Are you Afraid of the Waverly Hills Sanatorium?

Let me preface this by saying we are both scaredy-cats, Cameron probably more so than Blair. Either way, you won’t find either of us first in line at the latest Wes Craven or Saw 5,324 (gosh, how many of those are out now?). So maybe we’re crazy, but we’re also really excited to go on a ghost-hunt this weekend!

We’ll be on one of the many tours offered by the Waverly Hills Historical Society (and probably clinging to each other for courage and moral support). Waverly Hills first opened its doors as a tuberculosis hospital in 1910 and expanded to its full size during the 1920s tuberculosis epidemic in Louisville. As advances in antibiotics reduced the staggering numbers of TB patients, Waverly was turned into a geriatrics center until it was closed down by the state in 1980.

Those of you who DVR Ghost Hunters or any other paranormal TV shows/specials are probably already well aware of the Waverly Hills Sanatorium, and it has consistently ranked among the Top Most Haunted places in the country.

Waverly Hills is considered haunted for 2 main reasons:

1. The usual myths, stories, and urban legends that seem to come along with old, creepy-looking buildings, including the legend of Room 502 which was explored on a popular episode of Ghost Hunters. Room 502 was allegedly the scene of a nurse’s suicide in the 1930s after she realized she was pregnant…and unmarried (gasp!) Unfortunately for the nurse, the sexual revolution didn’t occur until the 1960s.

2. The Body Chute aka The Death Tunnel (dunh! dunh! DUNH!) Originally built to carry supplies and utilities into the hospital without dragging them up the hill, the tunnel was re-appropriated as a route to move deceased tuberculosis patients out of the hospital without upsetting the still-living patients.  Oh, by the way, did I mention that electricity was never installed, so the tunnel is COMPLETELY DARK aside from what light filters in through air vents every 100 feet?

So wish us luck and endless battery-life in our flashlights and we’ll try to bring back some photos of creepy apparitions and unexplained lights…if we don’t bring anything back, you’ll know we chickened out.