Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville, Kentucky, was a tuberculosis hospital that is now a popular haunted site for ghost hunting tours and paranormal television shows. The hospital was built in 1926 and closed in 1981, with legends of hauntings focusing on the 51 years it housed tuberculosis patients. The site’s owners have embraced its haunted reputation and turned it into a tourist destination.
Waverly Hills Sanatorium is a former tuberculosis hospital located in Louisville, Kentucky. This site has a long history and some people think it is haunted. A stop at the Waverly Hills Sanatorium is a must on spooky tours of Louisville, and several ghost hunting tours and expeditions are held at the site year-round. Waverly Hills has also been used for various paranormal television shows where hosts travel to supposedly haunted sites.
This site was originally used for a private residence in the 1800s. In the early 20th century, the tuberculosis rate in Louisville began to skyrocket. Some people have suggested that this is because the city is in a low-lying, swampy area, but more likely the increase in tuberculosis infections had to do with a growing population. Whatever the cause, the growing number of patients illustrated the need for a new tuberculosis hospital, and a small two-story building was constructed on the site in 1920 for the purpose of housing tuberculosis patients.
By the 1920s it was clear that the tuberculosis hospital was too small, and in 1924 it was closed so that a new hospital could be built. The current Waverly Hills Sanatorium opened in 1926 as a state-of-the-art tuberculosis treatment facility. Patients lived on site, receiving a variety of treatments for the debilitating condition. With the advent of more effective care, patient numbers began to decline, and Waverly Hills was converted to a geriatric facility in 1961. In 1981, this facility also closed, and Waverly Hills Sanatorium was bought and sold several times, with numerous attempts to redevelop the structure.
Legends of the sanatorium’s haunting tend to focus on the 51 years the site was used to house tuberculosis patients. The death rate from tuberculosis can be quite high, and in its worst years, a patient dies roughly every two days. Some of the TB treatments were also quite brutal, leading people to suggest that the site was inhabited by angry ghosts. Legends swirl around a large supply tunnel, dubbed “the body chute” and room 502, where a patient allegedly stabbed a nurse to death. Some people claim to experience paranormal phenomena when they enter Waverly Hills sanatorium and surrounding buildings and have documented their experiences with photographs and audio recordings.
People have built on the legends about the Waverly Hills Sanatorium, adding more myths and legends over the years and calling the site “the most haunted hospital in America.” Since it is difficult to empirically determine the level of haunting any particular site experiences, it would be hard to dispute this claim. The site’s more recent owners have capitalized on the legends about Waverly Hills, turning it into a tourist destination and actively encouraging the legends, rather than trying to fight the site’s legacy.
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