Waverly Hills Sanatorium



Waverly Hills Sanatorium. One of the most haunted places in the USA & possibly even the entire world.

NOTE:

This is the original story published on this site, but I was contacted by John Amerine, who is the Waverly Hills researcher. In my communications with John, he shared information from his research that prompted me to follow up on the matter. I also researched John to make sure he is legit...He is. Everything about him checks out.

John has provided solid evidence that dispells many legends about Waverly Hills, including the death tolls & legend of the nurse`s alledged suicide. This new information is at the bottom of this page & it sheds light on the legends.

Folks, PLEASE read the updated information. We`ve been told many legends about Waverly Hills, but the updated information shows the truth.

GhostHauntings.Org is interested in the truth, not fiction, & we thank John for his painstaking research & bringing the facts to our attention.
Blair Jett

GhostHauntings.Org original story

The Waverly Hills sanatorium located just off Dixie Highway on East Pages Lane, in Louisville, Kentucky, opened it`s doors in 1926 as a treatment hospital for the white plague that was sweeping across America. The white plague also known as tuburculosis was an uncurable epidemic that was claiming hundreds of thousands of lives regularly until a cure was eventually developed. The hospital remained in operation until it was closed in 1961 after the cure was developed, eliminating the need for such facilities. During the thirty five years of it`s existence 63,000 people died at the sanitarium & records show at least one death per hour.

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 nestled 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.



There is a tunnel at the bottom of the five story building that was originally designed as a delivery route for groceries & supplies & as a bomb shelter. Because of the constant deaths, doctors decided to use the tunnel as a body chute in which the corpses of dead patients were transported by a rail car to the bottom of the hill to be loaded into the hearses & shipped for disposal. The decision to use this tunnel was intended so the other patients would not see the vast number of deaths at the facility, causing low morale.


The tunnel

After the closure in 1961, the building was converted into the Woodhaven Geriatrics Hospital for the elderly until it was closed down in 1982. The building has been abandoned & deteriorating ever since. This building has been the sight of constant paranormal events, including shadow images, footsteps heard, & apparitions. Many of these sightings have been captured in photos & even on live video.

There are several popular stories in the history of this building besides just the thousands of patient deaths. In 1932, a nurse at the facility by the name of Mary Hillenberg was found hanging from a noose in Nurses Station 502 on the fifth floor. According to many accounts, Mary had become pregnant out of wedlock by one of the doctors of the hospital. With Mary`s consent, the doctor & father performed a secret abortion on her, but she died during the surgery. According to accounts, the doctor feared that word would get out & ruin his reputation, so he staged Mary`s suicide by hanging her body in that nurses station.



Nurses Station 502


In patient room 418 on the fourth floor, two dying patients by the names of Elizabeth Beech & Jane Hurley made a pact that they would make contact after their deaths by appearing at the facility, & room 418 is now one of the several hot spots of activity in the building.
Because of the fact that tuburculosis was contageous, some of the staff even were stricken by the disease.

There`s a legend of "The man in the white coat" that has been seen roaming the halls near the surgery room. After contracting the disease, an operation was performed on Doctor Joseph Kines (spelling unconfirmed) in which several ribs were removed to give his lungs a chance to heal, but he died during the surgery. His image has been seen on many occassions.

There`s also the story of a boy that died by the name of Timmy. Timmy would always play with a bouncing ball in the hallways while he was alive, & visitors at the sanatorium have reported seeing a ball actually rolling down the halls of the building long after his death. This has also been confirmed by security personel that watch the grounds. According to the security staff these stories are absolutely true & they willingly admit the the building is haunted.

On October 20, 2006, the television program "Celebrity Paranormal" aired on VH1 & features celebrities that are sent in to haunted locations to conduct investigations. In this episode the celebrities to visit Waverly Hills Sanatorium, Gary Busey, Hal Sparks, Jenna Morasca, Toccara, & Donna d`Errico, spent the night in the facility armed with video surveilance, thermal detectors, & devination devices.

 Although I missed the airing of that episode, I did see the video footage provided by VH1, & also saw footage that wasn`t used in that episode. In this footage I saw a bouncing ball that would roll on it`s own accord & disappear, only to reappear later on. The video also caught shadow images moving in the halls & one of them was a small shadow of what is believed to be Timmy rolling the ball & playing hide & seek.

Footsteps and loud crashes were heard near the surgery room & the thermal detectors picked up images moving around the celebrities. The team then went to Nurses Station 502 & Hal Sparks employed the use of spirit writing. Hal held an object from the facility in one hand & asked the spirit of Mary (the hanged nurse) to speak through him.

 He drew the picture of a body hanging from a noose, then with his eyes closed & allowing his left hand to flow freely by the influence of an unseen entity, his hand spelled out the words "wrong" & "no", with an arrow pointing to the picture. This has lead them to believe that Mary is trying to dispell the story that she committed suicide & tell the story of her murder.




Tina Mattingly posing inside the Waverly Hills Sanatorium


In 2001 the deteriating building & garbage infested land around the sanitorium was bought by Charles & Tina Mattingly for the sum of $250.000. The Mattingly`s formed the Waverly Hills Sanatorium Historical Society & through donations & volunteer support intend on turning the huge estate into a haunted bed & breakfast inn. The renovation has already begun, & once opened, will feature haunted tours.




This photo was taken by Gina Curley of the Louisville Ghost Hunters Society (LGHS) during a tour of the Waverly Hills Sanatorium in 2003. This building has a history of paranormal sightings & 63,000 people have died there.

The two women in this picture are members of the LGHS & it was taken on the second floor solarium. Their backs are against a large open air window that faces the back parking lot & there was no one behind the women as they were backed up against a retaining wall on the edge of the building.

Later, after developing the photograph, they noticed what seemed to be an object behind & between the two women. After enlarging the photo several times, a distinct face becomes apparent. It`s estimated that the image is ten feet behind the two women, which would mean that it`s floating in mid air above the parking lot & two stories high. So far there is no explanation for this photograph. I have studied this photo closely & it appears that there is some space between the two women & the retaining wall, but this image behind them is clearly on the other side of that wall & not between it & the women.









Another interesting photo while doing research on the Waverly Hills Sanatorium

This photo was taken at the Waverly Hills Sanitarium in Louisville, KY. There appears to be a small boy in the center, a woman in a long dress holding an infant to his right, and a man with his arm behind the boy's head on the left. Perhaps a couple of other figures, too. I'll let you be the judge. Creepy place!

UPDATE AUGUST 2008

By John Amerine

The following has been sent to various historical societies, historian, UofL History Dept and Libraries as well as the CDC Louisville.gov Tuberculosis services, American Lung Association, and the KY Cabinet for heatlth TB division.


I have been working to find the truth behind the legends regarding Waverly Hills and have found a lot of compelling information. I'd like to run some of this info by you and see what you think.
What I have complied does not give us exact number yet, but it does show that
the legend about 63,000 deaths is a huge exaggeration and that the real number will likely be 10% of the legend if not less!
As far as the data.
1st - some excerpts from the following autobiography written by a
former assistant medical director who worked at Waverly Hills from 1945 to 1955:
Sunrise Sunset
Dr. J. Frank W. Stewart

Chapter 22
Page 98

6th and 7th paragraphs

" I was assigned to the third floor where I had 106 beds, most of them full
at all times. We had alot of deaths then, mostly soldiers who were coming back
from the war in about 1946 and 1947. They were so far advanced that some of
them didn't live more than a week after arriving at Waverly."

" Each doctor was required to try to help keep up with *the 17% requirement of
autopsies on deaths in order to hold an A classification. The doctors rotated
on the coverage for weekends. I remember one weekend when I was on call for the
whole hospital; we had 4 deaths. Out of the four, I did three autopsies. We
would collect the specimins of all of the organs, observe any abnormalities,
dictate the gross findings, and take specimins to be sent to the pathology
laboratory for further examination. One of these years, we had 152 deaths,
which was the highest in the history of the institution."

Now with only this one fact you can see that the legend is imposable.
If every year that Waverly Hills was open for 51 years. If the worst year in the
history of the institution was 152 deaths, and each of the other 50 years was
151 deaths (one less then the worst year) than 7,701 would be the highest
possible grand total.
This however is still obviously high.

2nd - We have gone through microfilms of death certificates collecting all
Waverly Hills death certificates and compiling the data getting cross
sections of actual figures. I should add that at times I also include deaths occurring at home if Waverly is listed as the informant, if a known staff member signed the document, or if there was any other reason to believe that the person may have been a patient at Waverly. I did so for two reasons, 1) as effort to identify former patients for the memorial site, and 2) to compensate for any certificates that I may have missed through human error or insufficient/incorrect documentation.

Here is some of this data:
1911 - 30 deaths

http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~waverlymemorial/deathcerts/1911/Stats.html

1912 - 113 deaths

http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~waverlymemorial/deathcerts/1912/Stats.html

1913 - 111 deaths

http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~waverlymemorial/deathcerts/1913/Stats.html

1914 - 116 deaths (stats only, most certs are not online yet)

http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~waverlymemorial/deathcerts/1914/Index.html

1928 - 88 deaths

http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~waverlymemorial/deathcerts/1928/Index.html

1932 - 91 deaths (Page not started yet) 
1952 - 79 deaths (not online yet)
1953 - 65 deaths (not online yet)
This data shows the average death rate to be 86.6 deaths per year

3rd - From a report written by Dr Dunning S. Wilson (Medical
director
1910-1917)
The report was written in 1915
From:
26 July 1910 to 1 Sept 1914
322 Died
From:
31 Aug 1914 to 1 Jan 1915
43 Died
From:
1 Jan 1915 to 1 Jan 1916
146 Died
For a total of 511 deaths in the first 5.4 years.
For an average of 93.96 per year

This confirms the above findings and in fact, when the certs are divided by these dates the numbers do match.

4th - From the 1954/55 fiscal report
Waverly Hills Sanatorium
Fiscal Year 1954-1955
Patients carried over from previous year 362
Admissions 365
Total patients given service 727
Patients discharged 360
Discharged alive 318
Died - - within 24 hours *2
Died - - others *40
*Patients in Sanatorium June 30 367

So the total number of deaths at this time was 42 . This shows that
again the numbers were substantially lower than the legends. It also shows that in
1955 when Dr Stewart left Waverly Hills, the death rate was on a steep
decline which backs up his number as being the largest number of deaths in the
history of the institution.
All things considered, I believe that an estimate of 100 deaths per year
(or 5,100) would be very reasonable, so my estimates of 6,000 would
likely be somewhat high, but still much more realistic than the legends.
BTW - The first known death at Waverly Hills was on - Aug 29 1911 -
(1 year 1 month and 3 days after opening)
which is backed up by statements from the 1915 report which shows that the
original sanatorium was for cases in the early stages only. This also shows
that with a whole year+ with no deaths, the overall total would reduce even
more.
I should add that I believe that allowing such unfounded legends to flourish is
disrespectful to the memory of such a historic site and at the same time
misleading to the public who needs to know actual facts about a disease
that still infects about 1/3 of the earths population.
I would appreciate any input you might give on my findings.
Feel free to ask if you have any questions of me.

Thank you,
John Amerine
Waverly Hills researcher
http://whsmemorial.tripod.com

Here is an excerpt from an email that John Amerine sent to GhostHauntings.org

I have looked up the name Mary Hillenburg in the KY death index

 http://vitals.rootsweb.com/ky/death/search.cgi

and found only two people by the name Hillard to have died in Jefferson Co. Neither were named Mary and both died well after Waverly was closed. I even tried several alternate spellings with nothing found.
The names Jane Hurley and Elizabeth Beech are new to me. This is a new legend that I hadn't heard before. Same search, same results... None found.
This also was tried with Dr Kines. Nothing found with even a similar name. And I have no record thus far of any staff members by that surname.
Try searching for them yourself and let me know if you have any more luck then I have. But I think it is another example of the legends not holding water when actually looked into.

John Amerine

I am John Amerine, former chief historian for the Mattinglys who gave the first historical tours for them, created the original memorial site to former patients and staff, helped coordinate volunteer clean-ups, and did countless hours of volunteer security before I moved away from Louisville. I am no longer active in helping out at Waverly but I am still very active with researching the true history.

Some of my historical accomplishments are as follow, compiling of countless newspaper articles, pamphlets, booklets, reports, and correspondence to include actual copies of the Waverly Herald (newsletter put out for the patients) a 1915 report to the board of TB hospitals written by the medical director Dunning S Wilson, the 1954/55 fiscal report, and several letters/postcards.

The 1938 vintage documentary shown now in spooked, tv shows, news reports and even the pre tour show at Waverly itself is part of a documentary on the fight against TB called “On the firing line” which we first learned about from a newspaper article written about the crew filming for it.

My wife and I spent months locating the only copy in existence at a medical archive in New England, having it converted to VHS and getting a copy sent to us. We then made copies for the Mattinglys and several other regulars. You can also see my name in the credits section on Ron's official website as well as the special thanks section in the official memorial site. Feel free to contact Ron or Pam from those sites to ask if I am a legit researcher. I am also IN Spooked.

You mention all the sources that you checked confirm 60,000 deaths. Do any of them have a single shred of proof to back this figure? Because in all of my research I have yet to see anything concrete to support it. On the other hand, I have the reports mentioned above which show that the years in question had far fewer deaths then legends would have you believe.

I also have well over 2,300 death certificates to include 17.5 entire years worth as well as several partial years, This data not only supports the reports but also shows that throughout the operation of Waverly Hills, an average of 104 deaths occurred per year. This is further supported by an autobiography written by a former assistant medical director who worked at Waverly from 1945-1955 who states that he was present for the worst year for deaths in the history of the hospital was 152 deaths in a single year at the end of WWII when many troops were coming back with far advanced cases.

 And of course we double checked his claim and found that in1945 there were actually 162 deaths at Waverly and we believe that 152 was a simple typographical error. Either way, it shows that no where near a death per hour happened, and the highest that the death rate could be with this fact around 8,700, far below the legend. And to wrap it all up we have a graph that shows the rate of death from TB for Louisville, KY, and the U.S which shows (with a little math) that the death rate was way below the legends.

If you HAVE come across anything that actually supports the legend, please let me know.
But in the mean time, word IS getting out about the true figures. I even have backing from the historical societies, local historians, and awareness groups. So more and more people are coming to know that the legendary figures have at least been challenged by some real proof to the contrary.


Thanks for your reply and interest. If you have any other questions or comments please let me know.


John Amerine

More ghost images caught on camera at Waverly

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