Waverly Hills Sanatorium
This is probably one of the best known haunted places in America and it’s right here in Kentucky. It is known as the Waverly Hills Sanatorium. Waverly Hills Sanatorium is a beautiful example of early 20th century early Tudor Gothic Revival style architecture. It is listed on the National Historic Register. During the building’s existence, it became known as one of the “most haunted places on earth.”
A brief historical timeline:
It opened in 1910 as a two-story hospital to accommodate 40 to 50 tuberculosis patients. In the early 1900s, Jefferson County was ravaged by an outbreak of tuberculosis – known as the “White Plague” – which prompted the construction of a new hospital. The hospital closed in 1961, due to the antibiotic drug streptomycin that lowered the need for such a hospital.
Waverly Hills was sold to Tina and Charlie Mattingly in 2001. The Mattinglys hold tours of Waverly Hills and host a haunted house attraction each Halloween, with proceeds going toward restoration of the property. They’re also currently restoring all the windows in the decrepit building while restoring the interior of the old sanatorium.
The tunnel
The most haunted place is the Tunnel. The tunnel was an entrance and exit for the workers of the sanatorium. It was built on the first floor with the rest of the building. The corridor is 500 feet to the bottom of the hill and has a set of stairs on one side, which were the stairs used for the workers. On the other side, there was a cart that moved up and down the staircase which transported supplies and other necessities.
Since antibiotics did not exist in the time that the sanatorium was active, other forms of aid were used to treat TB patients. For example, heat lamps, fresh air, and positive talk and reassurance helped to keep patients alive, since the death rate of TB patients at the time was one death per day. However, at the peak of the disease, the sight of the dead being carried away in full view of the patients lowered the patient morale. Therefore, the sanatorium tried transporting the dead bodies as secretively as possible to increase the morale and lower the death rates, using the tunnel to that end. The doctors and workers of this time also believed that this would help to lower the disease’s spreading rate
The Waverly has been feature in many TV shows and movies. It’s owners are very production friendly.
Check out this scene from Travel Channel “Ghost adventure”
- Waverly Hills has been popularized on the television show Ghost Hunters as being one of the “most haunted” hospitals in the eastern United States.[citation needed]
- 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, Ghost Adventures on Travel Channel[21][additional citation(s) needed], and in episode 18 (“The Bull and the Beautiful”)[22] of season 3 of Animal Planet‘s series Call of the Wildman.[23] It was also featured on paranormal shows Ghost Asylum and Paranormal Lockdown; both on Destination America. It was also mentioned on The CW’s show Supernatural in season 11, episode 23, “Alpha and Omega“.
- The web-series Buzzfeed Unsolved visited the location in season 2 for one of their supernatural episodes.
- Waverly Hills Sanatorium is the subject of the fifth episode of the season 3 of Kindred Spirits.
- The sanatorium is featured in the first part of the three-part “Curse of the Underground Worlds” episode of the Science Channel‘s TV series Mysteries of the Abandoned, first aired on January 4, 2021.
You can read more on the Waverly Hills Sanatorium in these books.
Sources, https://www.therealwaverlyhills.com, Wikepedia.