Waverly Hills Sanatorium

Waverly Hills Tuberculosis Sanitarium Historic Buildings
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
File:Waverlyfront.jpg Waverly Hills Sanatorium main entrance
Location	Louisville, KY
Architect	Gaffney,J. J.; Murphy,D. X.
Architectural style	Other
MPS	Jefferson County MRA
NRHP reference No.	83002746
Added to NRHP	July 12, 1983

Waverly Hills Sanatorium, located in Louisville, Kentucky, opened in 1910 as a two-story hospital to accommodate 40 to 50 tuberculosis patients. It has been popularized on television as being one of the "most haunted" hospitals in the eastern United States, and was seen on ABC/FOX Family Channel's Scariest Places On Earth as well as VH1's Celebrity Paranormal Project. It was also seen on the Sci Fi Channel's Ghost Hunters.[11]

History

File:Waverlylogo.jpg

Waverly Hills Sanatorium logo

How Waverly got the name

The land that is today known as Waverly Hill was purchased by Major Thomas H. Hays in 1883 as the Hays Family home. Since the new home was now so far away from any existing schools, Mr. Hays decided to open a local school for his daughters to attend. He started a one-room schoolhouse on Pages Lane, and hired Lizzie Lee Harris as the teacher. Miss Harris loved her tiny school nestling against the hillside, and remembered her fondness for Walter Scott's Waverley novels, so she named her little school house "Waverly School". Major Hays liked the peaceful-sounding name, so he named his property "Waverly Hill" and the Board of Tuberculosis Hospital kept the name when they bought the land and opened the sanatorium. It is not known exactly when the spelling changed to exclude the second "e" and became Waverly Hills. However the spelling fluctuated between both spellings many times over the years.

Original Sanatorium

In the early 20th century, Jefferson County was severely stricken with an outbreak of tuberculosis. There were many tuberculosis cases in Louisville at the time because of all the swampland, which was perfect for the tuberculosis bacteria. To try to contain the disease, a two-story wooden sanatorium was opened which consisted of an administrative/main building and two open air pavilions, each housing 20 patients, for the treatment of "early cases".
"In the early part of 1911, the city of Louisville began to make preparations to build a new Louisville City Hospital, and the hospital commissioners decided in their plans that there would be no provision made in the new City Hospital for the admission of pulmonary tuberculosis, and the Board of Tuberculosis Hospital was given $25,000 to erect a hospital for the care of advanced cases of pulmonary tuberculosis". [12]

On 22 Aug 1911, all tuberculosis patients from the City Hospital were relocated to temporary quarters in tents on the grounds of Waverly Hills pending the completion of a hospital for advanced cases.
In December of 1912 a hospital for advanced cases opened for the treatment of another 50 patients. And in 1916 a children’s pavilion added another 40 beds making the known “capacity” around 130 patients. This report also mentions that the goal was to add a new building each year to continually grow so there may have even been more beds available than specifically listed. It is a common misconception that the hospital made for 40 was over packed with well over 100 patients, but this is just a miscalculation due to lack of information, with only one major exception which is mentioned above.

Sanatorium Expansions

Due to constant need for repairs on the wooden structures, need for a more durable structure, as well as need for more beds so that people wouldn’t be turned away due to lack of space, construction of a five-story building that could hold more than 400 patients began in March 1924. The new building opened on October 17, 1926, but after the introduction of streptomycin in 1943, the number of tuberculosis cases gradually lowered, until there was no longer need for such a large hospital. The remaining patients were sent to Hazelwood Sanatorium, which was also located in Louisville, and Waverly Hills closed in June of 1961.

Woodhaven Medical Services

The building was reopened in 1962 as Woodhaven Geriatrics Hospital; Woodhaven was closed in 1981 allegedly due to patient abuse.

Recent developments

The Prison

" Simpsonville developer J. Clifford Todd bought the old hospital in 1983 for $305,000. He and architect Milton Thompson wanted to convert it into a minimum-security prison for the state. But the developers dropped the plan after neighbors protested. Todd and Thompson then proposed converting the hospital into apartments.
But they counted on Jefferson Fiscal Court to buy around 140 acres from them for $400,000, giving them the money to start the project."

The Statue

Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro

In March of 1996, Robert Alberhasky bought Waverly Hills and the surrounding area. Alberhasky's Christ the Redeemer Foundation Inc. had plans to construct the world's tallest statue of Jesus on the Waverly site, along with an arts and worship center. The statue, which was inspired by the famed Christ the Redeemer statue on Corcovado Mountain in Rio de Janeiro, would have been designed by local sculptor Ed Hamilton and architect Jasper Ward.

The first phase of the development, coming in at a cost of $4,000,000, would have been a statue 150 feet tall and 150 feet wide, situated on the roof of the sanatorium. The second phase would convert the old sanatorium into a chapel, theater, and a gift shop at a cost of $8,000,000 or more.

The plan to construct this religious icon fell through because donations to the project fell well short of expectations. In a period of a year, only $3,000 was raised towards the effort despite efforts to pool money from across the nation. The project was cancelled in December 1997.

As a result, Alberhasky abandoned the Waverly Hills property. In order to recoup some of his costs, Alberhasky attempted to have the property condemned so that it could be torn down and redeveloped. That notion was denied by the county, and Alberhasky then attempted to undermine the structural foundations of the building by bulldozing around the southern perimeter in order to receive insurance money.

The Restoration

After Alberhasky's efforts failed, Waverly Hills was sold to current owners Tina and Charlie Mattingly in 2001. Charlie's father, who died in 2005, worked as an orderly at Waverly Hills for approximately four years. The Mattinglys currently hold tours of Waverly Hills and convert the building into a haunted house attraction each Halloween. There are also historical tours, ghost tours, as well as overnight investigations available for a fee. Proceeds go toward saving the building and the restoration of the property.

Structures

Much of the following information comes from a hand drawn map and accompanying pages of building descriptions that were obtained from the Waverly Herald. The exact date is not on the pages that were acquired however it is estimated that it was from the May 1953 issue. http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~waverlymemorial/newspapers/waverly_herald/Building_list/map.jpg http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~waverlymemorial/newspapers/waverly_herald/Building_list/building_list_pt_1.jpg http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~waverlymemorial/newspapers/waverly_herald/Building_list/building_list_pt_2.jpg

Edgewood

Originally the home of the Hayes family, this building was already standing when the land was purchased in 1908. It was used by the sanatorium as a nurses dorm, and later as staff housing. It was eventually destroyed by fire
See No.15 on the above map

Original Sanatorium

The original wooden structure opened in 26 July 1910 was an administrative building which contained offices, treatment rooms, and a kitchen. It was torn down due to its poor condition. [13]

Pavilion buildings

The wooden pavilion buildings were built at various times in the operation of the sanatorium. The first two were standing in 1910 when the original sanatorium opened. One housed 20-25 male patients, the other 20-25 female patients. Later, with the construction of the new Main building, the southernmost pavilion building was moved to the parking lot to make room for the north wing. This building was used as housing for male staff members.
See numbers 3 & 11 on the above maps. Also see 2,12,13 for additional pavilion type buildings on the property.

Hospital for advanced cases

This two story structure opened December 18, 1912 [14] and was designed to care for 50 advanced cases of pulmonary tuberculosis.
Later, with the opening of the Main building, this building became the "Colored Hospital", and later still was used as staff housing.
See No.21 on the above map

Main building

20 Oct 1926 was the official opening ceremony and dedication of the new building. This state of the art building is one of the few buildings still standing on the land.

The Tunnel

Completed in 1926, this inclined corridor was first constructed for workers to be able to move supplies in and out of the building from the railroad spur at the bottom of the hill. One side of the tunnel consists of concrete steps while the other is made up of a motorized rail and cable system. At some point it was decided that the tunnel could also be used to discretely transport bodies off of the hill without other patients witnessing it, thereby protecting their morale. The bodies of the dead were placed on a cart and then lowered to the bottom.

Legends

Room 502

Room 502 is the subject of a local myth about two suicides which are said to have occurred in the room. The first reported death is that of nurse Mary Hillenburg, whom is said to have hanged herself from a fixture in 1928 after becoming pregnant out of wedlock, and that of a nurse whom is said to have jumped out of the window.

Any contemporary investigations of the myth have been unable to locate any documented evidence of the deaths, this includes efforts by Sci-Fi Channel production Ghost Hunters as well as several local researchers. Records from 1911 onwards indicated that only two individuals by the name of Hillenburg died in the region, but that both deaths occurred after Waverly Hills had closed.

Death Rate

Legend
Estimates vary wildly of how many died at Waverly. Some put the total at 63,000; however, that number is believed to be for statewide deaths.
Others estimate the total to be closer to 6,000
Additional Facts
Evidence suggests that the worst single year total of deaths at Waverly was 152, which would make the overall death count considerably less than the legend. (7,702 being the highest possible total for the 51 years of operation)
This information was found in the autobiography of Assistant Medical Director Dr. J. Frank W. Stewart, who states that the worst time for deaths was at the end of the Second World War when troops were returning from overseas with very advanced tuberculosis cases.

Draining Room

Legend
One of the more eerie legends of Waverly Hills was a place known as "The Draining Room." Located near the morgue of the hospital, this room was created in an effort to rid the dead bodies of infected fluids and to make the bodies lighter for transport in the "death tunnel." After a patient died, doctors would hang the dead on tall poles in the room with drains at the bottom. They would then cut the bodies from sternum to groin so that the bodily fluids would drain from the body. Jefferson County townspeople didn't want bodies brought to the town for fear of infection, so this was the alternative. From the draining room, they were placed on gurneys and escorted down the death tunnel.
Additional Facts
However this legend is completely untrue. The room in question is clearly labeled as the Transformer room on the 1924 AND 1962 mechanical drawings [15]. The large metal door is clearly stamped with "Fire Protection"[16]. There are openings in the wall between this room and power distribution next door where electrical wiring passed through the wall. Also, hospitals do not, nor did they ever, have anything to do with preparing the bodies in any way. That job would be completed by the funeral director hired by the deceased's family, or if no family existed, the funeral director contracted by the county.

Waverly Hills in entertainment

• The October 31, 2007, live Halloween special of SciFi Channel show Ghost Hunters will take place at Waverly Hills Sanatorium.
• On July 19, 2001, ABC Family's Scariest Places On Earth was taped at Waverly Hills by Triage Entertainment.
• In 2004, the movie, Death Tunnel and the documentary Spooked, were filmed at Waverly Hills. Death Tunnel was released by Sony Pictures on February 28, 2006.
• The March 29, 2006, episode of the SciFi Channel show Ghost Hunters was taped at Waverly Hills.
• The documentary Spooked premiered on June 7 2006 at 9:00PM EDT on the SciFi Channel.
• The VH1 Celebreality show Celebrity Paranormal Project which premiered on October 22, 2006 was taped at Waverly Hills.
• A portion of the documentary Haunted, set to premiere in 2007 was filmed at Waverly Hills.
• "Terror Normal", a paranormal investigative series, filmed "Episode 1: The Ghosts of the Waverly Hills Sanatorium" in December 2006, and was released in February of 2007.
• A French comic book series, Pandemonium by Christophe Bec and Stefano Raffaele, is based on the paranormal events supposed to have occurred at Waverly Hills Sanatorium.

Sounds of the Underground

Waverly Hills Sanatorium hosted the last show of the touring music festival Sounds of the Underground 2007 on August 11th. The show featured prominent acts in the extreme metal and metalcore scene, including Job for a Cowboy, The Acacia Strain, Hatebreed, Shadows Fall, GWAR, and Lamb of God. It is unknown whether or not Waverly Hills Sanatorium plans to hold similar festivals or concerts in the future. This will not happen again according to the following article:

Courier Journal
Wednesday, August 22, 2007

"PLEASURE RIDGE PARK
Waverly Hills rock concert was its last
Neighbors outraged by noise, vulgarities"

Which went on to say:

There will be no more loud rock concerts at the old Waverly Hills hospital in Pleasure Ridge
Park like the one on Aug. 11 that upset nearby residents, metro officials say.

References

• Spooked: The Ghosts of Waverly Hills Sanatorium, (2006) documentary.

External links

• The Waverly Hills Historical Society Official Website
• Parnormal Investigation at Waverly Hills
• Waverly Hills Sanatorium at Abandoned Online - Includes tour information and contacts.
• "Death Tunnel" Movie
• Waverly Hills Sanatorium at Prairie Ghosts - Includes Jay Gravatte's story of hosting "Fox's Scariest Places on Earth".
• Mad Ones Productions: Haunted
• "Spooked: The Ghosts of Waverly Hills Sanatorium" Documentary
• Waverly Hills Sanatorium/Woodhaven Geriatric Center Memorial & Historical Resource
• 102.3 WXMA: "Ghost Kids" video
• Sounds Of The Underground Official Website
• Google Map

38°07′48.53″N 85°50′30.22″W