#21: Waverly Hills Sanatorium — United States
The Waverly Hills Sanatorium was a former tuberculosis hospital near Louisville, Kentucky. It tells a story of sickness and despair on a massive scale. It opened in 1910 and expanded over the years to combat the “white plague.” Before effective antibiotics, the disease was often a death sentence. An estimated 63,000 patients died at Waverly Hills before it closed in 1961. To keep the sheer number of deaths from alarming the living patients, staff used a 500-foot tunnel originally built for supplies. This ramp, known as the “Body Chute,” discreetly transported corpses to the morgue at the bottom of the hill. Today, the building operates as a haunted attraction.
