In the early 1900s, America was in the throes of a full blown tuberculosis epidemic.  Hit hard was the State of Kentucky.  According to James C. Klotter’s book, Kentucky: Portrait in Paradox, 1900-1950, the state ranked second in the nation in the early 1900s for its death rate from tuberculosis.  Black populations were particularly at risk, with a disease contraction rate twice that of the white population.  Something had to be done.  In 1910, Louisville opened up a forty-bed hospital, but it was quickly over-run with patients.  Then, after much fundraising, the Waverly Hills Sanatorium was built and opened in 1926, and was a state-of-the-art TB hospital with over 400 beds.  Built high on a hill, Waverly Hills offered the best “cure” for tuberculosis known at the time: lots of fresh air.  There were other treatments available, some of the remarkably barbaric in nature, but Streptomycin, the first real treatment for TB, was not discovered until 1943.

The Body Chute 

At the height of the epidemic, Waverly Hills took in entire families, some of which lived, many of which died.  The death rate at one point was calculated to be one death per hour, twenty-four hours a day.  A 500 foot long tunnel was built, with stairs on one side and a ramp on the other, to transport the dead from the facility so that the other patients wouldn’t have to see the dead being transported from the hospital.  The tunnel became morbidly known as “the body chute.”

Patient Resting at Waverly Hills

Life at Waverly Hills was not all bad.  Though most did not survive “the white plague,” the staff and physicians were dedicated to trying to make a stay at the sanatorium as pleasant as possible.  Radio, horseback rides, movies, and visits from Santa for the kiddos were all part and parcel of convalescence at Waverly Hills.  This government video features Waverly Hills in its hey-day.

When antibiotics finally became available, the population of people in need of the services of places like Waverly Hills dwindled, and eventually the hospital was shut down in 1961.  It was reopened in 1962 as a geriatric sanatarium called WoodHaven.  WoodHaven was shut down by the State in 1980 for alleged patient abuses.  The building has remained unused since that time.

With ownership of the building bouncing around for the next 18 years, the building fell into immense disrepair.  One owner, who wanted to tear down the hospital to build a massive statue of Jesus but was told he couldn’t because the building was on the National Historic Register’s “endangered” building list, opened the building to vagrants and vandals.  The damage done at that time was intense, with rubble piling up three feet deep in some areas.  Then Waverly Hills was purchased by its current owners, who are using the proceeds of both historical tours and ghost tours to renovate the property to its former glory.  Several years into the project, they still have miles to go, and much of the building is still in a horrible state.

Vandalism at Waverly Hills

 It was during the time when the building was open to vandals that the first reports of restless spirits began to surface.  An investigation by the Louisville Ghost Hunter’s Society in 2001 showed high, moving EMF readings.  Electromagnetic Field Detectors are often used in paranormal investigations because it is believed that ghosts use a lot of energy to manifest, and this energy will register on an EMF meter.  At the time, all electricity to Waverly Hills had been disconnected, and the electrical poles had been torn down, so it is certain that the EMF was not picking up on any electical energy being run to the building.  They also reported hearing footsteps, drastic temperature changes, and the smell of baking bread.  Room 502 also caused the EMF meter to react, and the temperature rose and then dropped suddenly.  Room 502 is notorious in Waverly Hills lore because of the deaths of two nurses who worked in that room.  One jumped from a fifth floor balcony to her death for reasons unknown, and the other hung herself from a light fixture in that room in a fit of depression.  It is rumored that she had become pregnant by one of the married doctors that worked there at the time.  Photos taken from this investigation show spectral lights, shadow spirits, and a disembodied face behind two of the investigators.

Room 502

Many investigations have take place at Waverly Hills in the seven years since this one, and the tales of the paranormal get ghastlier and ghastlier.  A little girl is seen peering out of the windows.  A ball has been seen rolling out of one room and changing course so that it rolls into another room down the hall.  And scariest of all, a woman has been seen running out of the front door in chains, wrists bleeding, begging for help.  Several people have reported seeing objects move of their own accord, doors open and slam shut on their own, and one investigator actually had a brick lauch up at him from the floor and hit him in the small of his back.

Waverly Hills continues to be a hot spot for paranormal investigations.  The Most Haunted crew recently came over from Great Britain to film a show there, and the gang from T.A.P.S. has also done an investigation there.  The Sanatorium is also featured on the Travel Channel as one of the “World’s Scariest Places.”  I had planned on including some youtube investigation footage here, but there are so many decent clips, I recommend you go there yourself, search for Waverly Hills, and just enjoy.

Yours in this life and the next!

GhOsTwRiTeR KiM

sources:  http://www.louisvilleghs.com/LGHS_MASTER/SUB/Investigations/Waverly/, http://www.emedicinehealth.com/tuberculosis/page3_em.htm, http://www.therealwaverlyhills.com/, http://books.google.com/books?id=o58mJavC4msC

Edinburgh has been on my short list of places I would love to visit for ages and ages now.  Its  tumultuous history and incredible architecture are what personally call to me, but in recent years, I have discovered another reason I wouldn’t mind making a visit: Mary King’s Close.  As a person who is fascinated by the paranormal, I can hardly disregard the numerous stories about this purportedly very haunted location.

A Bit of Background

A Close, as the word is used in Scotland, means an alleyway or courtyard that is enclosed on all sides and has only one entrance.  The Closes in Edinburgh were generally named for the owner of the tenements within that Close, and there are plenty of them around.  Running off the historic Royal Mile in Edinburgh from the 1400s to the 1900s, the Closes consisted of businesses and tenement apartments, often several stories high.    

In 1645, a particularly virulent strain of the bubonic plague took hold in Scotland, killing off more than half of Edinburgh’s inhabitants, and legend has it that Mary King’s Close was heavily hit by the epidemic.  

Over a century later, when many of Mary King’s Close old tenements were crumbling and decaying, the city knocked down the upper portions of these multi-story buildings, and used the lower portions as the foundation for the building now known as the City Chambers.  What they created, then, is an underground ghost town, quite literally, which has recently been renovated based on historical documents and archeological evidence to try to reflect the community that once thrived there and its inhabitant’s living conditions. It is now open to the public for tours and plays host to an annual Ghost Fest.

 Myth v. Reality

Until recently, it was said that Mary King’s Close was hit so hard by the plague that its inhabitant were walled up within the close and left to die, which added an intersting and morbid twist to the ghost stories that surrounded the neighborhood.  It has been uncovered that this was a fiction.  Mary King’s Close was hit particularly hard, but historical evidence shows that it was placed under a strict quarantine, and not that its inhabitants were captives left to die. 

A Little About the Tour 

The tour creators have gone to great pains to show what life was like during the plague, including depicting deceased bodies, food and supplies left outside of quarantined homes, and even foul smelling “vomit” in the family chamber pots.  Sounds like you might want to eat before you go visit.  Other stops on the tour include the living room of Mary King, whom the Close was named after, recreated with items that were listed in her will, and a recreation of a murder that occurred there when the widow Allison  Rough disagreed with her son-in-law, Alexander Cant, over a dowry agreement.  Cant, in this case, was the victim of the crime.  The tour also uses the same methods of lighting that the original inhabitants had available to them, so it is very dark.  Apparently, tourists can get a torch to help light the way if they ask.

A Little About the Ghosts

The first ghost sighting reported in Mary King’s Close goes all the way back to 1685.  A family, named the Colthearts, moved there after the plague had cleared up, and reported seeing “spectors and nameless terrors”. More recently, a “worried man” has been sited as well as a woman in black, and sounds of the old neighborhood have also been reported.  Noises that sound like a party or a tavern have been heard, and sounds of scratching have been heard coming from a chimney where a young chimney sweep is said to have gotten stuck and died. 

Probably the most famous spirit inhabiting Mary King’s Close is that of a five to eight-year-old girl dubbed Annie.  Annie was a victim of the plague.  In 1992, a visiting psychic was overcome with grief in the room where Annie passed away, and when she tried to leave, she felt a tug on her leg.  The psychic claims that she saw this little girl, dirty and in rags, and learned that she was upset because she had lost her family, her dog, and her doll.  The psychic returned with a doll for Annie, in an attempt to help sooth her suffering, and in doing so, the psychic started a major trend.  Since then, people from all over the world who take the tour come and leave trinkets and toys for little Annie.  During paranormal investigations of the Close, investigators will sometimes remove the toys in an effort to provoke Annie into action (mean old investigators!).

Toys for Annie

Numerous paranormal investigations have been conducted at Mary King’s Close, including a televised one done by the British show “Most Haunted,” though I would hardly call that a professional investigation.  They tend to be a little too high strung to accomplish much in the way of a standard investigation.  Several high profile psychics have also come to experience the Close, and Ghost Hunters International also did a show there.

For more information and to get an idea of what a tour of the Close might be like, check out this site.

Here’s a little YouTube EVP video to give you the creeps and to help you visualize the scene at the same time:

Until next time -

GhOsTwRiTeR KiM

Sources: http://www.realmarykingsclose.com/ http://www.stuckonscotland.co.uk/edinburgh/royal-mile-closes.html http://www.realtraveladventures.com/unbelievable/mary_king_s_close_in_edinburgh__scotland.htm  http://www.ghostevents.co.uk/mary_kings_close.html