Waverly Hills Sanatorium, Louisville: History, Deaths and Ghosts

Waverly Hills Sanatorium is a former tuberculosis hospital on a hill in southwestern Louisville, Kentucky. Its five-story building opened in 1926 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is also one of the best-known reputedly haunted buildings in the country, and it is open for tours.

The story of Waverly Hills carries a heavy factual core: many people died of tuberculosis here, and a good many recovered. This guide separates what the records support from what the legends add, and it says plainly that the death toll is an estimate and that published figures conflict.

A hospital for the White Plague

In the early 1900s Jefferson County was hit hard by tuberculosis, called the White Plague. According to the sanatorium’s own history and Wikipedia, a two-story wooden facility opened in 1910 with an administrative building and two open-air pavilions of 20 patients each. Sources give its capacity as 40 to 50 patients. In 1912 a hospital for advanced cases was added, and a children’s pavilion followed.

Construction of the large five-story building began in March 1924, and it opened on October 17, 1926, designed for more than 400 patients. The architect on the National Register listing is J. J. Gaffney. Wikipedia describes the site as a largely self-contained community with its own laundry, water treatment, gardens and a post office.

Before antibiotics, treatment meant fresh air, sunlight, rest and food, along with surgical procedures such as collapsing a lung. Wikipedia notes that Waverly Hills operated segregated facilities, with Black patients housed separately, and that the first Black nurse was hired in the summer of 1926.

Closing, Woodhaven and restoration

Waverly Hills closed in June 1961, after antibiotics, including streptomycin, reduced the need for sanatoriums. In 1962 the building reopened as the Woodhaven Geriatric Center, a nursing home. Wikipedia reports overcrowding, staffing shortages and neglect allegations before it closed in 1980.

Later owners proposed a prison, apartments and a giant statue of Christ. None was built. The building was purchased in 2001 by new owners who began offering tours, and the proceeds go toward restoration. The site was added to the National Register on July 12, 1983.

How many people died here?

No exact number exists, and the figures conflict. The most widely repeated number, 63,000 deaths, is described by Hauntpedia, a ghost-lore reference site that takes a skeptical line, as unsupported. Hauntpedia puts the likely toll at roughly 6,000, based on filed death certificates going back to 1911, and says some researchers estimate it nearer 8,000. A 2019 local television report says the operators estimate that 20,000 to 60,000 people died of tuberculosis there, while also noting that many records have been lost.

Kentucky Historic Institutions has begun compiling an index of recorded patient deaths from 1911 to 1960, using original death certificates held by the state archives. That is the most reliable path toward a count, and it is still a work in progress.

The same site says one assistant medical director recalled the highest yearly toll as about 152. It also repeats a claim that records up to 1935 were destroyed in the 1937 flood. Both come from a single source, so they are cited here only as claims, not as established fact. Whatever the final number, each death was a person, and many patients were poor and young.

The tunnel and the “body chute”

A tunnel about 500 feet long runs down the hillside. According to Wikipedia, it was built to carry steam and supplies between the heating plant and the main building, with a cable car for transport. Anecdotes say that between the 1920s and 1940s it was also used to move the dead out of sight, sparing patients the knowledge that someone had died. Staff also describe it that way, and tours call it the body chute. The claim that tens of thousands of bodies passed through it rests on the disputed death-toll figures above.

The ghost stories and who tells them

Most reports come from visitors, tour operators and television programs. Wikipedia notes that the building is marketed as haunted, and that it has appeared on several ghost-hunting series.

• Room 502. The best-known legend says a nurse died in this room in 1928 and another in 1932. Hauntpedia found no death certificate, newspaper report or hospital record for either, and notes that the versions of the story contradict each other. It should be treated as an unsupported legend.
• Timmy and the ball. Visitors roll a ball in a corridor and report that it rolls back. Children did die at the hospital, but this boy is folklore.
• The Creeper. A dark figure said to move along walls and ceilings on upper floors, which appears to come from visitor accounts rather than a historical backstory.
• Shadow figures, voices and doors. General reports on the fourth and fifth floors.

The 2019 television report quotes the sanatorium’s director as saying that tours do not dwell on paranormal activity, so that guests can have their own experiences. Hauntpedia points out that the building is unlit, unheated, dusty, open to the weather in places and home to birds and animals, and that claims of 30- or 40-degree temperature drops have no measured basis. It also says that a legend of a fire that killed a floor of patients has no historical support.

Visiting Waverly Hills

The official site says the 2026 tour season runs from March 1 through August 31. It lists daytime historical tours of about two hours, paranormal tours, and public and private investigations. Its FAQ says reservations are required, a minimum age of 13 is recommended for tours, and the building is not handicap accessible because it has no working elevators. Directions are specific, and the site warns visitors to follow its listed check-in instructions.

A separate Halloween haunted house attraction is listed for Fridays and Saturdays from September 25 to October 31 on a different gate. It is not the historical tour. Prices and availability change, so the official site is the place to confirm them.

Waverly Hills FAQ

How many people died at Waverly Hills?

Nobody knows exactly. Estimates range from about 6,000 to 8,000 based on death certificates, and 20,000 to 60,000 in the operators’ own estimate. The number 63,000 is not supported.

Is Room 502 real?

The room exists, but the stories of two nurses dying there lack documentation and contradict each other.

Can visitors tour the building?

Yes, during the tour season. The official site says reservations are required and that the 2026 regular season runs March 1 through August 31.

Why did Waverly Hills close?

It closed in June 1961 as antibiotics such as streptomycin lowered the need for tuberculosis hospitals.

Sources

• Waverly Hills Sanatorium, official site
• Waverly Hills Sanatorium, FAQ
• Waverly Hills Sanatorium, history page
• WAVE 3 News, history and hauntings at the former tuberculosis hospital (2019)
• Kentucky Historic Institutions, Waverly Hills patient death index
• Hauntpedia, Waverly Hills Sanatorium
• Wikipedia, Waverly Hills Sanatorium

Top image: Waverly Hills Sanatorium 2018.jpg, Royasfoto73, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons