People Flock To Take Ghost Tours Of The Waverly Hills Sanatorium In Kentucky, Known As One Of The Most Frightening And Paranormal Activity-Ridden Buildings In The Country
The Waverly Hills Sanatorium has been named one of the most terrifying buildings in the country for its skin-crawling past and paranormal activity. Today, people flock to it for ghost tours and a Halloween haunted house to get a sense of how scary it is.
The Waverly Hills Sanatorium was built in Louisville, Kentucky, in the early 1910s but was repurposed in the early 1920s when the state was a hot spot for tuberculosis, the disease known in America as the “white death” at that time.
When it opened in 1926, the sanatorium was considered one of the most well-equipped tuberculosis hospitals at the time. However, most of the patients there still succumbed to the disease as proper treatment and medicine for it hadn’t been invented yet.
Because there were no treatment plans that worked, many patients at the Waverly Hills Sanatorium were guinea pigs in a series of brutal experiments to try and rid them of the disease, from surgically implanting balloons into their lungs to help them breathe and exposing them to harsh weather conditions to see if fresh air would help.
Some patients even had muscles and ribs removed to give more room for their lungs to expand, and instead of getting better, many of them did not survive these procedures.
In addition to the brutal experimental treatments, many patients suffered from loneliness as they were very much isolated from their loved ones and the outside world.
Many patients who passed away at the Waverly Hills Sanatorium had their bodies transported through their infamous “body chute,” a hidden, enclosed tunnel that used a motorized rail and cable system to transport bodies to the railroad tracks located at the bottom of the hill the hospital sat on.
By looking back at the hospital’s records from the early 1910s, it’s been estimated that around six thousand people have died in that building in total.
By the late 1930s, as tuberculosis numbers dwindled, the hospital had fewer patients and was closed in 1961. It was briefly reopened as Woodhaven Geriatrics Sanitarium a year later, but due to budget cuts and further stories of patient mistreatment, it officially shut down in 1981.
Photo 98556610 – © David Carillet – Dreamstime.com – illustrative purposes only
In the first decade after the hospital shut down, it was frequently visited by ghost hunters and vandals, and people were shocked by what they would see.
Some claimed to see the ghosts of young children running through the halls of the decrepit building, a woman with bleeding wrists calling out for help, and unexplainable events like hearing footsteps down the halls and watching doors slam on their own.
The fifth floor of the Waverly Hills Sanatorium is said to be the most haunted, with legends of ghosts terrifying people in room 502. The room has a particularly dark past, as between the 1920s and 1930s, two nurses had taken their lives in that room.
In 2001, the property was purchased by Charlie and Tina Mattingly, who have since renovated the building and offer tours. The Waverly Hills Sanatorium is famous for its ghost tours and haunted houses during Halloween.
Would you dare to walk the halls of the Waverly Hills Sanatorium?
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