Movie Box Review

The "Shadow People" are not evil or demonic, but simply represent a different configuration pattern than the previously documented orbs, vortices and ectoplasmic swirls and vapor that are the shapes of the spirits of the dead. The spirits of the dead may manifest in many configuration patters according to what they choose. It does take more energy to be displayed as a full body apparition than being a ball of light or an vapor of energy.

No one understands the science behind the "Shadow People". Consider a shadow passing across the wall in front of you. You see a human shaped shoulders and head, perhaps arms moving across the wall. If you are a fundamentalist, you call this dark form a demon. However, if you have an open mind, you would say, "WOW" and attempt to understand what was happening.

We must understand that in our Western culture, the bad guys wear black hats and the good guys wear white hats. Therefore, anything black is considered evil and demonic and anything white is considered okay. However, in science, we consider that perhaps the anomaly represents a spirit whose body is composed of spirit matter that is not visible to the human eyes.

Light will not pass through this spirit matter because it is still too dense. The light is blocked by the spirit matter and is casting a shadow onto the wall. The shadow is not alive, but the spirit whose shadow is being cast. This concept has been proved time and gain by photographic images showing shadows being cast by orbs and vortices.

We cannot see x-rays, gamma rays and all of those particles beyond our human visual spectrum, yet they exist. Sometimes we feel that we must see something in order to believe it exist. While this is true in many areas, it is not true when dealing with the electromagnetic spectrum, including those frequencies that exist beyond our human vision range.

We cannot see or hear in the spectrum that dogs are capable of doing. I do not recall people claiming to be able to hear dog whistles, for example, yet dogs can hear it. We accept this as normal and do claim dogs are demonic.

Some have proclaimed the Shadow People to be evil or demonic, this reeks of fundamentalism at its worst. The term "Shadow People" is relatively new and is being used to promote fear and doom. We fear what we do not understand and therefore we try to destroy what we fear.

This age old philosophy was employed against the Native Americans as European settlers arrived to condemn the Indians because they were not Christians and force them from their lands as the settlers advanced West. This was the philosophy of the Mother Church as she promoted Crusades to expand her power base and financial interest in Europe.

We have been teaching that "Shadow People" are just another configuration pattern that the spirits of the dead may display, according to their choice. We have documented this pattern with photos and with video recordings. Those seeking demons must look in new areas as the "Shadow People" do not qualify.


The shadow people at Waverly Hills seem to congregate and are commonly seen next to room 423. They do move about in curiousity. I saw them many times while making my security rounds. Sometimes the room will glow different shades of color. Usually a bluish or greenish, even orange. Jon, Ron, and myself even had experiences with the orange light on separate occasions out in the solarium on the 4th floor.

1906* Waverly Hills Sanatorium was created by an act of the legislature.
1907* The first tuberculosis dispensary was opened.
1910* Waverly Hills Sanatorium, (original hospital) was opened with a capacity of 40 patients.
1913* The open-air school for undernourished and pre-tubercular children was opened.
1923* Started health program in public and parochial schools.* Sanatorium was granted additional accommodations as the hospital had outgrown the original buildings. $1,000,000bond issued.
1926* The present commodious buildings were completed in August with the new capacity of 435 beds. This building was erected at a cost of $3,625 a bed.* Nov. 1st - 8th, 1926 -Dr. C. H. Harris, City Health Officer, issued a proclamation, asking the people of Louisville to join the Louisville TB Association in observing “Open Window Week,”.* The 5 story, 435-bed building was formally dedicated.
1928* Oct. 31, 1928, Waverly Halloween Party -King - James Abraham (Rex) LileQueen - Juanita (Regina) Powers Jester (Appointed by the King & Queen) - Abe Netter
1929* Oct. 24, 1929 - Only residents of Louisville & Jefferson County were admitted to the Waverly Hills Sanatorium in the future treatment of TB. Dr. O. O. Miller, superintendent of the institution, a conference with A. H. Bowman, made announcement.* Dec. 12, 1929 - The land of Waverly Hills Sanatorium was increased by 159.52 acres when the board purchased for $5,000 from I. Sidney Jenkins the farm of the Hoertz estate. The board made the purchase because of the advantageous price.
1932* May 1st, Waverly Hills Sanatorium had a total of 480 patients. Between 75 and 100 applicants were on the waiting list. Kentucky Death Rate Soars.
1942* A nurse at Waverly received a monthly wage of $71.50 included meals, laundering, and uniforms.* A janitor, one of the unskilled workers not included in the proposed merit system, got $85 a month,* The telephone operators got $80 a month and worked 8 hour days, 7 days a week, with 1 day off per-month.
1955* Dec. 11, - Waverly Hills spends about $5.19 a day per-patient.
1961* Waverly Hills Sanatorium was closed as a TB hospital in June 1961.
1962* October - Woodhaven Geriatric Center / Woodhaven Medical Services was opened.
1980* July 25 - Woodhaven Medical Services was court ordered to close due to improper patient care.
1996 *Seavers sells Waverly and surrounding property to Bob Alberhasky.
1997-1998 Abandoned\* (Date Unconfirmed) 1998 - Waverly is considered for demolition as Bob Alberhasky seeks funding for the erection of a 150 ft. tall statue of Jesus Christ and an adjoining Christian meditation center. The project was later abandoned due to the lack of funding.
1999* October 28th & 29th "The Awakening of Waverly Manor" - The Lobby, 1st floor, and east wing reopened for tours, Halloween party, & concert from local bands. Psychic Dr. Peter Moscow conducted
2001* Charles & Tina Mattingly purchase 29 acre property from Bob Alberhasky. * July 19th,- "Fox's Scariest Places On Earth," films an episode on location at Waverly.* Halloween - Waverly is reopened again for tours & a haunted hospital attraction. Proceeds went to begin renovations of the sanatorium.
2002* Renovation of the laundry building starts with the roof.* Halloween - Waverly is reopened again for tours & a haunted hospital attraction. Proceeds went to renovations of the Waverly building & property.
2003* Renovation of the laundry building continues.* September - Building gets an upgrade for the haunted hospital attraction. Sprinkler system is installed and safety provisions are added to provide for a safe & fun attraction. * Halloween - Waverly is reopened again for tours & a haunted hospital attraction. Proceeds go to renovation of the Waverly building & property.
2004* Renovation of the laundry building continues.* Another upgrade to the building... windows have started to be replaced.* The movie "DEATH TUNNEL“ was filmed on location at Waverly Hills Sanatorium. Story is based on local Legends, lore, & haunting..* The documentary "SPOOKED" also filmed at Waverly by the same production company. The documentary explores local legends, lore, history, and haunting. Due to be released.* Halloween - Waverly is reopened again for tours & a haunted hospital attraction. Proceeds go to renovation of the Waverly building & property.

Used with permission. Roy Muir /Waverly Hills Historian (featured in SPOOKED) http://whsmemorial.tripod.com/id28.html

E-rays (from German Erdestrahlen, earth-rays) are believed to originate within earth and penetrate the crust to form invisible square lattices. Local circumstances such as underground streams, rock crevices, mineral ores, etc. also cause fields to radiate from the ground. These fields are believed to affect health, animal behavior, 'human auras', plant growth, and many other things. In addition, the fields can easily be detected by the use of the dowsing rod, and, to this day, by the dowsing rod only"

Found here: http://www.lysator.liu.se/~rasmus/skepticism/dowsing.html

E-rays are something currently new to science, as far as I can tell, and are a bit of a mystery. However, they are one of the more scientific theories that revolve around dowsing rods & how they work. If they can pick up on energy, and these e-rays bounce off of the surface differently when coming into contact with water, and also change in accordance to the amount, speed, or depth of the water...this means that by the time the e-rays penetrate the surface of the earth to where the dowsing rods can detect them, they will have been affected by the underground obstacles enough to the point where the way they have changed can tell you what is below the surface & how deep/fast it goes, etc. Because dowsing rods can pick up on energy, they will react to the e-rays, and the way they react is how you determine what you've found.

Generally speaking, the stronger the EM field, the more the rods will cross. At the strongest point they may cross over each other as far as possible. This is why they don't cross until you've entered a field of energy. The field is strong enough that it begins to pull the metal rods closer to one another until they cross. Once they cross, you are in an EM field. If you've ever used rods you'll notice that if they start to cross, and you continue in the direction of the center of that field, then they will continue to cross further along the length of the rod. I'm assuming that this is because once they have crossed, that point of crossing is directly over the center of the EM field.

Now, with the wooden "Y" dowsing rods this works differently. You have one hand (palm up) on each branch of the Y, and you create tension by pushing the branches out as you hold them. Now if you can imagine this situation, you'll realize that it's probably difficult to keep the branch from wobbling. However, once you've gotten used to holding it steady with the tension you're putting on it, you'll find it easier to use. If you are able to hold it steady with the tension, then you can probably imagine that it take quite a bit of concentration to do so. With this in mind, lets say you are holding it steady, but you begin to enter a field where the e-rays are slowly becomming more prominent. Because the e-rays bounce off of the more solid obstacles underneath the surface, you can imagine that they would also bounce off of the underside of your branch. This is what causes the branch to wobble; the stronger the wobble, the the higher the number or speed of the e-rays there are penetrating the earth's surface. Now you can imagine that with all the effort you've made to keep it steady that you would feel the slightest wobble. I think the reason this style is so effective is because of the way you hold the branch while putting tension on it; it makes it very unstable, but once you've learned to keep it stable you will feel the slightest movements it makes.

E-rays are like X-rays (they're everywhere! lol); we still don't know exactly what they are, but we somehow managed to find them & eventually learned to use them to our advantage through trial & error. We eventually realized that concentrated amounts of X-rays were bad & we found out that lead could prevent penetration. We still don't know what X-rays actually are, or what causes them, but they've been here all along. It's the same thing with E-rays, aside from the fact that they've been pretty much ignored by science thus far.

Then there's the use of dowsing rods for divining, but I've come to learn that when you program the rods for any form of divining, the answers you get are really coming from within yourself. Whether it simply answers coming forward from your subconscious, or you using your mind to tap into your abilities to get answers (even if you don't realize it); things like intuition, etc. The divination aspect is really just the person tapping into other areas of their mind that will translate the correct answer into the corrosponding muscle twitches that will cause the tool to give you the correct answer in accordance with your programming of it. Basically you program your mind to twitch certain muscles to move the tool a certain was for yes/no, and when it finds the answer (in old memories/esp/intuition/whatever) it translates it back to muscle twitches to move the tool.


More on Dowsing Rods can be found at: www.sdanet.org/atissue/ books/dowsing/d02a.htm

Death Tunnel News Blog: TRUTH OR SCARE-EXPLORE THE FIVE FLOORS

SPOOKED - Fearful Feature... State Hospital and THE SHINING Overlook Hotel combined, the Waverly Hills sanitarium was so creepy that the filmmakers got SPOOKED.

Waverly Hills Sanatorium & SPOOKED featured on thousands of web sites. Below are a sample few. ( paste into your browser)

WHS Tours (Year Round Tours) http://whsron46.tripod.com/id43.html

Waverly Hills Memorial Site http://whsmemorial.tripod.com/

Waverly Hills Haunted House http://www.hauntedhouse.com/search/Haunted_Attraction_Directory/_USA_,040All_50_States,041/Kentucky/1393.html

Waverly deemed Kentucky's most paranormally active site http://www.louisvillecardinal.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/10/28/3f9e1f9096040

Waverly Hills local curiosity http://www.louisvillecardinal.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/10/21/3f94b487286b5
Haunted Memories http://www.uer.ca/forum_showthread.asp?fid=3&threadid=18040

Wikipedia http://www.answers.com/topic/waverly-hills-sanatorium

Ghost Hunters- Paranormal Researchhttp://ghostsagogo.com/waverly.html

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2005509260374

http://www.graveaddiction.com/waverlyh.html

http://www.ghostlytalk.com/displayarticle819.html

http://www.underworldtales.com/waverly.htm

http://www.spookhunters.com/spookhunt/waverly/hunt.php

http://www.paratexas.com/waverly.htm

http://www.courier-journal.com/reweb/community/placetime/southend-waverly.html

http://www.quadrangleonline.com/media/paper528/news/2005/01/28/WhatDoYouWantToBe/Lights.Camera.Scream-863594.shtml

Halloween Ticket

Death Tunnell's Christopher Saint Exclusive Interview: http://www.horror-movies.ca/horror_3984.html

Fed By : Meh, Wednesday Dec,31, Via: Source
Filed Under : Death Tunnell, Horror Interviews,

We had a chance to talk to Christopher Saint about his upcoming film "Death Tunnell" which is easily one of the most creepiest flicks we have heard about in awhile. So lets not waste time on introductions and jump right into the interview.

I just watched the trailer and I must say the movie looks fantastic. I have to say I have never been on my toes for an indie movie, but this one looks amazing. What was the film shot on because, it looks like 35-mm?

Thank you, everyone took great pride in the making of this epic horror film, they literally worked themselves to death. We shot twenty-one days solid in an actual sanatorium in Kentucky that has been abandoned for many years. After we arrived, they locked the gates behind us. No one checks in, no one checks out. The cast, crew and the Spooked. Locals lived and breathed the real horror story that took place in this five story haunted hospital.

Our intense and real FEAR brought this supernatural story and Sanatorium back to life! The film was shot on a customized tweaked HI-DEF 24P HD SONY CINE-ALTA camera rig, similar to Robert Rodriguez’s set up on, SIN CITY.

35-mm Panavision prime lenses with on-set paint boxes; over 80K of lighting were used to immortalize this monster of a building. We were armed and ready to shoot anything that moved. European Cinematographers, PHILIP ADRIAN BOOTH, ROBERTO CORREA and DP, MARCEL CABRERA along with the production design and the ART department, greatly influenced the film and helped to capture the true-grit you see on film.

What kind of movies are you watching? Judging from the trailer it looks like you guys have a taste for Asian cinema.

We are both very influenced by European and Asian films of the seventies as well as Salvador Dali, dark comic books and web cam girls.

What was the budget for this film?

Let's put it this way, it looks like it was made for 4 times the amount we spent. We went over the initial estimated budget, so hmmmmm let me think… When we got there we couldn’t leave, everyone felt strangely attached to this real life sanatorium.

It was important to us that we capture the truth; the cold and deathly feel that runs through your body if you dare walk down the long prison like halls. We couldn’t get enough of it. There was no way we were leaving till we shot the real Death Tunnel. Our Executive Producer Corky Taylor was an angel. He wanted us to do it right. Staying there cost us as we went over budget, but it was worth it; after all, there is only going to be one, “DEATH TUNNEL‿.

Where did you come up with the idea for this film?

Originally Co-Producer SHANE DAX TAYLOR (a native of Kentucky) had the idea. As a teen he had been dared to spend a night in the abandoned sanitarium. There were rumors of murders, missing people and of the course the fact that it was haunted by five ghosts. Shane brought the concept to Co-Producer CHRISTOPHER SAINT BOOTH and Director PHILIP ADRIAN BOOTH. (Aka the BOOTH BROTHERS). We all flew to Kentucky to check it out. It was unbelievable. It was like waking up from the scariest nightmare you’ve ever had and finding out it was real.

When we did our location scout and research there we found that the disease and devastation that took place was real. When we crawled back to Los Angeles, we decided to write a script that would be more than just frightening and full of raw fear. We wanted to include the emotional journey of the patients that were sent there to die. This place has a lot of misery and sadness within it’s walls; a tragic history. These elements were strong motives for the sanitarium to be haunted in the first place. The history of the sanitarium contains a sick truth and we were able to bring art to death that took place there. We strove to create a masterpiece of horror.

How did you get access to the Sanitarium?

Co-producer, Taylor contacted the owners and we all hit it if off instantly, funky hat, fur coats and all. We were not sure who scared whom more. Us, the rock and roll filmmakers or them the obsessed townsfolk that guarded this destroyed Sanitarium.


Did anything unusual happen while you guys were filming?

Many strange things happened; fully charged camera batteries were dead instantly; doors closed by themselves; we heard voices in the distance that didn’t belong to us, (the sound-man just loved that). Sounds that were not present in the shoot showed up on the sound masters when we began to edit the film and they were loud yet showed no presence or waveform of being there. The Director saw the ghost of a little girl on the third floor run through the hallway, the Producers saw SHADOW PEOPLE, ORBS and a terrifying entity in the DEATH TUNNEL, which we were able to capture with photos.

We were constantly walking through strange cold spots in the rooms. Sometimes we felt a spine tingling breeze but when would look outside the trees were still.

We even had a few people quit because they were too spooked to continue working in the Sanitarium.

I heard that the sanitarium might be torn down. Is it still there?

Yes, though most all of America’s Sanitariums have been marked for demolition or have been demolished. This beautiful one still stands, though new condo suburbs are being built all around it. Hope they enjoy their view, “a tomb with a view‿.


I’ve heard a sweet rumor that Lions Gate might be picking up the rights to “Death Tunnel‿. Is this true?

Yeah, they’re great, though many studios have offered distribution for the film to date. Currently we’re waiting to see who gives us the best plan for a US release and are awaiting contracts.

I’ve also heard that Paramount is involved in distributing this film to the European market, is it true and how are things going on that end?

We sold all major foreign rights in the first two days at AFM, We sold Japan in 5 minutes, and they wanted all rights. Everyone there treated us like rock stars. They told is we had an incredible horror picture, in the vein of Francis Ford Coppola’s epic, “Dracula‿.

I’ve read that during the shooting of this film that actual poltergeist (EVP’s) were recorded as well as shadowy figures and menacing faces of the past. Can you give us some more detail about what was actually recorded, as well as the shadowy figures? Also, what was your reaction when you first discovered this?

Three words, “OH MY GOD!‿ Our hearts dropped to the floor, did you hear that, rewinding the tape, and we played them over and over again. Sounds of screaming, breathing, voices mocking us, almost guiding us to find some hidden truth.

We were obviously there for a reason.


Will you be posting any of the actual EVP recordings or pictures on the films official site?

They have been left in the film’s final edit and are also in the opening titles. A lot of them are also posted and documented on many different paranormal web sites. We have been asked to speak at the International Ghost Convention in September on the haunted old cruise ship, the “Queen Mary‿. That should be interesting.

Death Tunnel is “Based on a true story about the haunting of the Waverly Hills Sanitarium.‿ For our readers, what is that story?

We can’t reveal the whole story because the plot line unveils it within the movie. But the film is based on the actual tragedies and sightings of five ghosts within the doomed walls of this diseased sanitarium built in 1910. An upscale college initiation goes bad and strands five girls in this haunted hospital.

Within the five floors these girls encounter the five ghosts of it’s tortured past. As the girls, one by one become infected; we soon uncover the shocking link that binds them. A 500-foot underground body chute, built to remove the dead bodies of its patients may be the only way out; they call this the Death Tunnel. Creepy but TRUE!


What can you tell us about the “Women of Death Tunnel‿ or as they are also known as “The 5 Girls.‿ ? On the official site, each of their picture spells out the word “DEATH‿ is this a foreshadowing of things to come?

Each girl has something hidden in their past lives that links them to this sick place, it wasn’t a coincidence they were all picked to spend the night in the “Scariest Place On Earth‿. The five girls awaken on the five separate floors of this five-story sanitarium.

They cannot see, for they have been bound in hoods. Once the hoods are removed, they are free to try and find their way out, though they are watched closely by cameras to make sure there is no cheating. They have only five hours to find their way out.

The girls are left dirty, cold and afraid clad only in retro nighties with the first letter of their name painted on the front of the nightie in blood. D is DEVON, E is ELIZABETH, and A is ASHLEY, T is TORI, H is for Heather.

What’s the gore level and scare factor for this film?

We went for the raw fear factor. The blood is the true color of infected blood, and there is plenty of it. The death scenes and the Body Collector Creature is original and twisted. I can see the creature as a horror-action toy I would want for Christmas.

Tell us about the “Body Chute‿ and how it was filming the climatic scene for Death Tunnel?

We spent 18 hours straight in that tunnel, no one could breathe, mutiny was in the air, we lost some of our crew, and they were scared beyond imagination. It was raining, three feet of mud, madness and mayhem.


The new “preview art‿ you just sent us looks really great. Can you tell us a little bit more on what looks to be the main antagonist in this film?

You have got to remember that our favorite film is Kubrick’s “ A Clockwork Orange‿. Death Tunnel plays with your head. This film is complete madness, it is not a teen- slasher film, or a boob fest, though it has its erotic scenes; it’s get right to the point in the jump scare factor.

The film colorizations are incredible to look at, though you may find yourself turning away due to the intense subject matters. This an “A‿ film in which the TRUE star is the Sanitarium and its tragic past.

To go along with the “5 Girls‿, the official site also mentions “5 Floors‿ and “5 Ghosts‿ Can you tell us a little about each?

There are Five Floors to the Sanitarium, Each one has it’s own creepy personality, and you can deeply feel it as you walk through this ex-quarantined structure. For example the Fourth Floor is the operating room, and the Fifth Floor is for the insane TB victims; with the morgue and draining room in the basement, where they would slit you open and drain all your infected blood out and hang you there to dry.

Each girl in stranded on a separate floor except the fifth floor, this is part of the mystery in the film. They have five hours to escape. The Five ghosts are based on real paranormal characters that locals have sighted. All the legends behind each character are true. For instance, the Dead Nurse had hung herself and swung in Room 502 for 12 hours in front of the patients before the shift change and the little girl with no eyes who plays ball on the third floor, for example. Really creep.

The imagery used to create the Death Tunnel site is really creepy and somewhat disturbing. Can you give us some insight into them?

Why thank you, disturbing is good! We had just come back from the SANITARIUM, and we felt somewhat affected or (infected)? For, as anyone that has been there can tell you, you can never forget the place when you leave. We used old real stills for the layout.

The voices come from the actual townsfolk; the locals that dared to spend the night there. The older man’s voice you hear had worked there as a gurney body pusher. He was incredible, recently he passed away, and we will miss him may he rest in peace.

The website represents the eerie allure and the initial creepiness. The movie expands on this taking us into a journey of morbid curiosity, revealing a humanistic face to face with death and the last hopes of a dying incurable!

Tell us about “Spooked‿: The Ghost of Waverly Hill Sanitarium Documentary DVD?

SPOOKED is a true documentary, a film journal of us, the filmmakers, making a horror movie in the real haunted sanitarium with real ghosts, real people and real terror. You can see and hear everything we have been talking about for yourself. Spooked is in post-production with a release date of October. You can check it out at: www.spooked.org.

Can we expect a SE DVD 2 Disc release of Death Tunnel, with the documentary included? Now that would be a sweet package.

Yes, it would be, you never know though, we have had extreme interest from distributors, and cable TV etc, for the exclusive story. It would be cool to share all this crazy messed up stuff with the world, we have to wait and see who will let us.


After “Death Tunnel‿, what’s next? What other projects can we look forward to?

First we need a little sleep! We have had many offers by the studios for our next film but we need to think that through. Sometimes studio film can lose the reality, impact and imagination. We are all about real emotion with no boundaries. To use a quote from Death Tunnel, “You make me sick, NO…. I make you sick!‿

For your last question, is there anything else you would like to add about the film or say to the readers of Horror-Movies.ca?

We would like to dedicate the film to the lost souls of the Waverly Hills Sanitarium, May you find your way home.


"An upscale college initiation party strands five girls in the "Scariest Place in the World". Within the five floors of an abandoned hospital built in 1910, haunted by five ghosts of it's tortured past.

As the girls, one by one become victims of it's tragic history, they soon uncover a shocking link they all may have to it's past. A 500 foot underground body chute, built to remove the dead bodies of it's patients.

With each door opens up a new terror, and each corridor leads to unimaginable horror, the only way out is through the Death Tunnel."

By Horror Movies Canada

Waverly Hills Sanitorium as seen on "Scariest Places On Earth"

Imagine yourself choking. Not being able to get air in to your lungs because your throat is closing up inside from something unseen, congesting and constricting the tissues like invisible hands. Your chest feels like it’s ready to explode and your lungs feel like they are on fire. Finally, able to cough, clumps of bright red blood spew from your mouth as the inner walls of your lungs have started to disintegrate. The buzzing and dizziness that you feel in your head is from the constant fever you keep and made worse by the lack of oxygen going to your brain. Capillaries explode in your eyes due to the violent coughing spells and leave your eyes spotted with broken capillaries or a violent crimson red. Your skin has now turned a ghastly pasty white color because your body has stopped producing enough red blood cells to keep the pigment in your skin.
These graphic descriptions can only provide the modern reader with a hint of what millions suffered from in the early history of America -- the dreaded and deadly “white death” known as tuberculosis. The plague swept through the country for centuries, claiming entire families and sometimes entire towns. It was a terrifying and very contagious disease for which there was no cure.
In 1900, Louisville, Kentucky had the highest tuberculosis death rate in the country. This was due to the fact Louisville is such a low valley area and before development, was basically all swampland and perfect breeding ground for the Tuberculosis bacteria. As with many other towns and cities across the country, hospitals were needed to care for the sick. In 1910, a wooden, two-story hospital with 40 beds opened on one of the highest elevated hills in southern Jefferson County to try and contain this ravaging disease.
The Old Waverly Hills Hospital

Officials soon found that this small hospital was simply too small, as they were soon housing more than 130 cases of tuberculosis. Louisville needed a much larger facility and money began to be raised for its construction. Land was donated and $11 million was used to started construction on the new hospital in 1924.
The hospital, known as Waverly Hills, was opened in 1926 and was considered to be the most advanced tuberculosis hospital in the country. If a patient had any chance of surviving the disease, Waverly Hills was the place to come for treatment. Of course, treatment in those days was primitive at best, meaning that many simply came here to die. In those days, it was believed that the best cure for tuberculosis was plenty of nutritional food, plenty of rest and plenty of fresh air. Many patients came to Waverly and were actually cured and became well enough to once again enter society. For those not as fortunate, Waverly was the last place they ever saw. Records have been lost, but it is estimated that tens of thousands died at Waverly. At the height of the tuberculosis epidemic, it is reported that one patient an hour died.

Patients take in the sunlight on the open porches outside of the rooms.
(U of L Archives)The doctors and nurses volunteered their lives to try and find a cure for this disease. Many of them lived and died there with the patients. A number of different experiments were attempted in search for a cure. Some of these experiments may sound barbaric, or even pointless, by today’s standards, but others are now common practice. The lungs were exposed to ultraviolet light to try and stop the spread of the bacteria. This was done in early versions of “sun rooms”, using artificial light to mimic the effects of sunlight. Patients were also placed on the roof or on the open porches on the upper floor to take in air and sunlight. Keeping in mind that fresh air was thought to be a cure for the disease; the patients would often to be placed in front of the open windows in both summer and winter. Photographs exist that show many of the dying literally covered in snow but still placed outside in hopes that their lungs would expand in the clean, country air.

Many of the treatments were much harsher -- and much bloodier. Balloons were surgically implanted into the lungs and then filled with air to try and expand them more, often with disastrous results. Hydrotherapy often caused pneumonia. But some experiments were useful and these procedures are still used today. Pneumothorax was a procedure that consisted of deflating the infected area of the lung for a period of time and then letting it heal. Thoracoplasty was a very invasive surgical procedure where the chest of the patient was opened and then cords of muscle and up to seven ribs were removed. The opening was then closed up with the idea that the lungs would then be free to expand further and allow more oxygen into the lungs. This bloody procedure was only attempted as a last resort because fewer than 5% of the patients ever survived it.
(Left) A staged display of the Pneumothorax procedure -- without all of the blood
(Right) Patients making the best of life at Waverly Hills
(U of L Archive Photos)

In many cases, entire families came to live at Waverly Hills. Some were cured but many others left the hospital through what was called the “body chute”. This was a tunnel that led from the hospital to the railroad tracks at the bottom of the hill. It consisted of a motorized rail and cable system where the bodies were placed and lowered down on one side of the tunnel and steps led up and down on the other. A small steam plant on the property heated the tunnel, as well as the hospital and provided warmth for the maintenance workers that lived off the property. This was their entrance and exit for work. The tunnel was totally enclosed from the Morgue wing of the hospital. The purpose of this was so that the patients couldn’t see how many bodies were leaving the hospital. It was believed this would negatively affect their morale as the doctors discovered early on that the mental health of the patients was just as important as their physical health.
Because of the procedures and experiments that were performed at Waverly Hills and other hospitals around the country, tuberculosis was declining worldwide by the late 1930’s. It wasn’t until 1943 though that a young graduate student at Rutgers University by the name of Albert Schatz discovered Streptomycin, the first real medicine against the disease. By the mid 1950’s, tuberculosis had been largely eradicated because of this antibiotic. In 1961, Waverly Hills Sanatorium was closed because there was no longer a need for a tuberculosis facility. The buildings were reopened in 1962 as Woodhaven Geriatrics Sanitarium.
There have been many tales of patient mistreatment and unusual experiments that have filtered down from the hill over the years. Some have been proven false, while others unfortunately have turned out to be true. Electroshock therapy was widely used, although it was considered to be a very effective treatment in those days. Even today, it has been used with great results but now, as it was then, tragic losses sometimes occurred. During the 1960’s and 1970’s, a time of budget cuts for facilities of this type, there were many well documented cases of horrible conditions and unusual treatments at mental institutions all across the country. Apparently Woodhaven was no different because the state of Kentucky closed it down in 1982 due to patient abuse. The buildings, contents and land were auctioned off and the doors were locked for good.
The building and land changed hands several times over the next 18 years. The second owner of the property wanted to tear all the buildings down to construct the world’s largest statue of Jesus Christ. He succeeded in demolishing all of the buildings except for the main hospital and was only stopped by an injunction because the building is on the National Historic Register’s “endangered” list. He then decided that if he couldn’t legally tear it down then he would do everything in his power to get it condemned. He let vandals come into the building and tear it up. After breaking windows, porcelain sinks, toilets and doors, they began spraying graffiti on every available wall. The owner then dug around the foundation, in some places as deep as 30 feet, to try and make the foundation crack. If this happened, then he believed he could get the building condemned and would be able to legally tear it down. Fortunately, the structure refused to give way and his efforts failed. The area where his extensive digging took place can still currently be seen.
By 2001, this once regal and majestic hospital had been ravaged by time, the elements and vandals and was a shell of its former self. Waverly Hills had now become every town’s “haunted house”. Vagrants took to living here and kids broke in for the rush of finding a “ghost” or just to get high. It started to get the reputation of being haunted and rumors had it that satanic rituals were taking place within its walls. There were tales of a little girl running up and down the third floor solarium playing hide and seek with trespassers, of a little boy playing with his leather ball, of rooms lighting up as if there was still power to the building, doors slamming, disembodied voices, a hearse driving up and dropping off coffins and an old woman running from the front door with her wrists bleeding screaming “help me, somebody save me!” The years went by and the owner decided to sell the property to the new owners, who took possession in 2001.
In that same year, the Louisville Ghost Hunters Society was asked to come to Waverly Hills to find the “hot spots” for Triage Entertainment, who were producing a segment of Fox Television’s “Worlds Scariest Places”. LGHS Vice President Jay Gravatte, founder Keith Age and several other members arrived in the early evening. Jay would be featured on the show as the Waverly “historian” and his task would be to guide the girls through the building.
Keith Age:
It had been several years since I had actually been inside the old hospital and once we entered, we started to see the extent of the damage that time and vandals had done to this building. Eighteen years of trash, dust and dirt had collected in the hallways from where the windows had been broken out. Debris and trash was two to three feet deep in some places. The floor was like walking over hills.
We decided to explore the morgue wing first. As we descended down this almost totally pitch black hallway, my electromagnetic field meter started clicking and within moments was jumping up the scale. One of the main pieces of equipment that is used in ghost detection is an electro-magnetic field meter, or EMF meter. It is believed that ghosts are a form of energy and that when they present they disrupt the natural electro-magnetic fields in their vicinity. EMF meters detect these disturbances, and while it is not solid proof of the presence of a ghost, it is a good indicator. The meter should not have gone off in the building unless something magnetic was encountered as there had been no electricity provided to the top of the hill since the middle 1980’s. The poles had been knocked down at that time and the wires all removed. Strangely, the meter continued to react to something though -- and whatever it was, it was moving.
We followed the signal to a small room. A cinder block wall partitioned off half the room. This wall was built so that you could see through to the adjoining room. On the far side of it, we could see a lot of graffiti on the walls and by the door there was a box with light bulb sockets with some writing on it. As I got to the center of the room, the meter spiked to the top of the scale and squealed to a pitch that I had never heard it make before. The meter pegged all the way over and it made an audible noise like glass breaking and the needle froze at the highest position. It stopped squealing and actually started to get warm in my hand. The meter then got so hot that solder actually melted on the circuit board and started to drip out of the meter.
I pulled the battery out to try and stop it from doing even more damage and that’s when we noticed it was getting colder in the room. This was a hot summer’s evening and more than 80 degrees and very humid outside. Naturally, this part of the building would be cooler since there was hardly any light coming in and the thick concrete walls and marble floor would diffuse the heat from outside but not as cool as it started to become. The temperature now dropped from 74 to 52 degrees. The chill soon faded and we left the building to get another meter and to consult the floor plans that we had for the place. I was a little surprised to discover that the chamber had been Woodhaven’s electroshock therapy room.
After going back into the building, we returned to the room and examined it more closely. The room that had been used as the observation area had a bathroom leading off from the back of it and also had a narrow entrance to the room next door. But the most interesting aspect of the room was the electrical panel with light bulb sockets on it. This panel had once been used to show how much current was being sent to the patient.
There was no further activity with the meters or unusual temperature changes and so we continued down the hall. As we walked, we noticed that the far end wall looked as if it was getting closer to us. Puzzled, we stared and tried to figure out how this could be happening. There was no denying it though -- it was getting closer. Then, we began to hear sounds like scratching and scraping. It came closer and when it was no more than 20 feet away, we realized what was happening. No one had been down this part of the corridor in years and we had just disturbed a huge colony of bats. It looked just like a dark wall as it came down the passageway toward us! I was in the lead and ducked down, as did the person in front of me. Others ducked into a side room until the bats passed and luckily, no one was injured or hurt, including the bats.
At the end of the hall, we came to a room on our left that had a thick metal door, the kind that you often see on freezers. Upon entering the room, we saw that it was approximately 15 feet deep, 15 feet wide and 20 feet from floor to ceiling. There were 8 poles that were connected to the ceiling from the floor and from these poles were four more that were connected to the walls crossways. There was a drain on the right side of the floor. We later learned that this was what was called “the draining room.” During the heyday of the tuberculosis hospital, people were dying so quickly that bodies had to be hurriedly removed from the hill to make room for other victims. The problem was that the people of Jefferson County did not want the infected bodies coming down carrying disease. There was no cemetery at Waverly, so the bodies couldn’t be buried. The officials were forced to authorize the best remedy they could. The last stop for the dead inside of the hospital would be the “draining room”. The corpses would be hung from the poles in the room and then slit from sternum to groin so that all of their bodily fluids would drain out. Once this was completed, the bodies were taken down, placed on the gurney and then transported down the body chute. Later on, as tuberculosis became less threatening in the 1930’s, the room was used as a smokehouse to cure the meat that was raised and slaughtered on the grounds.
From here, we went upstairs to the cafeteria and kitchen. One of the “legends” of Waverly tells of a man that can be seen walking around in a white coat here and smell of food cooking that comes wafting from the kitchen. What we found wasn’t spirits but still pretty shocking. The second floor of this wing was so damaged by vandals and the elements that it was utterly devastated. The ceiling was collapsing in some areas of the hall and had fallen down in other areas. The doors to the kitchen had been knocked down and were lying in the hallway. These doors provided walkways over puddles of water, mud and debris. The murky pools had been formed by the leaking roof. The kitchen was in shambles and it looked as if a bomb had exploded in here. There was only one gigantic oven left. Tables that had been built into the walls were broken and all of the windows had been shattered. Some of the window casings were so deteriorated that they were falling out of their frames. The ceiling was simply no longer there. It had become just a mess of wires, pipes and rotted tile panels.
The cafeteria hadn’t fared well either. A huge mural that had once graced the walls had been splashed with paint. The ceiling was caving in and in the middle of the floor was a huge radiator that had been ripped out of its moorings and left there. But it was after our initial inspection that we heard several footsteps around us, the sound of a door closing and the smell of fresh baked bread in the air. There was no logical explanation for these things. They simply happened and several of us were there to witness them.
We soon abandoned the area for the front entrance with only one further incident. It would not be until our film was developed that I discovered that something very unusual had happened at that moment. As we had walked back down the hallways, we passed a stairwell and my EMF meter suddenly went off. Several photos were taken and one of them shows what appears to be a light bulb at the landing of the stairs. There were no light bulbs left in Waverly at that time, no glass on the windows to reflect anything and had been no electrical service to the hill in more than 18 years. I simply couldn’t explain what turned out in the photograph -- any more than I could explain the other incidents that involved electricity and lights. There had long been stories of lights being seen in the windows at night and one time, a security guard actually reported what seemed to be a television playing in one of the rooms on the third floor. From the ground, he could see what appeared to be the distinct flicker of a television in a dark room. Going upstairs to investigate though, he found no lights or televisions of any kind.
The strange photo with what appears to be a light bulb over the landing

After this incident with the stairwell, we climbed to every floor in the building but encountered nothing else strange until we got to the fourth floor. The EMF meters again began to pick up unusual readings and we also recorded a number of temperature drops. This also faded away but we found other anomalies on the fifth floor of the hospital.
The fifth floor of Waverly consists of two nurses stations, a pantry (#501), linen room (#503), medicine room (#504) and two medium sized rooms on both sides of the nurse’s stations (#506 & #502). Room 502 has tales and rumors all its very own and is the place that every local curiosity-seeker has heard about and wants to explore. This is where (the legends say) people have jumped to their deaths, other have seen images moving in the windows and disembodied voices have been heard telling people to “get out”.

The exterior of room #502 - taken from
the roof area in 2002There is much in the way of speculation about this area but what is known is that mentally insane tuberculosis patients were housed on the fifth floor in these two rooms. Nurse’s stations 502 and 506 looked over these two rooms in 18 hour shifts. The patients had to go to a half door at these stations to get their food and medicine or to use the restroom, which was adjacent to the nurse’s station. In 1928, the head nurse in room 502 was found dead in this room. She had hanged herself from the light fixture in an apparent fit of depression. According to further research, she was 29 years-old at the time, unmarried and pregnant. It is unknown just how long she may have been left hanging in this room before her body was finally discovered. Her death was ruled a suicide by the county coroner’s office. And this was not the final tragedy to occur here…

In 1932, another nurse who worked in room 502 jumped from the balcony of the roof that leads from the room and was killed when she struck the ground several stories below. We have yet to find any records that indicate why she did this act. There are also no records, despite what the legends say, that anyone other than the above mentioned nurse was ever pushed or jumped from the roof of Waverly Hills.
When we got to the fifth floor that night, we were accompanied by one of the owners. We went into room 502 and almost immediately, the EMF meter reacted to something here. Even stranger, the temperature suddenly rose around us from 86 to 98 degrees. It continued to climb so high that we actually backed out of the room. The owner wanted to see what was happening and as they walked into the room, the meter continued to react but the temperature dropped suddenly down to 68 degrees. This lasted for just a few moments and then stopped. We searched the room to try and find anything that would have caused this to occur but could find nothing artificial or natural to explain it.
After inspecting the rest of the rooms on the roof, we went back downstairs to talk with the director from Triage and to explain where the “hotspots” in the place were located. Jay would be the one who would then deal with the participants in the show.
Jay Gravatte:
My job on that night was simple -- take five girls through Waverly Hills for the Fox’s “reality” series. My main duty was to explain to them some of the history and paranormal activity surrounding the abandoned hospital. Everything we encountered was to be recorded and broadcast as an episode of the show but what occurred that night was anything but simple.
It began on an unusually hot July day, as I arrived at Waverly Hills. I was introduced to the director of the show and he explained how he "wanted" me to do my tour and history lesson. I explained very early on that I did not want to be involved with a show that was going to be rigged. I was then informed that nothing was to be 'spooked up' whatsoever. At close to 8:00 p.m. I was finally introduced to the young ladies I was to play guide to. Before we had even entered the old hospital, the girls felt apprehensive. All they could see was this hulk of a building as it sat there like a conquered and battered ruin.
As we stood in front of the main entrance, I told them of an apparition that had often been seen in that location: a woman running out of the front door, her hands and legs in chains, spectral blood dripping from her wrist and ankles, crying and pleading for help, only to then dissipate into thin air. I led their eyes to a third story window, where a young girl of about seven or eight years old has been seen, and peering out from the windows. This set the mood for the night to come….
Finally we entered the building and I swung open the old main doors and led the girls inside. We spent several moments looking around the lobby where we stood. The girls, the three people from the production company, and I then entered a room directly adjacent to the main entrance. When the Sanatorium operated here, it was the medical director's office, but now it became the girls “safe room”. Chairs, food, and water were set up if the girls needed a break while filming or needed a place to retreat to if things became too much for them to bear. After unloading their sleeping bags, flashlights and other equipment, I proceeded to take them down the medical wing on the first floor. This meant a trip through the so-called “death wing” in which the morgue and autopsy room were located. I was then asked by the director to pull out one of the old trays from the freezer unit, in the autopsy bay. Unbeknownst to me, it had been rigged with a cable, to pull back in on itself. At that point, it didn't though. We then traveled down the hall and out the sliding door at the end to the body chute, the converted coal tunnel that was used to transport dead patients from the hospital to the crematorium located down the hill.
As we proceeded into and down the 485 foot tunnel, one of the girls finally succumbed to the eeriness of her surroundings. She was ready to give up. After a quick pep talk from the others, she decided to weather it out for awhile longer. We then reentered the hospital and headed up toward the second floor dining area. Keep in mind again that it was a hot July day with no wind whipping around us what so ever. I began telling the girls about "Ralph", a ghostly maintenance man who has been seen wearing a white, buttoned-down shirt and white pants. The girls and I begin walking down the corridor and as I am talking, one of them starts to see a red glow beginning to illuminate the entire end of the hallway.
Of course, the girls began screaming and proceeded to nearly run myself and the film crew down. I managed to calm them down and re-tell them about Ralph. At this point, you have to understand that Waverly is in horrible shape. As we are standing there discussing Ralph, a piece of the ceiling swings down and nearly decapitates a cameraman from Triage! Once again, the building was filled with the sound of screaming young women.
Finally, after escorting them back to the "safe room" for a break, I took them on an extremely brief tour of the third, fourth, and fifth floors. I explained about all of the legends associated with Waverly, from the apparition of the little girl on the third floor to the nurse that was hung in room 502 up on the fifth floor. I was then instructed to take them back down the medical wing on the first floor, and as we rounded the corner near Occupational therapy, which is adjacent to the morgue, one of the old heavy wooden doors slammed shut right in my face! At this point, I jumped back, I'll admit it. It takes a lot to unnerve me, but this did the trick. These doors are thick, and rusted on the hinges, and nearly immovable. Suddenly, something comes bouncing down the hallway at us, and old time bottle cap from a soda, it turns out. This made the girls finally break down and scramble back down the hallway to their safe room. Two of them could no longer deal with everything that was happening.
At this point, I'd been there for over five hours, which equals around seven minutes in television time. By this point, it was nearly 1:00 in the morning and the director decided that I was to leave the girls in the building “by themselves“, so to speak. That was fine with me and I gathered my equipment, along with the town girls who chose to leave. We said our goodbyes and walked right out the front door. Unfortunately, the crew caught me saying "I am so glad to be out of there" and it ended up in the show. Of course, I was -- I wanted to go home and take aspirin for the headache that had been brought on by the sounds of screaming -- but not for the reasons that it appeared in the final cut of the program. I walked away from this experience a little wiser on how the media interprets the paranormal when they are only looking for ratings.
I would later ask the girls what had occurred after my departure? This was months before I would see the final aired episode and they told me of noises that had followed them in the building, doors slamming, being touched and even observing things move on their own. This stuck a chord, because during the times that the investigative team of the Louisville Ghost Hunters Society has spent exploring Waverly Hills, we have had this type of activity happen with great frequency.
Troy Taylor:
One of the first questions that people ask me when they learn what I write about for a living is whether or not searching for real ghosts ever scares me. For a very long time, I assured them that I was never frightened during these outings to haunted places and for the most part this was true. My reply would have to change though after I experienced Waverly Hills for the first time.
I first heard about the old hospital from Keith about the time that he and the Louisville Ghost Hunter’s Society first got access to it. In fact, the meter that had been destroyed in the former electroshock therapy room had been purchased from my company and when I heard about what had happened to it, I asked Keith to return it to me. I then sent the meter to my distributor, who has been in business for more than a decade and is an expert on electromagnetic field meters, and asked him to look it over. He had never seen anything like the damage that had been done to the meter before -- and he had no explanation for what could have caused it.
The first time that I visited the hospital was in September 2002. I was in town for the first Mid-South Paranormal Convention and one of the places that I asked Keith 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 have long since abandoned the idea of going in expecting too much. This is likely why I was so surprised by what actually happened that night.
After meeting with the owners, Keith and I went inside and started our exploration of the building. Once we were away from the activity going on downstairs, the surroundings fell silent. The only thing that I heard in the dark building 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, the 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 gathered above the city.
During our excursion, I mentioned to Keith that there had been one floor that we had missed -- the fourth. He explained that this was the only floor in the building whose entrance was kept locked and he had waited to save it for last. I remembered then some of the stories that had been passed on to me about this floor. Many regarded it as the most active -- and the most frightening -- area of the former hospital.
The most unusual experience that I had heard about was when Keith was in one of the rooms here. He had been walking along the corridor of the fourth floor with an EMF detector and was followed by two members of his group with a video camera. He started to picking up readings with the meter and he was led onto one of the former treatment rooms. The intensity of the magnetic energy in the room continued to increase and the strongest readings seemed to be in the southeast corner of the room. Keith was standing in the corner, looking at the changes on the meter scale, when an empty plastic soda bottle came seemingly out of nowhere and struck him in the back. As he turned to see what had happened, an overhead fluorescent light fixture suddenly came loose from the ceiling with a loud crack. With one end of it still anchored to the ceiling, the other end swung loose and hit Keith in the side of the head. The long burned-out bulb that remained in the fixture shattered when it collided with Keith and showered him with glass. Before he even had time to react, he heard the sound of a brick scrape across the concrete floor. The noise came from the opposite corner of the room and when he looked over, he saw the brick moving across the floor towards him. With a lurch, it shot directly at him and as he scrambled to get out of the line of fire, it hit him in the small of the back. Needless to say, he quickly retreated from the room. The other investigators had not seen where the brick or the soda bottle had come from, but they had clearly heard the brick move and had seen both objects strike Keith. This is still regarded as one of the most chilling events to occur in the building.
It would not be the only time that Keith would see an object move in the building though. I was present on one other occasion, along with a tour attendee and authors Alan Brown and Dave Goodwin. In September 2003, I returned to Louisville for another conference and that night, we took a group tour of the old hospital. As we were climbing the stairs and going past the fourth floor landing, the group of us at the front of the line clearly saw the heavy metal door open up a few inches and then slam shut under its own power. Keith was just a few feet away from it at the time and he jumped in surprise. No one had been near the door and at the time, the floor was still locked so there was no way that anyone could have gotten on it to manipulate the door.
A year earlier though, 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.

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 the floors. I investigated on my own and determined that he was correct --- there was no one walking around on that part of the fourth floor.
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 1900’s, 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’s, 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! 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.
As of this writing, 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.

FROM: http://www.greatestjournal.com/community/the_unknown_/45309.html

The Hospital on the Hill

Would you believe the unusual treatments tuberculosis patients endured in the early Twentieth century? From operations with no anesthetics to electroshock therapy, Waverly Hills Tuberculosis Sanatorium patients suffered greatly at the majestic hospital. For the patients, it was a living hell.

Tuberculosis (known as TB,) was one of the worst diseases known to man. Until the early 1960's, TB was the number one cause of death in the United States. In 1900, Louisville, Kentucky had the highest TB death rate in the country, due to its location in a low-lying, swamp-like area, which was the perfect environment for the germs that caused TB to grow.
In 1910 the Governor of Kentucky authorized the building of an isolated TB sanatorium in the hills outside Louisville. Later that year a wooden, two-story, Tutor styled building was opened to with the capacity to house 30 TB patients. It was built on one of the highest hills in the area if Louisville. There was a law passed that stated no residential or commercial buildings could be built within a half-mile of the hospital to prevent the spread of disease.

In 1912 the administration of the hospital soon realized that the hospital was severely overcrowded with over 100 patients. After applying for a grant from the US Government, the officials of the hospital received an $11 million grant for the construction of a larger 400 patient building and a complex of other buildings around it to serve as storage or dormitories for the doctors and nurses.

Officials bought another 129 acres if land directly across from the older hospital for the new hospital. Construction on the new hospital began in 1924. The new building complex was designed to be a self-contained town with its own power plant, a self-contained water treatment system, a laundry facility, a dormitory for the doctors and nurses, small cottages around the larger building for the administration and people who stayed while visiting patients, and its very own sewer system. The new hospital opened in 1926 and was considered to be the most advanced TB hospital in the nation. If a patient had any chance of surviving the disease, the new hospital, known as Waverly Hills, was the place to go.

Treatments in the early twentieth century were primitive at best, which meant Waverly Hills was a place to send people to die. The main treatment of TB was nutritious food and fresh air, which would allow more air into the lungs to heal. For many this didn’t help, so the patients were given a procedure called a Thoracoplasty, where the chest of the patient was opened and cords of muscle and up to seven ribs were removed. Doctors believed this would allow the lungs to expand further to allow more oxygen into the lungs. This procedure was very bloody, and less than five percent of people who got the procedure survived it. Sometimes, balloons would be implanted in the lungs to allow them to expand further. Other treatments including a procedure called a Pneumothorax, in which the infected area of the lung was deflated to allow it to heal, were considered barbaric at the time, which is a complete oxymoron considering the surgical removal of ribs was considered standard practice.

As the hospital rooms began to fill, a problem arose. What to do with all the dead bodies? They surely couldn’t have an endless line of hearses rolling up the hospital lane, which would bring down the spirits of the patients who were trying to ‘recover.’ So the hospital administration decided that a new wing had to be added to the building. The new wing was to have a morgue, a “drip-dry” room (see further in the article), and a tunnel to transport the dead bodies down the hill to a receiving building at the bottom of the hill. After a person died, the body would be taken to the morgue, where it would be processed, and then the body would be transported through a tunnel to a building next to the morgue. The bodies would then be hung on hooks and they’re limbs slashed and the torso would be cut in an “X” pattern, the left so the bodily juices would drip from the bodies into drains in the floor. After the bodies were dried, the would be places in re-usable steel coffins that were welded to tracks, then slowly lowered down the tunnel, which was nicknamed the “death tunnel.”

Because of the experiments performed at Waverly Hills and other hospitals throughout the country, TB was becoming less of a threat. In 1943 a graduate of Rutgers University named Albert Shatz discovered Streptomycin, the only affective drug to treat TB. By the mid 1950's TB had become a rare occurrence. In 1961 Waverly Hills Sanatorium was closed as a tuberculosis sanatorium because there was no longer a need for the facility. The building re opened in 1962 under the name of Woodhaven Geriatrics Sanatorium after the building was sanitized. Woodhaven also had a unit for the treatment of those who were considered to be lunatics.

There have been tales of patient mistreatment and unusual experiments that have filtered down the hill over the years. Some have been proven false, but many more are unfortunately true. One of the true stories of patient abuse is the use of electroshock therapy. This type of therapy was sometimes accompanied by severe losses of speech or mental ability or even death. During the 1960's and 1970's severe budget cuts in geriatrics facilities caused the well-documented cases of patient abuse and neglect in geriatrics facilities and insane asylums across the country. Apparently Woodhaven was no different, since the state of Kentucky closed the facility in 1980 due to patient abuse. The buildings, contents, and land were auctioned, and the doors were locked for good.

The building and land changed hands several times over the next eighteen years. The second owner of the property wanted to demolish all the buildings and build the world’s largest statue of Jesus Christ, which would have stood at one hundred and fifty feet. He succeeded in demolishing most of the buildings except the main hospital building, which was protected under the National Historic Register’s “endangered” list. He then decided that if he couldn’t tear it down legally, he would try to get the building condemned. He let vandals inside the building who destroyed all of the fixtures. After smashing windows, busting porcelain sinks and toilets, and removing doors and other fixtures, the building was only a shell of its former glory. Since the building still wasn’t condemned, the owner dug large ditches at the base of the building in hopes the foundation would crack. Fortunately, the buildings foundation didn’t crumble, and the owner’s efforts failed. He then realized that it would cost too much to try to deface the building further.

By 2001, this once majestic hospital had been ravaged by time and weather. Waverly Hills had become every town’s “haunted house.” Kids broke in to get the “rush” of finding a ghost. Satanic rituals were performed in the basement, and a man and a dog were murdered on the fifth floor then placed into the elevator shaft. People who live at the base of the hill have reported seeing lights on in the sanatorium windows and people have claimed to see shadows of people walking through the windows. People who have been in the building have claimed to see a little girl and a little boy playing with a leather ball, the disappearing around the corner. Others have reported seeing a man dressed in a white suit in the kitchen and even the smell of freshly baked bread. People have reportedly smelled cigar smoke in the administrative areas of the building. Other things that are reported include doors, slamming, disembodied voices, a hearse driving up the lane and picking up a coffin the disappearing, and an older woman running from the entrance with her wrists bleeding screaming “Help me! Someone save me!”

In 2001 the Louisville Ghost Hunters Society was called out to Waverly Hills to find the “hotspots” for Triage Entertainment who where producing a segment in their series entitled “World’s Scariest Places.” The episode aired in October of 2003. In the year 2004 the movie “D.E.A.T.H. Tunnel” was filmed on location at Waverly Hills. The story focused on local legends, lore, and hauntings. Also, the documentary “Spooked” was shot by the same production company. “Spooked” explored the history and hauntings of Waverly Hills.

Waverly Hills has had a very historical past that many people will never know. Unless something is done, the history of Waverly Hills will be gone forever. It is estimated that the building will be completely destroyed within ten years if nothing is done to repair the damage that has occurred.

Today, tuberculosis is nearly nonexistent thanks to the research that occurred at Waverly Hills and other TB sanatoriums around the world. But the achievement came at a price. It is estimated that 63,000 patients died at Waverly Hills when it was a tuberculosis sanitarium, and many more during its operation.

Waverly Hills is a spectacular place, rich in history, from its days as a tuberculosis sanatorium to a geriatrics center, to an abandoned building. But what will happen to it in the future? No one knows for sure.

Uploaded by veggie627 on Aug 16, 2005

Waverly Hill Tuberculosis Sanitarium

07.23.2005 | 12:53 pm | United States, Kentucky, Louisville

During the early twentieth century, Louisville had the highest tuberculosis rate in the country, so a hospital was opened. Many of the patients remained here until they died. The dead bodies were pushed down tunnels to the bottom of the hill where they were then carried off and buried. After the vaccine for tuberculosis was discovered, the hospital became a nursing home that is also now closed. Now, an elderly woman may be seen running from the building with bleeding risks and ankles; she begs for someone to get her out of that place. Many have also seen people peeking out of third floor–the residential ward–windows.

Spooked at the Waverly Hills Sanatorium.

Waverly Hills Sanatorium, located in Louisville, Kentucky, was first constructed in 1908 and opened in 1910 as a two-story hospital to accommodate 40 to 50 tuberculosis patients. It has since come to be considered as one of the most haunted buildings in the Eastern United States.

In the early 20th century, Jefferson County was severely struck with an outbreak of tuberculosis. The original Waverly Hills building was soon home to over 140 patients. Needing a larger hospital for the overwhelming amount of patients coming in, construction on a new five-story building, that could hold 400+ patients, began in March 1924. The new building opened on October 17, 1926. It was eventually closed in June 1961.

One of the most famous legends of Waverly Hills is the story of Room 502. Folklore says that a nurse committed suicide in this room by hanging herself. Also of note is the "death tunnel," which was constructed to allow the staff to move dead bodies to the bottom of the hill on which the sanatorium was built. The staff believed this would help keep the morale of the patients up by not allowing them to see the hearses picking up the deceased, since at its height there was as many as seven to ten people dying each day.

Waverly Hills Sanatorium Main Entrance

In 1996, Bob Alberhasky bought Waverly Hills and the surrounding area. After considering demolition, the new owner reopened Waverly Hills for tours in late October 1999. In 2001, Charles and Tina Mattingly bought Waverly Hills from Bob Alberhasky. On July 19, 2001, Fox's Scariest Places on Earth was filmed at Waverly Hills by Triage Entertainment. Waverly Hills is now open again for Halloween tours, along with a haunted house, with proceeds going towards the renovation of the building.

In 2004, two movies, Death Tunnel and Spooked, were filmed at Waverly Hills.

• Personal Accounts of Visting Waverly Hills (including Jay Gravatte's story of hosting "Fox's Scariest Places on Earth"
• Official Waverly Hills Sanatorium/ Woodhaven Geriatric Center Memorial & Historical Resource
• Ron's Official Waverly Hills Website
• "Death Tunnel" Movie Website
• "Spooked" Movie Website

This is a documentary of The legend of Waverly Hills. Over 30 Actual Eyewitness accounts. Authentic photos and footage. EVPs and Ghost Photography. Night vision ghost hunt. Ghosts on set.

I would love to know the location, I’m amazed my haunted houses and would to see it!!

Comment by Ariel Brown | 10.2.2005 | 10:57 pm

Can I please have directions to visit?

Comment by quiana floyd | 10.3.2005 | 8:10 am

8101 Dixie Hwy.
Louisville, KY 40258

Comment by Ashley Trader | 10.4.2005 | 12:57 am

WAVERLY HILLS IS ONE PLACE I WANT TO GO TO A CONTEST FOR SOMEONE BRAVE ENOUGH TO STAY THE NIGHT THERE ALONE WOULD BE AWSOME AND I WOULD BE THE FIRST TO JUMP ON IT I THINK I COULD DO IT!!!

Comment by SHERRI | 10.4.2005 | 8:40 am

Could you e-mail me diarections and times when I would be able to visit this haunted house.

Comment by Sonya | 10.4.2005 | 8:46 pm

I’ve been to this place and it’s even had halloween parties there a few years ago. They have since posted a gaurd and have it closed off so you can’t get to it. But one night we went up there and it’s a one lane road and when we tried to make a u turn our car all of a sudden stopped nad we couldn’t get it started again. It a really scary place even in the day time.

Comment by Christy | 10.6.2005 | 8:24 pm

iv been there…its scary. Me and my friend snuck in one time and we walked in a room and heard a loud bang and we turned around and the door was shut and locked…when we finally got out we ran to our car and it would not start and i looked up and swore that i saw a woman on top of the building looking down at us. very scary place

Comment by Joe | 10.7.2005 | 3:46 pm

Waverly Hills is now open on weekends for the month of October for Halloween. Many people have been there and have been scared away from the sounds and sights thats happen there. If you love haunted places it is a must to visit!

Comment by Staci | 10.7.2005 | 8:13 pm

On halloween it’s not really scary. They only let you in one floor. They have it all set up and people are there scaring you. Not really scary.

Comment by Jennifer | 10.9.2005 | 1:27 am

The one floor is used for a haunted house thing they have each year. if you want to take the actual tour, i believe you have to make reservations first. i know they had a tour back in August and it cost $250.00. Hopefully if they have any tours this year it will be cheaper.

Comment by Casey | 10.9.2005 | 8:59 pm

I went there last night. They had a haunted trail type thing. The cost was $20. My friends and I went through it and people jump out at you and scare you. You walk into alot of different rooms. Many of the rooms represent what actually happened there before it closed down. After you get out of the haunted house part, you go through the actual autopsy and morgue place. You don’t see much there, but its realy dark. They have lights on the floor to guide you. It is a very scary place.

Comment by Nicole | 10.9.2005 | 9:29 pm

ok so is this located on dixi hwy or does anyone know for sure? trying to come up one weekend and take a tour

Comment by Erika | 10.10.2005 | 12:54 pm

There will be signs posted for you to get to Waverly Hills Sanitarium. If you pull up there original web site you will get the directions as well as a map of the directions. You will enjoy the trip.

Comment by Lori | 10.10.2005 | 3:52 pm

Very spooky place. We used to sneak up there 10-12 years ago before vandals trashed the place. Never seen any “ghosts”, but this place has a very unique atmosphere. The building itself seems to be watching you before you ever go in. Takes some nerve to explore it which takes 2-3 hours. It is located off Dixie Highway at East Pages. Up the road from Bobby Nichols golf course.

Comment by Kristie | 10.14.2005 | 3:48 pm

anyone who says that they have been to “parties at this place would be lieing to you.I know this because my dad has own this peace of land for going on 10 years now. And we only open it up on halloween! I have been in this place many times and have seen horrible stuff exsecialy in r.217 if you truley know the history of this place then you’ll know why R. 217 is so popular. And you wont want to enter it i learned that the wrong way.

Comment by Chelsea Denay | 10.18.2005 | 3:55 pm

how much does it cost? How What times is it open??????

Comment by Jordan | 10.22.2005 | 11:52 am

How much does this cost? What times is it open?

Comment by Melissa | 10.23.2005 | 3:40 pm

If you go down Dixie towards Fort Knox, you will come up to a street called west pages/east pages. West is on the left and East on the right. Turn right and go down till you come to a golf course ( in the middle of the 3rd turn). Turn there and follow it up till it splits and then go left. that will take you up to the entrance.

Comment by James | 10.25.2005 | 7:24 pm

My grandmother died in that hospital and she is probably the ghost. She had a bad case of VD i mean TB.

Comment by Deidra & Rylee | 10.26.2005 | 1:03 pm

my sister-in-law said there was a virtual i could take on the internet but i have looked everywhere, if you know where it is would you tell me!

Comment by barry drury | 10.26.2005 | 6:12 pm

hey chelsea, could you fill us in a little more on the history you alluded to? and what’s so special about R 217? i thought it was supposed to be R502 that was to be feared? I’m genuinely interested in knowing the whole story, as well as what plans there are for the property!

Comment by David Loyd | 10.26.2005 | 7:52 pm

I saw her too.

Comment by Oh hey | 10.29.2005 | 12:37 am

hey i have done some research and have found absolutly no info on r.217 can someone fill me in?

Comment by Beau | 10.29.2005 | 6:23 am

I work there for 5 years i have seen stuff out the third flor windows but what people dont know is there is a 3 basement ive been there 2 i heard stuff there iqiut and never went back why did they weld the door shut i now where 2 craw in at!!!!

Comment by rick oglesbee | 10.30.2005 | 7:17 pm

I work there for 5 years i have seen stuff out the third flor windows but what people dont know is there is a 3 basement ive been there 2 i heard stuff there i quit my job and never went back why did they weld the door shut i now where 2 craw in at!!!!

Comment by rick oglesbee | 10.30.2005 | 7:19 pm

Some of my freinds went to it this year and they said that it was pretty good…….. were all going up to see it next year like 5 car loads so ya….. did you know that theres been over like 60,000 people die there and quiet a few people have killed thereselfs there to. Alot in room #502 it supost to be the most haunted room in the hole place.

Comment by Josh T | 11.1.2005 | 8:39 pm

i have a 11 page paper i print off of the internet about it and it says that room #502 is the most haunted.

Comment by Josh T | 11.1.2005 | 8:42 pm

there are alot of place where i live that are haunted one is this. The story is in the early 1900’s there was a family that lived back in the counrty here like 30-40 min in the counrty and there was a father, mother, and twin boys. And the fother was in to black magic and one day his wife up and left him and the boys and it made him so angry that he took his two sons lifes…….. he burned them alive in there fire place and before he killed himself he put a spell on his self that he would come back as a bird so that he could watch out for his house forever. And when you went there there was always a bird siting by the door it was always there it never left and if you go there at dark trees glow that are around it and when you would go in you would hear kids lauging and the fire would be going. but some one burned it down it scared them so they burnd it. but they are all beried at there family cemitery right at the end of there driveway.

Comment by Josh T | 11.1.2005 | 8:55 pm

My wife & friends went Oct.22. WOW !!!
We live in Louisville, and this place is very creepy. I shot over 46 pics and on over 15 shots we captured orbs, faces, shadows, and wierd streaking red lights.
The shadow hall was very spooky. We saw neumerous shadows peeking around doors, people walking back-n-fourth at the far end of the hallway.
My throat got really tight and dry when we got to the 5th floor near room 502. Just as my throat was getting tighter the guide told us about a local tv station personality who had to be dragged out of the building because he was choaking, i thought to myself **** !!! We went out on the balcony where i have a perfect pic of a bright blue single orb flying around.
My wife thought she felt something bruch her hair and her friend from the office forwarded a pic she took of my wife and their was a red streak buzzing my wifes hair !!!
THIS IS A MUST SEE DEAL, NO KIDS, NO GOOFY PEOPLE, JUST BE ULTRA QUIET AND TAKE ALOT OF PICS OF BLACK DARK EMPTY ROOMS AND SEE WHAT DEVELOPES !!!

Comment by dan nolastname | 11.2.2005 | 8:11 pm

Can you get in there without paying or do you have to take a tour….i was just wanting to do up there for one night and then drive back…i want to look around and see scary stuff, but i am not interesting in paying to do it….???

Comment by Axul | 11.3.2005 | 10:25 pm

Is everyone sure ’bout this?

Comment by plumbo | 11.7.2005 | 10:22 am

I would like directions tho’

Comment by plumbo | 11.7.2005 | 10:24 am

a group of us at work took this tour last night… its $20.00 a person and they’ll do them thru november until its too cold we were told…

we didnt see much but the history is really awesome, 63,000 people died there, on average 1 per hour… to try and relieve some of the depression they started taking the dead bodies down a chute that had been built to get supplies in and out of the sanitarium, that way they could slide the bodies down and people wouldnt have to watch funeral cars going in and out of the property

lots of grafitti there where people have no respect, sneak in and do damage.. people should be shot, idiots

cool place to visit, they’ll let you spend the night there as well, we were told 50 for a half night, and 100 for a whole night.. they’ll put you on a floor and leave, let you roam around and explore on your own… we’re discussing getting a small group to do just that

Comment by dawn | 11.8.2005 | 2:18 pm

I am going to be going sometime this november, and I have heard so many things about this place. It absolutly has to be haunted. I am so scared to go but on the other hand I just can’t wait.

Comment by Bethany Heathers | 11.8.2005 | 4:59 pm

I Know that you have to make reservations before you go, and this year it only costs $20 for the actual tour.

Comment by Bethany | 11.8.2005 | 5:04 pm

I LIKE BOOBS

Comment by REBA | 11.11.2005 | 3:56 pm

WWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAWAW SASASASASAWEWERWEWEWDEDEDESESESWX23ASASSASSASSASSASS

Comment by ARNOLD | 11.11.2005 | 3:57 pm

IM FAT AND I DONT KNOW ****

Comment by JORDON | 11.11.2005 | 3:58 pm

MAGAMBO

Comment by PLUMBO | 11.11.2005 | 4:00 pm

I CANT READ SO PLEASE WRITE ME A LETTER MR. JUMPING BOX

Comment by AVANA HOMP ALOT | 11.11.2005 | 4:02 pm

why are there no pictures of these places

Comment by freddy | 11.12.2005 | 9:38 pm

I want to come out the closet already who should i do it

Comment by Freddy | 11.15.2005 | 12:55 am

I want to come out the closet already how should i do it.

Comment by Freddy | 11.15.2005 | 12:56 am

i saw a show about this on tv where the owners daughter and her friends went up there and attempted to stay all night but got scared off by the stuff that happend in the morgue

Comment by amber | 11.20.2005 | 3:26 pm

waverly hills has alot of great stories but this on i haven’t heard of my grandparents stayed at waverly and survived.

Comment by rebecca | 11.30.2005 | 4:49 pm

The piece of land along with the building now belong to the national historical society meaning that nobody can tear it down. They have stopped letting people enter freely because nobody had respect for the building. It is very gorgous inside and out. It could stand a little fixing up. My mother and I have been in the building and have seen no signs of paranormal activity although we believe there is somewhere in the building. We are going to stay the night there
sometime soon. If anyone has questions about the history contact me at
waverlyhillsnut@hotmail.com

Comment by Danielle | 12.3.2005 | 10:11 am

I live not 40 minutes from louisville if you go down 31W or aka dixie hwy you’ll see it up on the hill all of that story is very true but it’s wrist not risk lol it’s opened up at halloween because in kentucky we have an obsession with the haunted. anyhow look it up online it’s one of the top ten scariest places on earth.

Comment by Melanie | 12.27.2005 | 11:05 pm

my great grandmother died in that horrible place,… i wouldnt go there for nothing,…. my friends tried to get me to go i, got mad and knock his tooth down his throat..and by the way freddy change your ways,… son.

Comment by metris | 01.1.2006 | 12:10 pm

I WAS GOING TO GO THIS YEAR,BUT I WAS IN A CAR WREAK BEFORE I MAY IT THERE.

Comment by cherry gordon | 01.3.2006 | 3:29 pm

i would really like to go see the new movie about waverly its called spooked it comes out god knows when but they already have a web site thats awsome it has the trailors and SCARY stuff!!! the address is

spooked.org

you should really check it out its better than this web address!!!!!!

Later losers

Comment by shelby | 01.7.2006 | 11:54 pm

MY FRIEND DIED THERE I WOULD NEVER GO NEAR THAT ***** PLACE

Comment by loralie | 01.7.2006 | 11:57 pm

I went to the haunted house they had this year. That was uneventful, but a bunch of us did try sneaking in a few times. There is security and they will see you and make you leave. They are restoring the entire place to one day have tours. The first floor already has a bunch of brand new windows. The only other time I snuck up there with friends and my husband we were chased back down the hill by a shadow figure. It was scary. We also heard a woman screm coming from the hospital. After that we left..lol. This place is 100% absolutely haunted.

Comment by someone | 02.4.2006 | 2:46 pm

If you really want to visit this place, You will have to contact the owner of the building. They have a tour for $ 20.00 a person. I wouldn’t recommend breaking in because they are renovating the place. They are trying to raise money to keep the place open. The city of Louisville has told them if they can’t make it into a type of business that they will have to demolish the place and make it a subdivision. So get your friends and go support the great cause to keep a paranormal building existing.

E-mail me at AmidenaEvils@hotmail.com for the owners information, or how to set up a tour =-D

** They are planning to rennovate it as a Hotel…Wouldnt that be awesome, even more reason to go visit it now.

Comment by Emily Alvarez | 02.6.2006 | 4:26 pm

And the tours are held year round. I would recommend going anytime besides october because thats when they have the fake haunted house that only is held in the first floor. The real tour is all five stories plus the basement

Comment by Emily Alvarez | 02.6.2006 | 4:29 pm

This place is an all time great place and the immature people on here really need to take a history lesson and grow up about this place. I haven’t been able to visit yet but will be going this fall ad can’t wait. I can’t imagine how beautiful it must have looked when they first built this place.

Comment by Delacee | 02.8.2006 | 6:16 pm

On the weekend b4 halloween, my fiancee’ and I went up to the waverly hills sanatorium hospital with a group of friends. And we were gonna go in but there are two lines and the first line (ticket line was a 3 hour wait) and the other was probally (3 or more too) so we didn’t stay but we did see stuff in the windows and heard things. It was really spooky just on the outside. The place is nothing in pictures you see. Seeing the building in real life is SO much different than the pictures. I would never go up there alone by my self, i’d have to be with atleast 2 or 3 people. But my fiancee’s brother went up there and said he seen a little girl’s face appear in one of the windows, when he went over to the window there wasn’t no glass in the frame of the window, and when he turned around it got real cold and he freaked out. It is REAL SCARY but if anyone is not a believe after waverly hills you will be

Comment by Roger*s BabyGirl | 02.11.2006 | 11:59 pm

this stoy is awsom i would love to know were its at and how to get there!!!!!!!

Comment by brittany | 02.15.2006 | 8:48 pm

Stuff is spooky but make it spooker!!!*
I mean just Spook it up^ a bit

Comment by Meg | 02.18.2006 | 5:40 pm

Stuff is spooky but Spook it up^ a bit!!!*

Comment by Meg | 02.18.2006 | 5:41 pm

Spook it up^ a bit!!!*

Comment by Meg | 02.18.2006 | 5:41 pm

I’ve read up a bit about this place it’s very interesting. I don’t think you need to ’spook it up a bit’ its just how the place is.. it’s not meant to be some fake haunted house like you see.. it has history, not some little kid running around in a plastic mask trying to scare you. I wish I lived closer I’d definitely like to see it.

Comment by L | 02.20.2006 | 9:30 pm

I live in Louisville and I can tell you that this is one messed up place. One time my dad took me and a bunch of my friends up there to check it out. It was about 7 at night and it was starting to get dark out. My dad pulled right up to the entrance and as soon as he did the gates started shaking and we started hearing all these wierd noises. Then the car shut off and would not turn back on we had to get out of the car and push it back down the hill. I SWEAR this place is about as haunted as it gets. My mom used to have to go there as a little girl and sing to the people there. She said it was the most horrifying thing she has ever had to do. My grandmother also worked there and my father was tested for TB and it came back positive. He never had to go there but they did have to check in on it. My dad said that if he would have had to go there he probably would have killed himself.

Comment by Courtney | 02.21.2006 | 11:38 am

I want to go there at once, first I didn’t believe in ghosts until I saw this…

Comment by Ryan | 02.22.2006 | 3:40 pm

chelsea, is there anyway your dad would do a contest like have people enter and if they stay the whole night theyd get a prize?

Comment by andrea | 02.24.2006 | 5:28 am

I have been there a great many times. You guys do have one thing wrong in your description. They didn’t push dead bodies down a tunnel. They piled them on this underground “train” that wen to the bottom of the hill so that all the patients didn’t see how many people actually died. It is a very beautiful old building but definitely eery! As soon as you step out of your car you get a whole different feeling that you don’t even think that you have! The new owners are renovating the whole plave and are looking for any volunteers to help. I will actually be one of them. I have had many encounters there!

Comment by Erin | 02.25.2006 | 3:50 pm

Does anyone know when the documentary “Spooked” about Waverly Hills is coming out? I know the movie “Death Tunnel” is scheduled to be released on 2/28/06, but they have not said anything about “Spooked” being released as of yet. If anyone knows, please post it. Thanks….

Comment by Big Dog | 02.26.2006 | 1:30 pm

Chelsea doesn’t know much about Waverly for her father to be the owner. Her father may have owned the place at one time…but not presently. And if I am incorrect in saying this (I thought it had been purchased by the Historical Society), then she knows very little history on the place. I have never heard any story about this room 217…I think she has the room number incorrect, but again I may be mistaken. It was owned for many yrs. by the Mattingly family (as seen on Scariest Places on Earth a few years back). As for there not being any parties there…all one needs to see is the graffiti all over the walls to know better. I believe the first yr. it was actually open to the public as a haunted house (which covered a very small area…), there was a live band, a para-psychologist (who was a flake), and tours offered. It was actually quite fun. As my husband and I were standing in line, a teenager was dragging a keg through the hallway and was himself dragged off by security. I grew up in Valley Station very close to Waverly (Prairie Village) and made many a trip (both legally and illegially). I can’t say I have truly seen any para-normal activitiy, but the place does have an eerie feel to it. The beauty of the place itself is reason enough to want to see it. As for there being 68,000 people to die, this also is not a fact. The death toll was only in the hundreds. There is one very accurate site that reveals the history by an individual named Ron. I will find the site and post it for anyone interested. There is also a site that has some outstanding photographs of the building and old out buildings (some of which have since been torn down). I had three strange things happen while visiting. One time a couple of friends, my son, and myself decided to play hide and seek in the building. My son and I were hiding in a closet on the fourth floor when we heard that we were about to be found. We ran into a room that had a rusted table and a rusted disc shaped light with a cone hanging from the ceiling. Something about that room gave me a bad feeling…but I could never seem to find it on any other visit, nor saw it on any tours. Another time, my husband and I decided walk the path by the apts. off Dixie (not the road by the golf course)…our way is the most scenic trail! I have heard that if you veer off the road (before the gate) and follow the grassy path to the left (at the bottom of the hill), that there is actually some kind of cave or underground entrance…but not the body chute. I don’t know if this is an actual fact. Anyway, as we were walking the path (it was very dark and they had security at this time in trailers), we came to a place where a huge drainage pipe ran beneath the road. On the end of this pipe there sat an individual with their feet dangling over the edge. We got very quiet because we thought we had walked up on a security person…as we quietly approached, they disappeared from sight. Then another time, a friend and I had planned to spend Halloween night on the roof (hallucinating). While sitting at the bottom of the road where the apts. are, we saw person’s in hooded black capes coming from behind a dumpster. Not wanting to become anyone’s sacrifice, we decided to make other plans. I will find those sites and post them so you can get some more accurate info going here…thanks for taking time to read my posting! Gypsyblood

Comment by gypsyblood | 03.12.2006 | 12:55 am

i love waverly hills tuburculosis is still in there and people say the can smell breakfast cooking.

Comment by Ashley | 03.13.2006 | 9:41 am

Hello, My name is Alanna me and a guy i work with are going to Waverly Hills tommorrow night i have been looking forward to this for a while i will let you know how it goes….

Comment by Alanna | 03.24.2006 | 2:00 am

the room # is #502 you F*****G retards they did this one on goust hunters the tv show look get your facts right

Comment by yo momma | 03.31.2006 | 1:48 am

Hey, we wanna go to the hospital sometime but we dont want to take a tour becuz all the majesty of the dank will be ruined by annoying children and ppl trying to be scary. We just wanna go by ourselves….no vandals…just looking….do yall(wanna single?) think thats possible?….bye

Comment by Sara and Kristin | 04.5.2006 | 12:21 pm

I’m from the Indiana Ghost Trackers. In July we have a group of people spending the night at Waverly. I’ve heard alot about this place and have seen the movie “Death Tunnel” which is about Waverly, also filmed there. I’m real excited, but kinda scared at the same time. Has anyone stayed the night there, and how did it go? I’m sure there won’t be any sleeping going on.

Comment by stacy | 04.6.2006 | 10:06 am

This was taken directly from the courier journal(newspaper in Louisville):

But the hospital left a legacy — a quiet, woodsy backdrop for the neighborhood, land for a park and a golf course, and a colorful, if occasionally morbid, history.

When the hospital opened in 1911, it had 8 patients, but it soon reached its capacity of 40. At the time, Jefferson County had one of the country’s highest rates of tuberculosis, a highly contagious, sometimes fatal lung disease characterized by coughing, hemorrhaging, fever and shortness of breath.

And the hospital, which offered plenty of bed rest and fresh air as well as some surgical methods of treating the disease, was thought to be an excellent facility. In 1924, the hospital was expanded to house 400 patients.

Many people died at the hospital, and because hospital officials were concerned that the sight of hearses would be bad for morale the bodies were sent to the bottom of the hill through a steam tunnel.

The steam kept the tunnel warm and was also used by employees who needed to walk up the hill during the winter. Fey remembers that he and other children would go into the tunnel to warm up after sledding. The entrances to the tunnel have been blocked off, but it still exists underground, Severs said.

Comment by CSW | 04.6.2006 | 3:37 pm

Fridays: Paranormal/Historical Tour 8:30pm & 9:30pm

Saturdays: Paranormal/Historical Tour 8:30pm & 9:30pm

Sundays: Historical 2:30pm

Cost is $20.00 donation per person and tour times must be reserved in advance.
Please contact and schedule your tour with:
waverlytours@bellsouth.net
or call
502-417-4526 or 502-933-2142

Comment by CSW | 04.6.2006 | 4:07 pm