![]() ![]() The infamous 600-foot body chute, for instance, that was used to discretely move thousands of corpses through the facility has grown in infamy and is often cited as a place where ghostly experiences take place. Still, several sites on the property, where more than 6,000 people are believed to have died, have taken on a life of their own in paranormal popular culture. Meet Wayne Hettinger: How did ignorance help create Thunder Over Louisville? A Q&A with the man behind the show (The name, too, may have played a role in its notorious history, with then-Courier Journal reporter Thomas Nord describing it as "like something out of a comic book, a place where the Joker might hide out from Batman.") In a 2001 newspaper story ahead of an on-site taping of Fox Family's "Scariest Places on Earth," a Courier Journal reporter noted "countless local legends about the place being haunted" had been fueled by the high number of people who succumbed to tuberculosis during the more than 50 years it housed patients. So how did Waverly Hills go from a serene and secluded Louisville complex to a site with a supernatural reputation in popular culture? Ghost stories: Here are 300+ haunted places to explore in Kentucky and Indiana How did Waverly Hill get its haunted reputation? The groups worked in the following years to renovate the property, which grew in popularity as a well-known "haunted" location among the paranormal community, with shows like A&E's "Ghost Hunters" filming on location. ![]() It was purchased in 2001 by current owners Charlie and Tina Mattingly, who founded the Waverly Hills Historical Society two years later. Waverly Hills remained closed for about 20 years at that time, as the property fell into disrepair. The facility was closed and renovated in 1961, reopening the following year as a nursing home where it served patients until closing again in 1981. Tuberculosis treatments advanced in the early 1960s, as an antibiotic that could cure the disease was developed. Doctors and other employees were unable to leave the grounds.įor Courier Journal subscribers: What issues must Louisville's next mayor try to fix? Here's what residents told us The Waverly Hills Sanatorium was built as a self-sufficient community, with its own ZIP code, post office and farmland. Tuberculosis was often deadly and extremely contagious, so patients were usually kept quarantined in secluded spaces. After an expansion in 1926, the property could hold more than 400 patients at once. ![]() Who's running Waverly Hills?: The bitter feud over Louisville's most famous haunted site What to know about Waverly Hills' historyīefore it gained fame as a so-called "haunted" site, the Waverly Hills Sanatorium served as an important medical center in Louisville.Ĭonstruction on the site began in 1908 and it opened in 1910, according to Waverly Hills' website, to serve as an isolated medical center for patients afflicted with tuberculosis, which had been spreading through the Louisville area. Lately, the southwest Jefferson County site has been at the center of a lawsuit between its owner and the Waverly Hills Historical Society, a group leased to take care of the property.īut even before protesters showed up this month at the gates on Paralee Drive, Waverly Hills has always been a well-known Louisville landmark - first as a tuberculosis treatment center in the early and mid-1900s to its more recent "haunted" history. Louisville's Waverly Hills Sanatorium has been called " the most terrifying building in America," with an infamous history that draws paranormal thrill-seekers from all over the world. View Gallery: Waverly Hills Sanatorium photos 1910-1961: Retro Louisville ![]()
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