Some time before the property was purchased in 2001, a story circulated about a group of teenage boys who snuck into the sanatorium. This is an active project so check back often for updates. This website wouldbe Locals place their offerings on this nightmarish gnarled tree so the witches won't summon another storm. WoodHaven Medical was closed by the state in 1981. With the discovery of a new antibiotic, Streptomyc in 1943, there was finally a way to combat Tuberculosis . This building would stand at the forefront of America's fight against the deadly disease, Tuberculosis. This new treatment meant that newer cases could now be treated as outpatients in a regular hospital. In March 1996, Robert Alberhasky bought Waverly Hills. In 1962, the building reopened as a nursing home that eventually became known as Woodhaven Medical Services, a geriatric facility. A total of 63,000 people lost their lives up until 1961, the year when the hospital was closed. There are two legends concerning the room: a nurse committed suicide by jumping out the window, and a nurse who hanged herself in room 502 because she was single and pregnant. I am somewhat a cliche'. Self care and ideas to help you live a healthier, happier life. Many people claimed that the souls of the people who died in the hospital were still wandering in the corridors. Discover unique things to do, places to eat, and sights to see in the best destinations around the world with Bring Me! - 1920 Census Report30 - 1930 Census Report The most common treatment at the time was sunlight, fresh air, and nutritious food. What are the most haunted places in Kentucky? No records could be found for these deaths, but the rumors and ghost stories have persisted and many tourists and ghost hunters have reported strange activity in . The number of shrouded bodies being taken away from the building began to have a dramatic effect on the morale of the victims, which was hugely problematic since this was the cornerstone of treatment. One report from a paranormal investigation group noted that six members saw what they claim looked like a young girls shadow that was completely opaque. Today, the building is spooky enough to give anyone chills. mentioned or used within Sincerely, Waverly Since then, it has become a popular destination for paranormal investigators. Another of Todds plans was the refurbishing of the building into apartments, this also feel through due to lack of funding. In the nineteenth century, tuberculosis killed as many as one in seven people in the United States. This list includes only patients that died at the hospital. It also had an ulterior and much less sinister purpose. If you can correct us on anything we have posted, please do so. These include nineteenth-century correspondence, diaries, and medical publications in which Kentuckians wrote of debilitating symptoms and possible treatments. 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. A four-story stone and brick Tudor Gothic revival style building, once part of Waverly Hills Sanatorium, still stands in 2021 as a tourist site and as a testament to struggles with a deadly disease. Sign up for our newsletter and enter to win the second edition of our book. To this effect the original facility consisted of two open-air pavilions which housed 40 victims of the disease. It is sad that a place that played such a vital role during this period of history and medical discovery was not only over, but now disrespected. There are currently 10 different medications available in the US to treat tuberculosis. Ain (01) Allier (03) Ardche (07) Cantal (15) Drme (26) The little TB clinic was filled with more than 140 people, and it was obvious that a much larger hospital was needed to treat those afflicted with the condition. Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, Frankfort, Kentucky. Construction on the second hospital was underway in March 1924. & W.G.C. The story goes that Lizzie Lee Harris loved Sir Walter Scotts series, The Waverley Novels -- more than, Hays reportedly like the name and so named all of his land Waverley Hill. Last, a rich variety of records from the early and mid-twentieth centuryincluding pamphlets, photographs, letters, and architectural recordshelp document the history of Waverly Hills Sanatorium from the perspective of administrators and some of the employees and patients who lived there. Ruins of a historic medical facility sits eerily by the water. Spooked: The Ghosts of Waverly Hillsis a horror film about events that took place in thehospital. Of course, Waverly Hills Sanatorium is one of the most popular abandoned places in Kentucky, but there are many abandoned places peppered around the state that would send a shiver up anyones spine like the Red Bridge on Devils Hollow Road near Frankfort. If youre in the Louisville area, Cave Hill Cemetery is another haunted hotspot where many visitors report hearing disembodied voices including laughter and screaming as well as unexplained orbs of light that appear to dance over certain graves. When the plans fell through due to funding problems, Alberhasky, upset that the remaining building was protected by the Historical Register, tried to have the building condemned. img7.mynet.com They were buried by passing through the death tunnel. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waverly_Hills_Sanatorium, http://paranormal.about.com/od/hauntedplaces/ig/World-s-Most-Haunted-Place/Waverly-Hills-Sanatorium.htm, http://practicalwanderlust.com/2016/09/louisville-kentucky-a-locals-guide-to-visiting-fall.html. The first Waverly Hills Sanatorium building opened on July 26, 1910. The statue would have been based on the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, only 20 feet taller. KDR - Kentucky Death RecordsS - SubmittedNP - NewspaperO - Other20 It was two stories tall and had only enough space for 40 patients in early stages of TB. A documentary named Spooked was also made during the filming of The Death Tunnel. Like Atlas Obscura and get our latest and greatest stories in your Facebook feed. The following index contains recorded patient deaths at Waverly Hills between 1911-1960. Previous property owners had no desire to maintain the luster of the building and did little to stop people from slowly destroying her. The enormous and haunted Waverly Hills Sanatorium by night. In 1961, the hospital finally closed its doors. This company operated the nursing home facility until 1982 when it was closed by the state for violations and the mistreatment of patients. This tunnel has likely seen more death than most modern hospitals. More Waverly Hills haunted history, after the jump. Official Waverly Hills Sanatorium/ Woodhaven Geriatric Center Memorial & Historical Resource. Search, watch, and cook every single Tasty recipe and video ever - all in one place! Kentucky. Waverly Hills was a self-contained community. With a design from local renowned architect D. X. Murphy, the new building now had a capacity of 400 and opened on October 17, 1926. Due to the rapid increase of Tuberculosis cases, the original hospital was soon to capacity. All rights reserved. It was considered very state-of-the-art for its day. will currently be the memorial for the tuberculosis & geriatric hospitals. These records shed light on public services that often reached across lines of class and race. Hills Memorial Research Group. Photographs, text, illustrations and all other media not authored by KHI belong to their respective authors/owners/copyright holders and are used here for educational purposes only under Title 17 U.S. Code 107. Contributed by Phil Tkacz, Shawn Logan, Jay Gravatte, & Hope Bryant | [email protected]. 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). In 1911, the new City Hospital relocated all of their TB cases to Waverly Hills, which had erected tents on the grounds to accomodate the overflow. It was the workers that would be detached to gather the bodies of the dead and either burn, bury, or transport them elsewhere. In the film, five college girls fulfill an initiation rite by spending the night in the haunted institution. There are a few abandoned tunnels in Kentucky, but none have quite the reputation of the notorious Waverly Hills Death Tunnel on 4400 Paralee Lane in Louisville. The tunnel itself was originally 525 feet long and ran out to the bottom of the hill. Meet MasterChef Gordon Ramsays Children - Who are They? The Halloween season draws much larger crowds and lots of fright enthusiasts. Now and Always,The Trusted Content Your Research Requires, Now and Always, The Trusted Content Your Research Requires, Built on the Johns Hopkins University Campus. Nothing that went down the death tunnel ever came back up. This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. It's a place where the smell of death is hidden, and where the painful screams are still in the air. Over the next two years of construction, a two-story wooden administration building as well as two connected open air pavilions on either side, each housing 20 male and female patients were built at a cost of $25,000. Plans are underway for an on site memorial Another theory is that Mary got pregnant by one of the doctors, and when he tried to perform an abortion, she died, and the suicide was staged. Forged from a partnership between a university press and a library, Project MUSE is a trusted part of the academic and scholarly community it serves. A private tour of the death tunnel is available by appointment. KDR - Kentucky Death Records S - Submitted NP - Newspaper O - Other 20 - 1920 Census Report 30 - 1930 Census Report * followed by year - Died at WHS/WGC in that year Patients of W.H.S. No matter the good vibes the site espoused, it still ended up as place to scare people. At the beginning of the 20th century Louisville Kentucky had the one of highest rate of tuberculosis deaths in the United States. A new sanatorium opened on October 17, 1926 that could accommodate 400-500 patients. At the time, Tuberculosis was a very serious disease. Microfilm rolls #7016130-7041803. US residents can opt out of "sales" of personal data. Even with the building of additional pavilions, space for patients was consistently at a minimal. Nestled in the Ohio Valley, Louisville doesnt get a proper amount of fresh air flow. Important note:If you would like to use any information on this website (including text, bios, photos andany other information) we encourage you to contact us. Once you went to Waverly Hills, you became a permanent resident on the hill. Oddly enough, despite that fact, many patients received visits from loved ones on visiting day. They focused less on the tunnel and more on a college kid storyline, highlighted with a little bit of history. There is an underground tunnel from the sanatorium to the bottom of the hill. Like us on Facebook to get the latest on the world's hidden wonders. Haunted tours helped raise money for the restoration project, which will eventually include a bed-and-breakfast. Produced by Johns Hopkins University Press in collaboration with The Sheridan Libraries. We do not own all of the materials on this website/blog. Early-twentieth-century scrapbooks and organizational records chronicle public health measures and tuberculosis facilities in Louisville and other parts of the state. Fewer than 5% of patients initially survived. Its believed that, at one point, he hospital was tending to as many as 140 patients. Tina and Charlie Mattingly bought the property in 2001 with the aim of completely restoring it. Vandalized, damaged, nearly condemned. After the geriatric center closed down, various owners considered turning the building into a number of things, including a jail and. We depend on ad revenue to craft and curate stories about the worlds hidden wonders. But in 2001, Waverly Hills Sanatorium was purchased and since then, there have been many changes and improvements to the building and surrounding property. The SciFi Channel series returned to Kentucky and did a live broadcast on Halloween night. At the height of the tuberculosis epidemic, it is reported that one patient an hour died. In 1961, Waverly Hills Sanatorium was closed because there was no longer a need for a tuberculosis facility. Several people have claimed shadowy figures have peered around corners at them. They added that they heard the painful screams in the morning. Research notes for Supernatural Season 2 Episode 4. A childrens pavilion was built in 1916 that housed 40 children and included a schoolroom. The current owners of the Waverly Hills Sanatorium use the derelict space as a haunted attraction, staging horror houses in the fall and running ghost tours the rest of the year. We do not have access to records of any patients from Waverly Hills and we cannot accommodate any requests at this time. The same problems persisted, as well as suicides of the patients. It's believed that nearly 50,000. In crowded cities in the 19th century, anywhere from 70 to 90% of the population may have been infected with the bacteria, which could lie dormant for any amount of time. Sanatoriums were built on high hills surrounded by peaceful woods to create a serene atmosphere to help the patients recover. For more haunted adventures, check out these haunted tunnels in Kentucky. The tunnel, also known as "the body chute", was serviced by a winch which hauled supplies up the hill and lowered gurneys with bodies down to the bottom. . Waverly Hills Sanatorium has been a TB hospital, a nursing home, a failed religious monument, and now a paranormal investigation site. From Alabama to Wyoming, there are abandoned towns, amusement parks, and ruins lurking in your home state. Kelli Patrick:Waverly Hills Sanatorium opened in around 1910 because of an outbreak of tuberculosis. Nestled on the top of a placid hill, the old Waverly Hills Sanatorium once tried to heal tuberculosis with peace and good vibes. (The myth was further spread by Tina. The first antibiotic used to treat tuberculosis was called streptomycin, and it was discovered by American biologists in 1943. 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved. It could accommodate at least 400 + patients and be considered one of the most modern and well-equipped facilities at the 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. I grew up running around barefoot on a farm in Kentucky. While the building is now primarily a tourist attraction for those with creepy predilections, it used to be a functioning tuberculosis hospital. 2023 Atlas Obscura. One story has it that in 1928, one of the nurses, Mary Hillenburg, hung herself in room 502. During the late 1800s, roughly one in five deaths (20%) was attributed to tuberculosis. shared photos and the stories of their family members who were patients and staff members of Waverly Hills. The new Sanatarium was officially opened July 26, 1910. (Note the slightly different spelling of Waverley here. Located just outside of Elizabethtown, Kasey Cemetery is so haunted, its known as the Gates of Hell. What makes this tunnel in Kentucky stand out from the others? The path towards the light connected to the main building via a railway system on the first floor of the original hospital. publications, etc do not reflect the views of The Waverly Hills Historical Society, Inc. In fact, it has been called one of the most haunted places in the world Room 502 (Real location, unsubstantiated myths). 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 today is said to be haunted by those who died there. Respect all signs posted and never trespass on private property. Mind you, we are not confirming nor denying that Waverly is haunted, but it has been featured on quite a few documentaries and television shows over the years. Plans to turn Waverly Hills Sanatorium into a hotel, restaurant, and convention center are moving forward after the Louisville Metro Council approved a zoning change request by the owner on Feb. 27. Horror For an initiation stunt, five college women are locked in a Kentucky hospital built in 1910 where 63,000 people died from a disease known as the "white plague". Create a website or blog at WordPress.com, Historical Case Studies in Crime & Punishment, Infirmaries and Poorhouses: Image Gallery, Transylvania University Medical Department, University of Louisville Medical Department, Kentucky Institution for Feeble Minded Children, Covington-Kenton County Tuberculosis Sanatorium, Madisonville State Tuberculosis Sanatorium, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. There have been reported ghost sightings in Room 502 at the sanatorium, particularly the ghost of a nurse in uniform. ***Note:***The 1920 & 1930census reports were all hand written. Room 502 has a reputation due to the two suicides that supposedly occurred there. Waverly Hills Historical Society is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and restoration of Waverly Hills Sanatorium, the history of its past employees and patients, as well as the education of the public of the history of TB and the effect on the area. The building is host to ghost hunters from all over the globe. Some have called this long concrete structure the Death Shute over the years. They were buried by passing through the death tunnel. Waverly Hills Sanatorium sits on land that was originally purchased by Major Thomas H. Hays in 1883. The Waverly Hills Death Tunnel. Copyright 2003, 2004 The Historical Society and the family that owns the property hold fundraising events throughout the year. The owner (Tina) and a security guard say theyve seen lights turn on in this room while they were outside. 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As the state of the patients worsened, people began to die in the facility on an almost-daily basis. Kentuckys Home to the Largest and Most Haunted Victorian Neighborhood in America, The Haunted Spurlington Tunnel In Kentucky Has A Bone-Chilling History, One Of The Most Haunted Cemeteries In Kentucky Is Also The Most Beautiful, Driving Down This Haunted Kentucky Road Will Give You Nightmares, Spend A Night At This Haunted Sanatorium In Kentucky If You Dare, This Haunted Tunnel In Kentucky Is Not For The Faint Of Heart, 11 Staggering Photos Of An Abandoned Hospital Hiding In Kentucky, The Story Behind This Evil Place In Kentucky Will Make Your Blood Turn Cold. To be honest, it is very much a B flick at best. So while it's true that the most common treatments were exposure to sunlight, bed rest, healthy foods, and fresh air, the Waverly Hills Sanatorium Memorial records that several other methods were applied to patients, including surgical methods that were cutting edge for the time, but that might sound barbaric now. 2023 Project MUSE. All information contained in this website Some have called this long concrete structure the Death Shute over the years. In later years, the property was repeatedly vandalized, and landowners didnt seem to care much about upkeep on the building -- which was nearly condemned. Some of the names were difficult if not impossible to read. The tunnel was the subject of the 2005 movie The Death Tunnel. Create a website or blog at WordPress.com, Historical Case Studies in Crime & Punishment, Infirmaries and Poorhouses: Image Gallery, Transylvania University Medical Department, University of Louisville Medical Department, Kentucky Institution for Feeble Minded Children, Covington-Kenton County Tuberculosis Sanatorium, Madisonville State Tuberculosis Sanatorium, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To learn more about the Historical Society, see the Historical Society section under About. The Waverly Hills Sanatorium death tunnel in Kentucky has an interesting history, and you can read more about it in our previous article. Since then, theyve worked with the Waverly Hills preservation society to restore the building. Today, it stands today as a monument in the fight against the . The tunnel is supposed to be haunted by those who made their last journey through it. If you get lost the address to the Golf Course is 4301 East Pages Lane, Louisville, KY 40272. They do this through offering tours, am annual haunted house held on the main buildings first floor, as well hosting private events in the restored laundry room. That is, 63,000 people seeking treatment at the Waverly Hills hospital were left to die, they were forced to commit suicide or they lost their minds.
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