💀🕸️ The Waverly Hills Sanatorium: A THREAD 🕸️💀 
The Waverly Hills Sanatorium is a former sanatorium located in southwestern Louisville/Jefferson County, Kentucky. It opened in 1910 as a two-story hospital to accommodate 40 to 50 tuberculosis patients.
In the early 1900s,Jefferson County was ravaged by an outbreak of tuberculosis which prompted the construction of a new hospital. There were many tuberculosis cases in Louisville at the time because of all the wetlands along the Ohio River, 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".
Due to constant need for repairs on the wooden structures, for a more durable structure, as well as need for more beds so that people would not 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 in Louisville. Waverly Hills closed in June 1961.
Waverly Hills was a self-contained community. A city in and of itself, complete with its own zip code. It had its own post office, water treatment facility, grew its own fruits and vegetables, raised it's own meat for slaughter, and maintained many other necessities
There are many reports as to how many people died during Waverly Hills’ decades of operation. Approximately six thousand people died there, dating all of the way back to the original hospital records from 1911.
There have been many rumors and stories told about patient mistreatment and unusual experiments. Some of them have been proven to be false but others have unfortunately turned out to be true.
Electroshock therapy, which was considered to be highly effective in those days, was widely used for a variety of ailments.
After all of the death, pain and agony within these walls, that Waverly Hills is considered to be one of the most haunted places in the United States.
By 2001, the once stately building had been nearly destroyed by time, the elements and the vandals who came here looking for a thrill. Waverly Hills had become the local “haunted house” and it became a magnet for the homeless, looking for shelter, and teenagers, who broke in.
The hospital soon gained a reputation for being haunted and stories began to circulate of resident ghosts like the little girl who was seen running up and down the third floor solarium, the little boy who was spotted with a leather ball, etc
The most controversial legend of Waverly Hills was connected to the fifth floor of the building. This floor of the old hospital consisted of two nurses’ stations, a pantry, a linen room, medicine room and two medium-sized rooms on both sides of the two nurses’ stations.
One of these, Room 502, is the subject of many rumors and legends and just about every curiosity-seeker that had broken into Waverly Hills over the years wanted to see it.
This is where, according to the stories, people have seen shapes moving in the windows, have heard disembodied voices and, if the legends are to be believed, have even jumped to their deaths.
According to the stories, a nurse was found dead in Room 502 in 1928. She had committed suicide by hanging herself from the light fixture. In 1932, another nurse who worked in the same room jumped from the roof patio and plunged several stories to her death.
The old sanatorium is owned today by private investors who open the historic building up to curious overnight guests and "ghost" tours. The tours inform guests of the building's origin and history.
