2008 Woodie Awards
Cheap Trips: Haunted sanitarium provides real-life horror experience
Becky Paskievich
Issue date: 10/19/07 Section: College Life
- Page 1 of 1
Louisville, Ky.
Beyond the fantasy world of vampires and Dracula lies the real-life haunted happenings at the Waverly Hills Sanitarium in Louisville, Ky.
Featured in a segment of Fox Television's "World's Scariest Places" and on MTV's "Fear," this building was also the site for the 2005 film "Death Tunnel."
In the early 1900s, people who were afflicted with tuberculosis were placed in sanitariums, isolated from the public to rest and have fresh air. Many of the facilities were built on hills surrounded by peaceful woods to create a healing atmosphere for suffering patients.
With about a three and a half hour drive, you can visit the Waverly Hills Sanitarium, rumored to be one of the most haunted buildings in the country. Opened in 1926, it functioned as a tuberculosis hospital until it was closed in 1961. It was renovated and reopened in 1962 as Woodhaven Medical Services. The facility remained as a geriatrics center until 1980 when it was closed by the state.
As many as 64,000 people died at Waverly before the antibiotic streptomycin was discovered in 1943. Without antibiotics, natural cures provided the only available defense for tuberculosis. Beside natural remedies, there were also experimental treatments, including pneumothorax (surgically collapsing a portion of the lung so that it would heal) and thoracoplasty (opening the chest and removing two or three ribs so the lung would have more room to expand and heal). Both treatments were practiced at the sanitarium.
Rumors about the sanitarium include stories of a little girl in the third-floor solarium playing hide and seek with trespassers, a little boy named Bobby playing with his leather ball, rooms lighting up though there was no power in the building, doors slamming, 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!"
Cries and screams are frequently heard in the halls and some claim to have heard children on the rooftop chanting verses from "Ring around the Rosy." Spirits of children are believed to linger because young patients were taken to the rooftop for heliotherapy, where they were exposed to the supposed healing rays of the sun as part of TB treatment.
In 1928, the head nurse hanged herself from the light fixture in Room 502. In 1932, another nurse also working in Room 502 supposedly committed suicide by jumping from the roof.
When patients died, they were sent down the body chute to an awaiting hearse. The body chute, or death tunnel, is actually a 500 foot-long tunnel that leads from the hospital to the railroad tracks located at the bottom of the hill. This was done to keep moral high, so patients wouldn't see the hearses or bodies leave the building.
Waverly Hills' current owners, Tina and Charlie Mattingly, hold tours of the sanitarium and have converted the building into a haunted house attraction for the Halloween season. Proceeds go toward restoring the property.
As of now, all tours, half-night and overnight stays are completely booked for the rest of this year. You can call on Jan. 2, 2008 to schedule tours for next year. Call (502) 933-2142 between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and between noon and 3 p.m. on Saturdays.
The costs of the half-night stays (four hours) are $50 per person and overnight stays (eight hours) are $100 per person.
The paranormal and historical two-hour guided tours cost $20 per person. The tours allow the general public to see the property, the building's interior and the death tunnel. Visitors can walk through the corridors of the sanitarium where autopsies were performed and the deceased were placed on gurneys and rolled out to the death tunnel.
On the paranormal tours, 10 minutes are reserved on the fourth floor for everyone to keep quiet, keep their lights off and see if they can detect a presence or shadowy figures crossing the hall.
Overnight stays are for people who want to spend more time exploring additional rooms in the building. Visitors have the flexibility to roam freely without a guide. Guards are available for questions. Ouija boards and séances are not allowed.
The haunted house is open 8 p.m. - 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays until after Halloween. Admission is $20 per person for the haunted house. Parking is $2 per vehicle. The haunted house is open only on the first floor, including the ground lobby to the morgue area at the end of the north wing.
This information was found at waverlyhilltbsanitorium.com and underworldtales.com/waverly.htm. Visit either of these sites for more information about the haunted house and more detailed spooky stories about the sanitarium.
Every week the College Life section provides fun and frugal trip ideas. Clip out each week's destination and refer to it when you get in a rut and need to get away or are itching for an exciting adventure.
If you know of an interesting or entertaining event going on within a day's car ride, send your Cheap Trip information and a phone number to rebecca.paskievich@murraystate.edu.
Also, if you get a chance to go to one of our Cheap Trip destinations, send an e-mail to the above address to say how it went. Safe travels!
Beyond the fantasy world of vampires and Dracula lies the real-life haunted happenings at the Waverly Hills Sanitarium in Louisville, Ky.
Featured in a segment of Fox Television's "World's Scariest Places" and on MTV's "Fear," this building was also the site for the 2005 film "Death Tunnel."
In the early 1900s, people who were afflicted with tuberculosis were placed in sanitariums, isolated from the public to rest and have fresh air. Many of the facilities were built on hills surrounded by peaceful woods to create a healing atmosphere for suffering patients.
With about a three and a half hour drive, you can visit the Waverly Hills Sanitarium, rumored to be one of the most haunted buildings in the country. Opened in 1926, it functioned as a tuberculosis hospital until it was closed in 1961. It was renovated and reopened in 1962 as Woodhaven Medical Services. The facility remained as a geriatrics center until 1980 when it was closed by the state.
As many as 64,000 people died at Waverly before the antibiotic streptomycin was discovered in 1943. Without antibiotics, natural cures provided the only available defense for tuberculosis. Beside natural remedies, there were also experimental treatments, including pneumothorax (surgically collapsing a portion of the lung so that it would heal) and thoracoplasty (opening the chest and removing two or three ribs so the lung would have more room to expand and heal). Both treatments were practiced at the sanitarium.
Rumors about the sanitarium include stories of a little girl in the third-floor solarium playing hide and seek with trespassers, a little boy named Bobby playing with his leather ball, rooms lighting up though there was no power in the building, doors slamming, 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!"
Cries and screams are frequently heard in the halls and some claim to have heard children on the rooftop chanting verses from "Ring around the Rosy." Spirits of children are believed to linger because young patients were taken to the rooftop for heliotherapy, where they were exposed to the supposed healing rays of the sun as part of TB treatment.
In 1928, the head nurse hanged herself from the light fixture in Room 502. In 1932, another nurse also working in Room 502 supposedly committed suicide by jumping from the roof.
When patients died, they were sent down the body chute to an awaiting hearse. The body chute, or death tunnel, is actually a 500 foot-long tunnel that leads from the hospital to the railroad tracks located at the bottom of the hill. This was done to keep moral high, so patients wouldn't see the hearses or bodies leave the building.
Waverly Hills' current owners, Tina and Charlie Mattingly, hold tours of the sanitarium and have converted the building into a haunted house attraction for the Halloween season. Proceeds go toward restoring the property.
As of now, all tours, half-night and overnight stays are completely booked for the rest of this year. You can call on Jan. 2, 2008 to schedule tours for next year. Call (502) 933-2142 between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and between noon and 3 p.m. on Saturdays.
The costs of the half-night stays (four hours) are $50 per person and overnight stays (eight hours) are $100 per person.
The paranormal and historical two-hour guided tours cost $20 per person. The tours allow the general public to see the property, the building's interior and the death tunnel. Visitors can walk through the corridors of the sanitarium where autopsies were performed and the deceased were placed on gurneys and rolled out to the death tunnel.
On the paranormal tours, 10 minutes are reserved on the fourth floor for everyone to keep quiet, keep their lights off and see if they can detect a presence or shadowy figures crossing the hall.
Overnight stays are for people who want to spend more time exploring additional rooms in the building. Visitors have the flexibility to roam freely without a guide. Guards are available for questions. Ouija boards and séances are not allowed.
The haunted house is open 8 p.m. - 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays until after Halloween. Admission is $20 per person for the haunted house. Parking is $2 per vehicle. The haunted house is open only on the first floor, including the ground lobby to the morgue area at the end of the north wing.
This information was found at waverlyhilltbsanitorium.com and underworldtales.com/waverly.htm. Visit either of these sites for more information about the haunted house and more detailed spooky stories about the sanitarium.
Every week the College Life section provides fun and frugal trip ideas. Clip out each week's destination and refer to it when you get in a rut and need to get away or are itching for an exciting adventure.
If you know of an interesting or entertaining event going on within a day's car ride, send your Cheap Trip information and a phone number to rebecca.paskievich@murraystate.edu.
Also, if you get a chance to go to one of our Cheap Trip destinations, send an e-mail to the above address to say how it went. Safe travels!
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