Opened in 1910, although its origins date back to 1883, its first goal was to treat patients with tuberculosis or "white plague". At that time an epidemic spread mass in Jefferson County. Construction took a long time, as it was only in 1926 that the inauguration of the 5-storey sanatorium, which could accommodate more than 400 patients, took place.
There will be 478 for the year 1932 alone! First there were tuberculosis patients from the region and then soldiers from the Second World War who returned from the front to be treated.
The drugs of the time are not very effective against pulmonary tuberculosis, the establishment has a very advanced equipment, this in order to improve the comfort of patients. Treatment rooms and exams, even a bakery, shops, a hairdresser and a dental office. Solariums on the floors offer a superb view of the pure air and the sun, elements considered necessary for the cure of the disease. Heating blankets as well as a treatment by heliotherapy (with ultraviolet lamps) which even in bad climatic conditions make it possible to offer patients an obvious comfort.
The sanatorium has its own farms and cultures, in the case of strict diets supplementing the treatment of the disease. Occupational therapy is available. Until 1931 Dr. Oscar O. Miller leads all of this masterfully.
At the time of construction of the main building, a tunnel is built, which connects the sanatorium to the end of the hill on which it is located; buried 160 meters underground and nicknamed the "Death Tunnel". In fact, it was initially created to allow staff to cross the mountain and refuel the hospital with a system of rail-mounted carts. However, the growing epidemic earned him an entirely different function: to transport the bodies of the deceased discreetly to prevent other patients from thinking irretrievably about death.
Patients are already experiencing abuse, and some are seriously neglected. Although considered the best hospital for the treatment of tuberculosis, however, patients are treated to treat psychological diseases (including electroshock).
Among the "care" provided to patients, some were rather barbaric, like the "thoracoplasty" they used (serves to give more space to the lungs to breathe, cutting a part where even the ribs of the rib cage. 'At the time, this procedure was considered normal, 95% of the patients did not survive, and the survivors were hardly advantaged or even left behind ...
Apparently other interventions seemed rather strange, such as hanging the body of a deceased patient, open his belly and let him empty ...
A patient would have hanged himself in the stairwell and the staff would have left him there for a whole day in view of all the patients ... How can one let such things be done?
Imagine also that during the admission of patients, that the price of the evacuation of their body as well as their coffin were charged. But what hope was left for these people?
The hospital will be effective until 1943, when tuberculosis finally loses ground thanks to the progress of medicine (streptomycin, the first antibiotic.A hospital of this size not being useful, a part of the patients was transferred to another sanatorium (Hazelwood) Just for the year 1945, there were no less than 162 dead.
It seems that, the controls being clearly neglected, during the second world war, lots of aberrant things would have happened and this of course on the part of the medical staff.
In 1962, Waverly Hills became a geriatric hospital: Woodhaven Geriatrics Hospital, which will be closed in 1981 due to rumors of ill-treatment of patients.
It is at this time that the hospital acquires a very bad reputation, public opinion sees it as an insane asylum ...
After this closure, several owners succeed, projects fall into the water one after another for lack of sufficient financial means. In 1996, an owner attempted to demolish the building but was unable to do so because the National Register of Historic Places strongly opposed it.
But the sanatorium fell into a huge disrepair, victim of degradation, vandalism when in 2001, a couple (Mattingly) acquires it and begins major renovation work (asbestos removal, roofing) replacement of doors and windows, cleaning and deforestation of the surroundings.
It is also set up a whole system of surveillance as well as guarding. The "haunted" reputation of the building serves them for visits.
Visit them : https://www.therealwaverlyhills.com/
Some say that 63,000 people died in all at Waverly Hills. Although other sources would only count a number between 6 and 8000 over the entire service time.
Legends or reality
ghost of a young woman at the door of her room
Waverly Hills, therefore, is considered one of the most haunted places in America,
In the "Death Tunnel" there would have been many appearances and sounds (rales) heard.
After its closure in 1981, shapes, shadows, sometimes unexplained sounds, and slamming doors are recounted in the testimonies ...
Even smells (near the cafeteria), coffee smells? Feeled while the kitchens never served after closing.
A man all in white sometimes seems to roam the cafeteria or the kitchens, it seems that it is an old employee who was also suffering from tuberculosis.
We also saw the ghost of an elderly woman several times.
A little girl would haunt the third floor, where we repeatedly heard a ball bouncing off the ground. A man said he met her and described her as having no eyes. She was nicknamed "Mary".
Ghost of the little "Mary"
Sometimes, on the roof where children were treated (sun, fresh air seemed important at the time for the care of tuberculosis) a nursery rhyme sounds: "Ring around the Rosy" sung by children.
It is on the 4th floor that the phenomena occur most often.
A guard would have seen a head float in a room. We would have seen the reflections of a TV from the outside while everything was empty.
But there is also room 502
It is located on the 5th floor. People who visited the room would have heard crying sounds of baby and women, sighs, seen shadows and heard screaming, "Get out! ". The fifth floor housed mentally insane and tuberculous patients.
In 1928, a nurse found there hanged, suicide?
In 1932 another nurse fell from the window of that room. Suicide? Many questions are unanswered, but it emanates from this room as a great feeling of despair.
The appearance of a nurse would have been seen from the outside.
August 3, 2008 by Candy Woodruff
A film released in 2005, The Death Tunnel by Philip Adrian Booth, tells the story of the tunnel of death. It was also during tracking that the photo of the granddaughter was taken (see above). But other directors or reporters also found some strange facts.
My conclusions :
What do I think of all this? According to my personal ideas, I believe that places can accumulate the memory of things that happened there. All this suffering, all this violence, all these deaths must still float in the air. Restless dead who wander do not seem to me impossible, especially since we have probably done nothing to restore reality or help them to leave ... Hope you'll like my post.
But what's better than a video?
Or 2 ?