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Waverly Hills Sanatorium Investigated By ‘Paranormal Lockdown,’ Find Out More About One Of The Most Haunted Places On Earth

By Lindsay McCane
Published on: 14:02 PST, Jan 14, 2017

Waverly Hills Sanatorium, located in Louisville, Kentucky, is known as one of the most haunted places on earth, which is why paranormal investigators Nick Groff and Katrina Weidman decided to investigate it for an episode of Paranormal Lockdown.

Groff and Weidman recruited paranormal investigator and former FBI Agent Ben Hansen to help them investigate the haunted hospital. This visit marked the third time for Nick, but the first for Katrina, and the pair were hoping to capture the paranormal activity with their equipment.

According to the sanatorium’s official website, the hospital was first owned by Major Thomas H. Hays in the late 1800s. Hays built a small school for his daughters to attend, and hired a teacher, who decided to name the school Waverly School. Hays liked the name and eventually named the property Waverly Hill. When the property was later purchased for the purpose of building the tuberculosis hospital, they decided to keep the name.

The sanatorium took two years to build, and officially opened to the public on July 26, 1910. At the time, tuberculosis was running rampant, and was a very serious, and deadly disease. The sanatorium was a place that accommodated 40-50 patients, and provided them with a place to heal peacefully. The hospital was quickly filled with more patients than they could handle, approximately 140 to be exact, and because tuberculosis was so contagious, all of the patients had to be quarantined.

According to the CDC, tuberculosis is a serious, but curable disease that can cause:

  • a bad cough that lasts three weeks or longer
  • pain in the chest
  • coughing up blood or sputum (phlegm from deep inside the lungs)
  • weakness or fatigue
  • weight loss
  • no appetite
  • chills
  • fever
  • sweating at night

The larger sanatorium that stands today opened on October 17, 1926, and was built to accommodate 400 people. In 1961, after the treatment and cure for tuberculosis was discovered, there was no longer a need for the hospital and Waverly Hills closed. However, before it closed, thousands of people succumbed to the painful disease. Before the cure was discovered, many of the treatments at Waverly Hills were somewhat barbaric.

According to PrairieGhosts.com, doctors would surgically implant balloons into the patient’s lungs and then would expand them with air. Another common, but last-ditch effort, was to remove a portion of muscles and ribs to allow the patient’s lungs to expand further. Needless to say, many of the patients didn’t survive. When the patients died, they were placed in the “the body chute,” which was an enclosed tunnel that transported the dead bodies from the hospital to the railroad tracks at the bottom of the hill.

Over the years, Waverly Hills has become known as one of the most haunted places on earth, and the most haunted hospital in the United States. People have come from all over the world to tour the hospital and experience the paranormal activity that takes place. Some of them have reported seeing a man in a white jacket walking through the kitchen, and then report smelling food cooking. Room 502 on the fifth floor of the sanatorium draws attention because it was reported a nurse was stabbed to death by a patient. Legends also say people have jumped to their death from this room, and have heard voices telling them to “get out.” Still, there have been reports of lights flickering, doors slamming, and objects being thrown at those who visit the hospital.

According to FGT News, Nick was very persistent in wanting to stay the night at the top part of “the body chute,” but Ben urged him against it.

“I’m being really honest here, I don’t think it’s safe. If it starts playing tricks on you and you get into a wild panic, it’s going to be a night of terror,” Ben said. “I mean that’s an understatement of what you could experience here so, seriously, once you turn off those lights I wouldn’t provoke, I wouldn’t say anything, I would just say ‘look, the cameras are rolling, if you want to be quiet and go about your business while I’m asleep do what you want, but I would not want to be bothered here.”

Did you catch Friday’s episode featuring Waverly Hills Sanatorium? Were you shocked by what Nick, Katrina, and Ben experienced? Leave your comments below.

New episodes of Paranormal Lockdown air on TLC on Fridays at 9/8c. You can also watch full episodes on TLC’s website.

[Featured Image by Dylan Lovan/ Associated Press]

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