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 The time has finally come, It has been planned for quite a while and now the weekend is here, Tomorrow morning we will be boarding a plane headed to Louisville, KY for the weekend.
We will be meeting up with the Nightwatchers on Saturday to stay the night at Waverly Hills Sanitorium.
 If anyone is still unfamiliar with the Waverlys History: The land that is today known as Waverly Hill was purchased by Major Thomas H. Hays in 1883 as the Hays Family home. Since the new home was now so far away from any existing schools, Mr. Hays decided to open a local school for his daughters to attend. He started a one-room schoolhouse on Pages Lane, and hired Lizzie Lee Harris as the teacher. Miss Harris loved her tiny school nestling against the hillside, and remembered her fondness for Walter Scott's Waverley novels, so she named her little school house "Waverly School".
Major Hays liked the peaceful-sounding name, so he named his property "Waverly Hill" and the Board of Tuberculosis Hospital kept the name when they bought the land and opened the sanatorium. It is not known exactly when the spelling changed to exclude the second "e" and became Waverly Hills. However the spelling fluctuated between both spellings many times over the years.
During the early twentieth century, Louisville had the highest tuberculosis rate in the country. Many of the patients remained here until they died. The dead bodies were pushed down tunnels to the bottom of the hill where they were then carried off and buried. After the vaccine for tuberculosis was discovered, the hospital became a nursing home that is also now closed.
There is much speculation regarding the death toll at Waverly. Its widely reported to be over 60,000. It is more likely that was the state TB death toll, although several thousand did die at Waverly and that is several thousand possible hauntings.
One of the most well known ghost stories about Waverly Hills centers around Room 502. Legend has it a crazy patient murdered a nurse in this room by stabbing her to death. People claim to see the patient's ghost running out the hospital's front door in a white nightgown, screaming at the top of her lungs. While there is no record of a nurse being stabbed in this room, there are records of a nurse hanging herself. She got pregnant by one of the doctors, and since it was very looked down upon she decided to take her life in Room 502. Many people have experienced strange things in that room, and most believe it is her ghost that haunts it.
 The Death Tunnel is another popular haunted area. One of the uses for this tunnel was transporting dead bodies out of the hospital. Since seeing hearses arrive and take away many bodies on a daily basis would bring down other patients' morale, the hospital staff thought it was best to transport the bodies away in an underground tunnel that the patients couldn't see. Some people believe that many of the deceased patients who left the hospital via this tunnel still haunt it.
The tunnel was originally a steam tunnel that had pipes running through it which supplied the sanatorium with hot steam for the radiators. The original boiler room was located at the bottom of the hill, because of the black smoke produced by the coal fed boilers.
The tunnel was also a good way for employees to get up and down the hill during the winter and keep warm at the same time. Transporting the bodies of deceased tuberculosis patients was only ONE of the uses of the tunnel.
During the peak years of tuberculosis there were a lot of deaths at the sanatorium, and the staff realized that it would be very discouraging for patients to look out the windows and see hearses pulling up and taking away people who had died.
There are steps on one side, and a smooth slab on the other. At one time there were rails on the smooth side, somewhat similar to what a coal mine has. They had gurney tables with wheels which rode on those tracks. A motorized winch system would gradually lower the bodies of deceased patients down the tunnel.
The tunnel is approximately 500 feet long. It has vent shafts that stick up above the ground about every 100 feet. These shafts let in some light and fresh air.
Stay Tuned for the Next Paralore Podcast - - WAVERLY HILLS
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