My Night in Waverly Hills Sanatorium

Introduction

I spent a night in one of the most haunted places in the United States, Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville, Kentucky. Contrary to popular belief Waverly Hills Sanatorium was opened in 1910 to take care of tuberculosis patients, not an insane asylum. I had visited Waverly Hills five months earlier around Halloween during their VIP tour where you get a quick look at the sanatorium as well as visiting the haunted house attraction that they hold every year to raise money to renovate the building. I visited Waverly both times with two friends that I will call John and Mary for the sake of this story. After our short visit in October we quickly realized that we wanted to come back for an overnight stay from 12 am-6am to get the "real experience." It's not like the first time we visited we got touched or slapped or anything crazy happened, it was just the energy of the place was crazy and we thought why the hell not.

We went on a Friday night, arriving at 11:30 to a barely lit Waverly Hills Sanatorium and even after my second visit, it always stunning how oppressive the building it even at night. I'll skip some parts, but basically there were 40 of us weirdos, split into two groups of 20 which had their own guide. We were warmly wrapped in layers as it was early spring and was still chilly after dark. There are five floors to the building and the overnight tour was divided in two parts the first from 12 am to 245 am, a break, and then from 3:30am-6am. For the first part of the tour my group was to explore the 3rd, 4th, and 5th floor while the other group explored the 1st and the 2nd floor. After the break we would switch.