Waverly Hills Sanatorium

Waverly Hills Sanatorium - History

Waverly Hills Sanatorium is located just outside the city of Louisville, Kentucky. Waverly Hills sits on top of a hill overlooking the city, a looming fortress of gloom in its eerie, decaying state. The atmosphere is further darkened by a chilling history of death, and patient abuse during its latter year's as a geriatric hospital. It is no wonder that that Waverly Hills is considered to be one of the most haunted buildings in America.

During the 1800s and early 1900s, America was ravaged by the then deadly disease tuberculosis. This terrifying and very contagious disease, for which no cure existed, claimed entire families and sometimes entire towns. In 1900, Louisville, Kentucky had one of the highest tuberculosis death rates in America. Built on low, swampland, the area was a perfect breeding ground for disease.

Waverly Hills, opened in 1926. It was considered the most advanced tuberculosis sanatorium in the America, but even then most of the patients succumbed to the disease. In the days before antibiotics were available to treat the disease, it was thought that the best treatment for tuberculosis was plenty of fresh air, plenty of nutritious food and lots of rest. Many patients survived their stay at Waverly Hills but it is estimated that up to 64,000 patients died at the sanatorium, up to 10,000 patients died here in the first three years alone.

In many cases, the treatments for the disease were as bad as the disease itself. Some of the experiments that were conducted in search of a cure seem barbaric by today's standards but others are now common practice. Patient's lungs were exposed to ultraviolet light to try and stop the spread of bacteria. This was done in "sun rooms", using artificial light in place of sunlight, or on the roof or open porches of the hospital. Since fresh air was thought to also be a possible cure, patients were often placed in front of huge windows or on the open porches, no matter what the season or weather. Old photographs show patients lounging in chairs, taking in the fresh air, while literally covered with snow.

Other treatments were less pleasant, pneumothorax, surgically collapsing or deflating a portion of the lung so that it would heal; and thoracoplasty opening up the chest and removing up to 2 to 3 ribs at a time so that the lung would have more room to expand and heal. And there were other dire experimental methods as well. None of these methods were effective. In fact, fewer than five percent of patients survived the pneumothorax method.

While the patients who survived both the disease and the treatments left Waverly Hills through the front door, the majority of patients left through what came to be known as the "body chute". This enclosed tunnel for the dead led from the hospital to the railroad tracks at the bottom of the hill. Using a motorized rail and cable system, the bodies were lowered in secret to the waiting trains. This was done so that patients would not see how many were leaving the hospital as corpses. Their mental health, the doctors believed, was just as important as their physical health.

By the late 1930s, tuberculosis had begun to decline around the world and by 1943, new medicines had largely eradicated in the United States. In 1961, Waverly Hills was closed down but was re-opened a year later as Woodhaven Geriatrics Sanatorium

There have been many rumours and stories told about patient mistreatment and unusual experiments during the years that the building was used an old age home. Some of them have been proven to be false but others have unfortunately turned out to be true. Electroshock therapy, which was considered to be highly effective in those days, was widely used for a variety of ailments. Budget cuts in the 1960s and 1970s led to both horrible conditions and patient mistreatments and in 1982, the state closed the facility for good.

Some time during 1990 a homeless man and his dog were sleeping in the building, two teenage boys whom had become obsessed in devil worship entered the building, attacked the man and murdered him in the name of Satan and threw his body down the empty elevator chute. They were later arrested and sent to prison.