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Mike Conley's Tales of the Weird: Sanatorium has spooky reputation

By Mike Conley | The McDowell News

Published: October 21, 2009

In 1910, a new hospital opened in Louisville, Ky. for the treatment of around 40 to 50 tuberculosis patients. In those days, the Louisville area was severely stricken with an outbreak of the dreaded disease, which was highly contagious.
During the next 50 or more years, the hospital for advanced cases of tuberculosis would expand and add more patients. The place also saw more deaths from people suffering from TB. Today, the old Waverly Hills Sanatorium is a massive five-story empty building that has not seen a patient since 1981. However, many believe that the spirits of those who died there are still within its walls.
In recent years, Waverly Hills Sanatorium has become one of the most famous and well-publicized haunted places in the United States. It has been featured on the Family Channel's "Scariest Places on Earth" show and VH1's "Celebrity Paranormal Project." The Sci Fi Channel's "Ghost Hunters" show has investigated its dark, forbidding hallways.
Although it has a sinister reputation and many people did actually die there, Waverly Hills Sanatorium was not always a terrifying place. The hospital earned a reputation as one of the best places in the nation for the treatment of folks with TB, according to the official Web site for Waverly Hills.
For many years, it had a highly skilled staff of nurses and doctors who were very dedicated to the care of TB patients. They had to live on the premises because tuberculosis was such a contagious disease. They risked their own lives in order to treat and care for the sick. The hospital's campus had a chapel, a school for the children and special housing for the staff.
At that time, tuberculosis was a highly contagious, air borne illness. In the days before antibiotics, persons with TB were taken to a sanatorium, usually in the mountains, where they would kept away from the rest of society. It was believed that they would get better with plenty of fresh, clean air, good food and sunlight in a natural setting away from the pollution in the cities. They had plenty of books to read and could listen to the radio since there was little else for the patients to do while they were at the sanatorium.
With advances in medical treatment, Waverly Hills saw fewer and fewer TB patients. Many of those people were transferred to other hospitals and the massive five-story structure closed in June 1962. Later that year, it reopened under a new name: Woodhaven Geriatrics Hospital. That facility operated until it closed in 1981, allegedly due to patient abuse, according to a Web site.
Since then, the place has stood empty and numerous urban legends have been told about it. One of the best-known weird tales about Waverly Hills centers on Room 502. The story goes that an insane female patient murdered a nurse in this room by stabbing her to death, although I have yet to see any documentation of this supposed event. However, people claim to see the patient's ghost running out the sanatorium's front door in a white nightgown, screaming like a banshee.
One Web site about the place states that there are records of a nurse who hanged herself. She had supposedly gotten pregnant by one of the doctors and at that time, something like that would have been scandalous. Therefore, she knew no other way out and took her own life in Room 502. Both tourists and paranormal investigators claim to experience many strange things while visiting that room.
Some urban legends claim that "63,000 deaths" occurred at Waverly Hills. However, the highest number of actual deaths in a single year at Waverly Hills was probably 152. Some researchers have suggested that 162 people died at Waverly Hills in the year 1945 alone. So there is no way that 63,000 people could have died there even over a span of 50 or more years.
Then, there is the Death Tunnel or Body Chute. It is an underground passageway that supposedly contains many tormented spirits. One of the uses for this tunnel was to transport dead bodies out of the sanatorium. Since seeing hearses arrive and take away dead bodies would hurt the morale of other patients, the hospital staff thought it would best to transport the dead out of sight in an underground tunnel. Today, many folks believe that the dead patients whose bodies were taken through that tunnel have never really left Waverly Hills.
Now, the owners of Waverly Hills Sanatorium are holding their "Terror on the Hill" haunted house as a fund-raiser for its restoration. All paranormal and historical tours are booked for the remainder of 2009. Folks are advised to call on Jan. 4 to schedule a tour for the 2010 season.
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I recently heard back from the Save Our Heritage Organisation, the non-profit that operates the Whaley House and other historic sites in San Diego. I had written to SOHO complimenting them about my visit last month to the Whaley House and my excellent tour. Like our own McDowell County Historical Society and the good folks at the Carson House, the people with SOHO work hard to preserve San Diego's rich past. You can learn more about them by visiting www.sohosandiego.org and www.whaleyhouse.org.

Contact Mike Conley at 652-3313, ext. 3422 or e-mail nconley@mcdowellnews.com.