Waverly Hills Sanatorium

Waverly Hills Sanatorium sits on a wooded hilltop south of Louisville, Kentucky, and was built to fight tuberculosis in the era before antibiotics. A smaller sanatorium opened on the site in 1910, and the surviving Gothic-influenced main building was completed in 1926 to house hundreds of TB patients, who were treated with rest, fresh air and sunlight on its open wards and porches. When effective drug treatment made such sanatoria obsolete, it closed in 1961, later reopened as a geriatric facility, and was shut down in 1982 before standing empty for years.

Waverly Hills is one of the most famous "haunted" buildings in the United States, its reputation fuelled by the many deaths from tuberculosis and by a tunnel, often called the "body chute," once used to move supplies and the deceased. Visitors report shadow figures, voices and cold spots. These accounts are anecdotal, shaped by the building's grim atmosphere and history rather than proven phenomena.

The site's real significance is as a monument to the tuberculosis epidemic and the medical response to it. Now under private ownership and gradual restoration, it preserves an important and sobering chapter of public-health history.

Waverly Hills Sanatorium is privately owned and open to the public through guided historical tours and, separately, paranormal tours and overnight investigations, with proceeds supporting the building's ongoing restoration. Tours are seasonal and involve stairs and rough surfaces in an unrestored structure, so advance booking and suitable footwear are important.

Visitors should respect that this was a place of illness and death, follow all safety guidance, and remain with their tour group at all times.