If you live in Louisville (or own a television), you have surely heard about the Waverly Hills Sanatorium. It is one of the most haunted places in Louisville – if not the entire country – and has been featured on numerous TV shows about hauntings. It has even been investigated by famous ghost hunters!
Did you know that you can go there and investigate those haunting claims yourself?
Waverly Hills Sanatorium opened in 1926 to treat tuberculosis patients during a huge epidemic in Jefferson County.
Flickr / Autumn
In the 1960s, when better medications were developed to treat this disease, a sanatorium was no longer necessary.
lr2k/TripAdvisor The massive hospital then became a nursing home, and was eventually abandoned all together. The only problem? Some of the tuberculosis patients seem to have never left.
When the sanatorium was operational, the main treatment for tuberculosis was for patients to sit near the enormous open windows and just allow them breathe in the fresh air.
Caufield & Shook Collection / University of Louisville Photographic Archives, Image ID: ULPA CS 076031
However, other treatments were not so innocuous.
Caufield & Shook Collection / University of Louisville Photographic Archives, Image ID: ULPA CS 040462
Since no one at the time really knew much about how to treat tuberculosis, the doctors at Waverly Hills did experiments on the patients – and most of them were not pleasant.
University of Louisville Photographic Archives, Image ID: ULPA 1994.18.0758 Some of the milder treatments included exposing a patient’s lungs to ultraviolet light or keeping them outside, even in the dead of winter. Other experiments, though, involved inserting balloons into patients’ lungs and inflating them, as well as removing ribs and muscles in an attempt to give the lungs to have more space to expand.
As one might guess, very few patients survived these bizarre, often excruciating procedures, and that is said to be one of the reasons why so many unsettled spirits haunt the building to this day.
Flickr / Aaron Vowels For decades, Waverly Hills visitors have experienced slamming doors around the building when no one else was around and bright lights illuminating the halls when there was no electricity running through the building.
But this is just the beginning…
Flickr / Aaron Vowels
While hearing spooky sounds and seeing strange lights is one thing, encountering a full-bodied apparitions walking around is quite another.
Royal Photo Company Collection / University of Louisville Photographic Archives, Image ID: ULPA R_08834
Visitors have claimed to have seen a little girl running through the halls, and a little boy carrying a leather ball, and he will even try to play with the visitors he comes across.
Flickr / Lwp Kommunikáció
Some people have actually captured footage of this ball rolling down the hall, pushed by a tiny ghostly hand!
Jennifer L/TripAdvisor Many also claim to have seen a woman with bleeding wrists screaming for help, as well as a man in a white coat in the kitchen. That man, in particular, was intriguing, because he appeared when the kitchen was completely destroyed and unusable… but everyone who witnessed him smelled the delicious scent of a big meal being cooked in that same room.
The fifth floor of the building is said to be the most haunted, and Room 502 is said to be one of the most frightening places in the entire structure.
lr2k/TripAdvisor
It is said that a pregnant nurse hanged herself in that very room, and now pregnant women are told not to go in there, as some visitors have reported having miscarriages after entering the space.
Flickr / Aaron Vowels
The experiences mentioned above are just a tiny fraction of the paranormal activity that is said to go on at Waverly Hills Sanatorium. Many of these things have been caught on camera and audio recording devices, leading to the building earning the title of one of the world’s most haunted places.
Flickr / Autumn
lr2k/TripAdvisor
The massive hospital then became a nursing home, and was eventually abandoned all together. The only problem? Some of the tuberculosis patients seem to have never left.
Caufield & Shook Collection / University of Louisville Photographic Archives, Image ID: ULPA CS 076031
Caufield & Shook Collection / University of Louisville Photographic Archives, Image ID: ULPA CS 040462
University of Louisville Photographic Archives, Image ID: ULPA 1994.18.0758
Some of the milder treatments included exposing a patient’s lungs to ultraviolet light or keeping them outside, even in the dead of winter. Other experiments, though, involved inserting balloons into patients’ lungs and inflating them, as well as removing ribs and muscles in an attempt to give the lungs to have more space to expand.
Flickr / Aaron Vowels
For decades, Waverly Hills visitors have experienced slamming doors around the building when no one else was around and bright lights illuminating the halls when there was no electricity running through the building.
Royal Photo Company Collection / University of Louisville Photographic Archives, Image ID: ULPA R_08834
Flickr / Lwp Kommunikáció
Jennifer L/TripAdvisor
Many also claim to have seen a woman with bleeding wrists screaming for help, as well as a man in a white coat in the kitchen. That man, in particular, was intriguing, because he appeared when the kitchen was completely destroyed and unusable… but everyone who witnessed him smelled the delicious scent of a big meal being cooked in that same room.
If you would like to take a tour and see for yourself whether these stories are true, the Waverly Hills Public Paranormal Investigation takes place every Friday and Saturday night from 12am to 6am during March through August. The cost is $75. You can bring your own ghost hunting equipment and investigate however you see fit!
Private tours are also available, as well as daytime historical tours and shorter paranormal tours. You can find out more information about all of these at the Waverly Hills Sanatorium website or by calling 502-933-2142.
Waverly Hills Sanatorium is located at 4400 Paralee Lane, Louisville, KY 40272.
Have you taken this creepy ghost hunt? Did you capture any spooky evidence of the hauntings? Let us know in the comments – we’d love to see photos you’ve captured of the spectral residents!
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