Over the next few decades, Waverly Hills would fall into more dark times. Opened in 1910 on land that once held a schoolhouse, the sanatorium was designed to deal with the rising epidemic of tuberculosis that was plaguing the region at the time. Waverly Hills Sanatorium - The Grounds and the First Floor The contagious nature of tuberculosis required patients and staff be sequestered from the local community and their loved ones. A childrens pavilion was also built to house not only young victims of the disease, but also children whose parents were too ill to care for them. Here's what residents told us, Here are 300+ haunted places to explore in Kentucky and Indiana, How did ignorance help create Thunder Over Louisville? Cost: Guided tours cost $25 per person. A childrens pavilion was built in 1916 that housed 40 children and included a schoolroom. One of his best experiences is walking barefoot on forest trails.. When you're around it and you actually see this stuff, and people can't explain it - I mean, there's some things we can explain but many we can't - you start to wonder, is there something about a spirit that stays around? Charlie and Tina Mattingly, the current owners of Waverly Hills, plan to turn the facility into a four-star hotel catering to history buffs and those intrigued by the supernatural. Tours take up to two hours and for good reason, children are not allowed. The owner (Tina) and a security guard say theyve seen lights turn on in this room while they were outside. Its usually in a hospital that the angel of death is most active. Troy Taylor from the American Ghost Society claims, on his website, that he saw the man in the white coat disappear into a treatment room on the 4th floor during his first trip to WHS, shortly after the Mattinglys purchased the property. The Midwestern United States' tribute to Michelangelo is a foam statue sprayed with gaudy gold paint. Lately, the southwest Jefferson County site has been at the center of a lawsuit between its owner and the Waverly Hills Historical Society, a group leased to take care of the property. Because of its success, several others would spring up all over the country. Today, it stands today as a monument in the fight against the dreaded disease. In 1944, there was a groundbreaking discovery of a type of antibiotic that could successfully treat tuberculosis, called streptomycin, and with this amazing new treatment the need for such a large sanatorium became steadily unnecessary, rendering Waverly Hills obsolete. The moon light reflected through the building and we had a pretty good sight of the hall up to the point where the hall bent in a slight angle. The only building in Louisville (hopefully) that contains two ancient holy skeletons. What they catch on video lives up to its reputation. In a 2001 newspaper story ahead of an on-site taping of Fox Family's "Scariest Places on Earth," a Courier Journal reporter noted "countless local legends about the place being haunted" had been fueled by the high number of people who succumbed to tuberculosis during the more than 50 years it housed patients. A chute was built to aid in disposing dead bodies in such a way that the sick did not have to see them leaving. The facility rapidly expanded to become more or less its own self-contained city. If you don't believe in ghosts, you will NOW!!! Oh, and while we are here, of course Waverly Hills is extremely haunted, with Mattingly saying: When you have that kind of death, you can't help but to think there might be a spirit lingering around that just isn't happy. It is reputed to be one of the most haunted places in the US. After the geriatric center closed down, various owners considered turning the building into a number of things, including a jail and. The leading independent voice for aviation news and insight. Every weekday we compile our most wondrous stories and deliver them straight to you. Ruins of a historic medical facility sits eerily by the water. Major Hays was in need of a school for his daughters to attend, so he started a one-room schoolhouse that was located on Pages Lane. They've feared Waverly Hills Sanatorium their entire lives, and for good reason. Shadows everywhere, we began to see perfect formations of shadows of people that were not there. He's written articles for MU and Daily Grail and has been a guest on Coast to Coast AM and Binnal of America. A tunnel connecting to the base of the hill was also built so that workers and supplies could be ferried to the facility at the top of the hill. As we entered the 4th floor our eyes were more adjusted. Waverly Hills Sanatorium cannot be accessed via through the golf course. Self care and ideas to help you live a healthier, happier life. Ghost stories:Here are 300+ haunted places to explore in Kentucky and Indiana. The fifth floor consisted of two nurses stations, a pantry, a linen room, medicine room and two medium-sized rooms on both sides of the two nurses stations. The second e was dropped at some point.). An American paranormal anthology previewing stories told by the victims. 83 minutes of ghostly evidence of the damned. WAVERLY HILLS SANATORIUM. Its believed that tuberculosis has claimed roughly. Join MU Plus+ and get exclusive shows and extensions & much more! Like those who are known to be pet lovers viciously harming cats. During the late 1800s, roughly one in five deaths (20%) was attributed to tuberculosis. Waverly Hills Sanatorium is a beautiful example of early 20th century early Tudor Gothic Revival style architecture and a significant contributor to the Louisville, Ky community. Waverly Hills Sanatorium once housed hundreds, perhaps thousands of tuberculosis patients during a major, years-long outbreak in Jefferson County, Kentucky the building that still stands. Death visited daily in those days. Hays later sold the land to the Board of Tuberculosis Hospital, and they built the sanatorium there, adopting the name, to house a rapidly increasing number of tuberculosis patients. . The Waverly Hills Sanatorium started off as a one-room schoolhouse in the late 1800s. I wanted to shut my eyes but I had to see where I was going. Louisville's Waverly Hills Sanatorium has been called "the most terrifying building in America," with an infamous history that draws paranormal thrill-seekers from all over the world. Rate. Location: 4400 Paralee Drive, Louisville, Kentucky. In Stewarts autobiography, he recalls that the highest number of deaths in any year that he worked at the sanatorium was 153, and that most of the worst years followed World War II, when soldiers returned, infected, from overseas. The Waverly Hills Historical Society runs tours by reservation only each year, March through August. The roof of Waverly Hills is also said to be rather intensely haunted, and one dramatic encounter was related on the site True Ghost Tales, by a witness who says: My friends and I went out on the roof and just hung out thinking about the stories we heard about the place when we began to see figures moving around in the dark inside the area of the 5th floor where the patients were bedded outside for air. (Louisville, Kentucky) Producing my first documentary at THE Waverly Hills Sanatorium!Don't miss what we're up to next, HIT SUBSCRIBE to keep up! During the Halloween season, Waverly Hills turns itself into a thrilling Haunted House. If the bacteria did become an infection, there was an 80% chance of death at that time. Not much was known scientifically about tuberculosis at that point -- but it was clearly very contagious, and it was common practice to quarantine TB patients away from the population. As the state of the patients worsened, people began to die in the facility on an almost-daily basis. In fact, it has been called one of the most haunted places in the world Room 502 (Real location, unsubstantiated myths). He hired a woman named Lizzie Lee Harris to teach at the school. Over the following years, Waverly would become a nearly "self contained" community. The massive, collegiate, gothic style Sanatorium that you see in the 1926 photo (above) remains standing on Waverly Hill, today. Doctors and other employees were unable to leave the grounds. It should be no surprise considering the history of death pervading this place, and the list of paranormal activity here is long. People who were afflicted with Tuberculosis were isolated from the general public and placed in an area where they could rest, stay calm, and have plenty of fresh air. However the spelling fluctuated between both spellings many times over the years.EXPLORATION:One of the legends told of Waverly Hills involves a man in a white coat who has been seen walking in the kitchen and the smell of cooking food that sometimes wafts through the room. Nick talks about his experience in the body chute and shares raw, never before seen footage from the Lockdown archives. Lucas Aulbach can be reached at laulbach@courier-journal.com, 502-582-4649 or on Twitter @LucasAulbach. One of the creepier Waverly Hills legends is a room near the morgue dubbed the draining room, where dead bodies were supposedly hung on hooks and cut open top to bottom to rid them of infected fluids. Here are 9 things that make the death tunnel in Kentucky unique: 9. The most common treatment was simply bed rest in the, One fairly horrific procedure used on TB patients before medication was available was called. Construction on the first hospital began in 1908 in a quiet space atop a hill, where it was thought patients would be at peace and receive lots of fresh air (and stay far from crowded areas). After careful planning, Construction began on a new 5-story brick and concrete Sanatorium in March 1924. Today, Waverly Hills' reputation as a paranormal spot is on a global scale. We calmed him a little and it was as if someone just shut it all off like a light switch. When the visit was over, the visitors left Waverly and ventured back out into the community. Or is it just the imaginings of those in a decidedly spooky locale, keyed up to see something strange to the point that their minds conjure up visions of ghosts? "Room 502" is also notorious. After all, these are places well-versed in suffering, pain, and death, their walls saturated in it over their usually very grim histories, making them wellsprings of stories of ghosts and the unexplained. Originally, Waverly Hills Sanatorium was a two-story frame building with a hipped roof and half-timbering. The sanatorium was featured on ABC/FOX Family Channel's Scariest Places On Earth, VH1's Celebrity Paranormal Project, Syfy's Ghost Hunters, Zone Reality's Creepy, the British show Most Haunted, Paranormal Challenge and Ghost Adventures on Travel Channel. Ryan and Shane discover why this Sanatorium is one of the most haunted places in the world. The site boasts a myriad of ghosts and paranormal phenomena. My friend Chris lost his cool and wanted to bolt out of the place by jumping from the 5th floor roof. Global Pop Superstar Kesha Searches for the Supernatural with Her Famous Friends in 'Conjuring Kesha' Jun 2, 2022. 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