Waverly Hills Sanatorium – The Holy Grail for ghost hunters. Any ghost hunter worth their salt must, sometime in their paranormal life, make the pilgrimage to Louisville, KY to investigate this shrine. The journey begins at the bottom of the hill. You can barely make out the building through the trees as you ascend the driveway. An old iron gate stands as a reminder that this is no ordinary place. Once through the gate you are greeted by a gargoyle standing guard at the corner of the building. As you pull over into the parking lot you begin to see the enormousness of the building. Its menacing presence reminding you of the staggering death toll tallied in this one place. Although the records are unclear, it is estimated the between 5,000 and 14,000 people lost their life in this building. At its peak, the death rate was one per hour. So much death that they began to use the tunnel that was built originally to bring supplies up the hill in the winter to transfer the bodies downhill. This was to help with the morale of the patients. Imagine being a patient with TB and seeing 20-24 hearses per day taking away bodies of your friends that just died of the same disease.
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This building served as a TB hospital for more than half a century before a short stint as a geriatric hospital. It stood vacant for 25 years before being bought by Charlie and Tina Mattingly. They are the ones who have undertaken the monumental task of restoring this fine old building.
I am lucky enough to be friends with Charlie and Tina and been a volunteer at Waverly for 3 years. I have spent a lot of time alone in the building and have some incredible personal experiences. I have been scratched, heard voices, screams, footsteps, crying moaning, laughing and the unmistakable sounds of someone smothering. I’ve seen shadow people and full body apparitions. I have experienced about every type of paranormal phenomenon that you can imagine.
Perhaps the most profound experience occurred years ago while I was on my first overnight investigation. It was about four in the morning and I was walking with a coworker who had reluctantly joined me that night. We were on the first floor and had just passed the morgue when, without warning, my partner screamed and ran. I had no idea what had happened. I chased her down and asked what was wrong. “Something grabbed my leg” she said with a trembling voice. The reached down and felt of her pocket. “My cigarettes are gone. Oh my God, something just pulled my cigarettes from my front blue jean pocket”. I went back and found the pack laying just inside the morgue room. I then escorted her out and watched her drive off rather quickly. The thing you need to keep in mind is the significance of cigarettes being removed from someone in a TB hospital, TB being a disease that attacked the lungs. I went back inside to continue the investigation glad that I never took up smoking.
To sum up my experiences at Waverly Hills, the place does live up to its reputation. It is one of America’s top 10 most haunted buildings and should be on every ghost hunter’s wish list of places to visit. Waverly does offer 2 hour tours on weekends as well as 4 and 8 hour overnight investigations for the brave. For more information, they can be reached at 502-933-2142.
Comments
That explains it!! One of our investigations there my sisters cigarettes was being pushed OUT of the back of her pants pocket and the pocket was buttoned. This happened quite frequently that night. I love Waverly and most of all love what the owners are doing for Waverly and that is why we try to go atleast twice a year!!
my name is brandon williamson they should tear that down those ghost follow you home then youll be cry you cant get them to go away holla!!!!!!!!!
look to all you people that wanna belive in ghost waverly hills is not haunted i know this because i have been up there so many times it isnt even funny i know more people that will tell you its not haunted then will tell you it is before all this horse crap paranormal investigations and the lies told by the current owners us valley station kids played up there for fun and maybe one or two will claim is haunted but out of 100s other will tell you its not your wasteing your time money and effort on this place ghost hunting the story with timmy well thats most likey a draft moving that ball because its drafty up there the girl with no eyes imganation the nurse who hung them selfs up there i never seen there ghost roaming the halls the lady cut her wrist comeing out screaming made up the evps are made up this is a plot to get you to spend good money to chase nothing plus i heared storys of the current staff banging on stuff to scare people and i talk to a gurd recently he lied he butt off
Just be quiet...If you have rude comments why don't you just go to another site? Because I have been there and yes it was quite scary. It has a lot of history, and my great great great grandpa died there, obviously you haven't been there because if you did, you would know that it is haunted. One of the most haunted places in the world. And I know the people who work there, no they don't do cheap stuff like that, and I'm sure some of the spirits would be glad to show you they are quite real :) thanks.
I'm a skeptic, but I went to Waverly for an overnight visit last summer. I didn't see anything that would make me believe when I was there, but when I reviewed my photos when I got home, I have two images of an old man standing in a window on the front side of the building. He is dressed in a white shirt, black tie and black suit coat. In one picture, he appears to be smiling. I can't explain this. I'm still a skeptic, but I have no explanation for this!
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