Waverly Hills Sanatorium: A 'Top Five' Ghost Hunters’ Haven
If you belong to the growing number of enthusiasts fascinated by evidence of life after death, visit Louisville's Waverly Hills Sanatorium, one of the top five sites in the nation for paranormal investigations. The Waverly Hills Sanatorium, off Dixie Highway in South Louisville, has been in the TV spotlight multiple times in recent years on shows such as “Ghost Hunters,” “Ghost Hunters Academy” and “Most Haunted." Visitors from around the globe travel to the former tuberculosis hospital to search for “shadow people” apparitions and to record mysterious disembodied voices dubbed “electronic voice phenomena.”
On Fridays and Saturdays, two-hour paranormal/historical guided tours of the building are offered seasonally, along with half-night and full-night paranormal investigations. Daylight tours are available at 2:30 p.m. one Sunday of each month. Tour prices range from $22 to $100. Private paranormal investigations/ghost hunts are available Sunday-Thursday. Call (502) 933-2142 for pricing and future availability.
Waverly Hills is “definitely in the top five” of paranormal sites in the United States, if not worldwide, said Jeff Belanger, lecturer, talk-show host and author of Encyclopedia of Haunted Places, Ghost Files, Who’s Haunting the White House, Nightmare Encyclopedia and many other books dealing with the supernatural and paranormal.
Tuberculosis services on the hilltop next to Bobby Nichols Golf Course (4301 East Pages Lane) began in 1910 in a smaller facility with room for 40 to 50 patients. As demand for services exploded, a much larger hospital with room for at least 400 patients opened in 1926.
In a time before modern antibiotics, patients with the infectious lung disease were isolated from the public and placed in peaceful areas where the air was fresh and clean. Thousands of patients passed through the doors of the hospital, and while many recovered, many others died there. Waverly operated as a tuberculosis hospital until 1962, when the building was renovated and transformed into a geriatrics center, which operated until 1980.
The building, damaged by time and vandalism, was purchased by Louisville couple Charlie and Tina Mattingly in 2001, who hope to see it renovated and restored. The goal is “to save a beautiful piece of history,” Tina Mattingly said. “We have done a lot, but we have a lot to do.”
TV publicity helps drive the tour business, which raises money for the restoration. “Sometimes you don’t want to put up with some of that stuff, but you’ve got to,” Mattingly said. “I could not buy that much advertising...couldn’t afford it. And it’s free. In fact, they pay us to come here.”
Mattingly, who has had plenty of unexplainable experiences at the old hospital, firmly believes that Waverly Hills is haunted, though “most people won’t — until they see something themselves. But it does have activity here. There are some really, really, really strange things that go on.”
Posted on Feb 4, 2011 by Bill Wolfe
