Waverly Hills, Kentucky. Thousands of people have walked these corridors. Thousands of people died in these rooms. Hundreds of people walk in the darkened footsteps of the past, during the haunted hours, looking for the dead. I, too, awed by the history, the architecture and the decay, spent a cold, early spring night on the property. I listened. I looked. I communed with the past, and as certain subjects beckon me, entice me, obsess me, Waverly Hills Sanatorium caught my heart and pulled. Joining my fellow Forteans on this excursion, I soon tired of random clicks of the shutter into dark nothingness. The glare of electric strobes froze my interest even more. So after strolling on the fifth floor, I indulged my creative muse and photographed her as best I could, paying homage to my romance of what once was here.
- LOCATION:
- Latitude: 38.130147
- Longitude: -85.841728
- 4400 Paralee Lane, Louisville, KY 40272
- A LITTLE HISTORY:
- Waverly Hills was named such because of a small, one room school house that had been located on the property before the sanatorium was built. The school teacher there named her school that because of her love of Scott's Waverly novels. 1
- The first tuberculous sanatorium on the property was a two-story structure that could hold between 40 and 50 patients. 1
- The structure that still stands, was completed in 1926 and could hold around 400 patients. 1
- Waverly Hill Sanatorium closed its doors as a tuberculous hospital in 1961. 1
- In 1962, it became WoodHaven Medical Services, a geriatric home. 1
- In 1980, the state closed WoodHaven. 1
- STRUCTURES:
- The main hospital structure
- The laundry (information center and gift shop)
- The Body Chute
- CURRENT USAGE: Private facility. Paranormal tours are available with reservations and for a fee.
- REFERENCE
