During the 1800s and early 1900s,
America was ravaged by a deadly disease known by
many as the “white death” --- tuberculosis. This
terrifying and very contagious plague, for which no
cure existed, claimed entire families and sometimes
entire towns. In 1900, Louisville, Kentucky had one
of the highest tuberculosis death rates in America.
Built on low, swampland, the area was the perfect
breeding ground for disease and in 1910, a hospital
was constructed on a windswept hill in southern
Jefferson County that had been designed to combat
the horrific disease. The hospital quickly became
overcrowded though and with donations of money and
land, a new hospital was started in 1924.
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The new structure, known
as Waverly Hills, opened two years later
in 1926. It was considered the most
advanced tuberculosis sanatorium in the
country but even then, most of the
patients succumbed to the disease. In
those days before medicine was available
to treat the disease, it was thought
that the best treatment for tuberculosis
was fresh air, plenty of nutritious food
and lots of rest. Many patients survived
their stay at Waverly Hills but it is
estimated that hundreds died here at the
height of the epidemic.
In many cases, the
treatments for the disease were as bad
as the disease itself. Some of the
experiments that were conducted in
search of a cure seem barbaric by
today’s standards but others are now
common practice. Patient’s lungs were
exposed to ultraviolet light to try and
stop the spread of bacteria. This was
done in “sun rooms”, using artificial
light in place of sunlight, or on the
roof or open porches of the hospital.
Since fresh air was thought to also be a
possible cure, patients were often
placed in front of huge windows or on
the open porches, no matter what the
season. Old photographs show patients
lounging in chairs, taking in the fresh
air, while literally covered with snow.
Other treatments were
less pleasant --- and much bloodier.
Balloons would be surgically implanted
in the lungs and then filled with air to
expand them. Needless to say, this often
had disastrous results, as did
operations where muscles and ribs were
removed from a patient’s chest to allow
the lungs to expand further and let in
more oxygen. This blood-soaked procedure
was seen as a “last resort” and few of
the patients survived it. |
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While the patients who survived both
the disease and the treatments left Waverly Hills
through the front door, the majority of patients
left through what came to be known as the “body
chute”. This enclosed tunnel for the dead led from
the hospital to the railroad tracks at the bottom of
the hill. Using a motorized rail and cable system,
the bodies were lowered in secret to the waiting
trains. This was done so that patients would not see
how many were leaving the hospital as corpses. Their
mental health, the doctors believed, was just as
important as their physical health.
By the late 1930s, tuberculosis had
begun to decline around the world and by 1943, new
medicines had largely eradicated in the United
States. In 1961, Waverly Hills was closed down but
was re-opened a year later as Woodhaven Geriatrics
Sanitarium. There have been many rumors and stories
told about patient mistreatment and unusual
experiments during the years that the building was
used an old age home. Some of them have been proven
to be false but others have unfortunately turned out
to be true. Electroshock therapy, which was
considered to be highly effective in those days, was
widely used for a variety of ailments. Budget cuts
in the 1960s and 1970s led to both horrible
conditions and patient mistreatments and in 1982,
the state closed the facility for good.
Is any wonder, after all of the
death, pain and agony within these walls, that
Waverly Hills is considered to be one of the most
haunted places in the country?
The buildings and land that made up
Waverly Hills were auctioned off and changed hands
many times over the course of the next two decades.
By 2001, the once stately building had nearly
destroyed by time, the elements and the vandals who
came here looking for a thrill. Waverly Hills had
become the local “haunted house” and it became a
magnet for the homeless, looking for shelter, and
teenagers, who broke in looking for ghosts. The
hospital soon gained a reputation for being haunted
and stories began to circulate of resident ghosts
like the little girl who was seen running up and
down the third floor solarium, the little boy who
was spotted with a leather ball, the hearse that
appeared in the back of the building dropping off
coffins, the woman with the bleeding wrists who
cried for help and others. Visitors told of slamming
doors, lights in the windows as if power was still
running through the building, strange sounds and
eerie footsteps in empty rooms.
It was at this time that the hospital
came to the attention of Keith Age, and the
Louisville Ghost Hunter’s Society. Keith was a
long-time friend of mine and a representative for
the American Ghost Society in Louisville. It would
be his work with a television show that would bring
him to Waverly Hills. Over the course of the next
several years, the group had a number of
unexplainable encounters in the building.
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. During
their initial visit, they found the kitchen was a
disaster, a ruin of broken windows, fallen plaster,
broken tables and chairs and puddles of water and
debris that resulted from a leaking roof. The
cafeteria had not fared much better. It was also in
ruins and the team quickly retreated. Before they
could do so though, several of them reported the
sounds of footsteps, a door swinging shut and the
smell of fresh baked bread in the air. A quick
search revealed that no one else was in the building
and there was certainly no one cooking anything in
the kitchen. They could come up with no logical
explanation for what had occurred.
Ghost researchers are always drawn to
the fifth floor of the former hospital. 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. One of
these, Room 502, is the subject of many rumors and
legends and just about every curiosity-seeker that
had broken into Waverly Hills over the years wanted
to see it. This is where, according to the stories,
people have jumped to their deaths, have seen shapes
moving in the windows and have heard disembodied
voices that order trespassers to “get out”.
There is a lot of speculation as to
what went on in this part of the hospital but what
is believed is that mentally insane tuberculosis
patients were housed on the fifth floor. This kept
them far away from the rest of the patients in the
hospital but still in an area where they could
benefit from the fresh air and sunshine. This floor
is actually centered in the middle of the hospital
and the two wards, extending out from the nurses’
station, is glassed in on all sides and opens out
onto a patio-type roof. The patients were isolated
on either side of the nurses’ stations and they had
to go to a half door at each station to get their
food and medicine and to use the restroom, which was
located adjacent to the station.
The legends of the fifth floor are
many:
Stories say that in 1928, the head
nurse in Room 502 was found dead in Room 502. She
had committed suicide by hanging herself from the
light fixture. She was 29 years-old at the time of
her death and allegedly, unmarried and pregnant. Her
depression over the situation led her to take her
own life. It’s unknown how long she may have been
hanging in this room before her body was
discovered. And this would not be the only tragedy
to occur in this room.
In 1932, another nurse who worked in
Room 502 was said to have jumped from the roof patio
and plunged several stories to her death. No one
seems to know why she would have done this but many
have speculated that she may have actually have been
pushed over the edge. There are no records to
indicate this but rumors continue to persist.
The Louisville Ghost Hunters Society
was completely overwhelmed by Waverly Hills over the
course of the next several years. They introduced
the sanatorium to a national television audience,
held two ghost conferences there and spent scores of
thankless hours taking literally thousands of people
through the building on more haunted tours than they
could begin to count. They would also, during
independent investigations and tours, experience
numerous incidents of paranormal activity.
During a less than five year period,
members of the Louisville Ghost Hunters Society
experienced ghostly sounds, heard slamming doors,
saw lights appear in the building when there should
have been none, had objects thrown at them, were
struck by unseen hands, saw apparitions in doorways
and corridors and more. But none of the stories that
I had been told could have prepared me for my first
visit to Waverly Hills.
The first time that I visited Waverly
Hills was in September 2002. I was in town for the
first Mid-South Paranormal Convention and one of the
places that I asked Keith Age to show me in
Louisville was Waverly Hills. I was already
interested in the history of the place and had heard
about the investigations that had been conducted
there. I was anxious to see it and so Keith arranged
a tour. It was literally a dark and stormy night
when we arrived at the hospital and it had been
raining all day. I was looking forward to seeing the
place, no matter what the weather, and not because I
was convinced that I would meet one of the former
patients face to face -- it was simply to experience
the place for myself. By this time, I had traveled
all over the country and had been to hundreds of
places that were alleged to be haunted. I had felt
just this same way before exploring all of them, so
Waverly Hills was no different. To me, it was just
an old, spooky building with a fascinating history.
The fact that it was alleged to be haunted simply
added to the experience. I had long since abandoned
the idea of going in expecting too much.
After meeting with the owners, Keith
and I went inside and started our exploration of the
building. The building was almost silent. All that I
could hear was the sound of our own footsteps, our
hushed voices and the drip of rain as it slipped
through the cracks in the roof and splashed down
onto the floor. Keith led me through the place and
pointed out the various rooms, the treatment areas,
the kitchen, morgue and on and on. We climbed the
stairs to the top floor and I saw legendary Room
502, as well as the lights of Louisville as they
reflected off the low and ominous-looking clouds
that had gathered above the city.
During our excursion, I mentioned to
Keith that there had been one floor that we had
missed ---- the fourth floor. He explained that this
was the only floor in the building whose entrance
was kept locked and he had saved it for last. I
remembered then some of the stories that had been
passed on to me about this floor. Most of those who
had spent much time here regarded the fourth floor
as the most active --- and most frightening --- part
of Waverly Hills.
When I entered the fourth floor for
the first time, I got the distinct feeling that
something strange was in the air. I make absolutely
no claims of any psychic ability whatsoever but
there was just something about this floor of the
hospital that felt different than any of the others.
What had been nothing more than just an old
ramshackle and broken down building suddenly seemed
different. I can’t really put into words what felt
so strange about it but it almost seemed to be a
tangible “presence” that I had not encountered
anywhere else in the place. And right away, eerie
things started to happen.
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We had
entered the floor in what I believe was
the center of the building. Behind us
was a wing that I was told was not safe
to enter. Sections of the floor had
fallen in and this area was off-limits
to tours and visitors. The strange thing
about it was that both Keith and I
clearly heard the sounds of doors
slamming from this part of the building.
I can assure the reader that it was not
the wind either. The wind was not strong
enough that night to have moved those
heavy doors and this clearly sounded as
though someone was closing them very
hard. When I questioned Keith about who
else could be up there with us, he
explained me about how unsafe the floors
were in that section. I investigated on
my own and determined that he was
correct --- there was no one walking
around on that part of the fourth floor.
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As we started down the hallway, Keith
told me about some of the other experiences that had
been experienced by investigators on this floor. The
experiences involved the strange shapes that had
been seen. The sightings had started the previous
October when, on consecutive nights, investigators
were able to see what looked like human shadows
moving up and down the fourth floor hallway. One of
the shadows in particular actually appeared to look
around corners at them and all of the shapes passed
back and forth across the doorways. Keith added that
sightings like this had occurred at other times as
well and happened most often when no flashlights
were used in the corridor.
I switched off my flashlight and we
walked down the corridor using only the dim, ambient
light from outside. The hallway runs through the
center of the building and on either side of it are
former patient rooms. Beyond the rooms is the
“porch” area that opens to the outside. It was here
where the patients were placed to take in the fresh
air. There was no glass ever placed in the huge
outer windows, which has left the interior of the
floor open to the elements ever since. On this
night, the windows also illuminated the corridor,
thanks to the low-hanging clouds that glowed with
the lights of Louisville. We walked down through the
dark and murky corridor and I began to see shadows
that flickered back and forth. I was sure that this
was trick of the eye though, likely caused by the
lights or the wind moving something outside and so I
urged Keith on for a closer look. It was where the
corridor angled to the right that I got a look at
something that was definitely not a trick of the
eye!
So that the reader can understand
what I saw, I have to explain that the hallway ahead
of us continued straight for a short distance and
then turned sharply to the right. In the early
1900s, most institutions of this type were designed
in this manner. It was what was dubbed the
“bat-wing” design, which meant that there was a main
center in each building and then the wings extended
right and left, then angled again so that they ran
slightly backward like a bird, or bat, wings.
Directly at the angle ahead of us was a doorway that
led into a treatment room. I only noticed the
doorway in the darkness because the dim light from
the windows beyond it had caused it to glow
slightly. This made it impossible to miss since it
was straight ahead of us.
We took a few more steps and then,
without warning, the clear and distinct silhouette
of a man crossed the lighted doorway, passed into
the hall and then vanished into a room on the other
side of the corridor! I got a distinct look at the
figure and I know that it was a man and that he was
wearing what appeared to be a long, white drape that
could have been a doctor’s coat. The sighting only
lasted a few seconds but I knew what I had seen.
And for some reason, it shocked and
startled me so badly that I let out a yell and
grabbed a hold of Keith’s jacket. I am not sure why
it affected me in that way but perhaps it was the
setting, the man’s sudden appearance, my own anxiety
--- or likely all of these things. Regardless, after
my yell, I demanded that Keith turn on the light and
that he help me to examine the room the man had
vanished into. After my initial fright, I became
convinced that someone else was on the floor with
us. Keith assured me we were the only ones there but
he did help me search for the intruder. There was no
one there, though, he was right, whoever the figure
had been, he had utterly and completely vanished.
I was not the first person to have
seen this mysterious figure on the fourth floor and
it’s unlikely that I will be the last. However, for
me, this put Waverly Hills into a unique category
for there are not many places that I will firmly
state are genuinely haunted. Before I can do that, I
have to have my own unexplainable experience and
hopefully, it will be something that goes beyond a
mere “bump in the night” or spooky photograph. In
this case, it was much more than that because I
actually saw a ghost. In all of my years of
paranormal research, I can count the times that I
have seen ghosts on just two fingers and one of them
was at Waverly Hills.
In this case, seeing really was
believing.
Over the course of the next couple of
years, I returned to Waverly Hills many times and
while I was lucky enough to experience some of the
other hauntings associated with the place, none of
these visits have stuck with me the way that the
first one did. I'll never forget that trip and one
of the first times that I actually saw a ghost!
©
Copyright 2003-2008 by Troy Taylor. All Rights
Reserved.
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