 September 2026.

“St. Albans School.” lost-colleges, https://www.lostcolleges.com/357-st-albans-school. Accessed 30 September 2026.

“The Secret Behind Virginia’s Most Haunted Hospital.” YouTube, uploaded by Virginia is for Lovers, 30 October 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEAOBeaPQiY.

Edited and reviewed Zoe Carter