1. Introduction
2. Equipment
3. Building History
4. Haunted History
5. Evidence
1. Introduction:
After our adventure at the Crescent Hotel (Crescent Hotel Ghost Hunt) we knew we would go on another hunt. We just needed to find the right location. At first I was thinking of going to Bob Mackey's haunted restaurant but then I realized how close Waverly Hills Sanatorium was to us. Louisville was only a four hour drive which would be great for an overnight hunt because we could leave our house late enough so that we wouldn't be as tired as we were at the Crescent. Although to be honest I believe something at the Crescent was draining us of energy. We should have been ok with a two hour nap and been up and walking around. Instead as my alarm went off I could barely open my eyes and hit the snooze button. Neither of us ever got up during the night either for a drink or to use the bathroom. Looking back it is odd.
Anyway there were things that we learned from the Crescent. First: that we wanted a continuous voice record of the events. The video of someone crying, "Help me" at the Crescent was getting louder. Maybe if the camera had continued recording we would have heard more. However the camera was looking for motion and since there was none it cut off. Second: we wanted to make sure that the cameras all had the time and date stamps correct. I set the time and date stamps the day before we left for Waverly. However some of the cameras didn't save it once they were turned off and since I was turning them on and off throughout the night that proved impossible. But we tried.
I already know there are lessons we have learned from Waverly. First: the recorders that we had worked, but we need to get an arm band or something that will hold them without us having them in our hands. There are times where there is static and it is probably me moving my hand over the microphone. Also whenever I had to switch a camera there is a lot of noise. Which brings me to the next thing we learned from Waverly. Second: I need to be more organized. I had all the equipment in a back pack so every time I stopped to set up equipment I had to dig to the one I needed. Now part of the problem is that because it was a group hunt I couldn't just set a camera and leave it since I didn't know everyone on the tour. Third: I needed to have just the equipment I planned on using. I had two video cameras that do not have night vision on them so they were useless in the dark Sanatorium.
2. Equipment:
I added a second hunting camera because the first one had been so successful at the Crescent. I had the mini tripods on them so that I could stand them up quickly. There were also a couple of times where, after having them sitting in a room with us, I would just pick them up and walk with them by holding the tripod. One good thing about that was, because the camera is boxed in, the screen didn't affect my eyes so they could adjust to the dark however it did affect the quality of the sound recording. The small video cameras also had night vision on them but their batteries drained very quickly. The two larger voice recorders were the ones we carried with us the entire time. The smaller one was for if we wanted to do a burst EVP session. I had a battery backup to charge equipment if needed. Finally our newest piece of equipment was the seek thermal camera. I plugged it in to the bottom of my I-phone and using my phone's camera I could take photos and video of thermal changes.
3. Building History:
Just like with the Crescent Hotel I started doing some research about the building a few weeks before the trip. Waverly is listed on the US National Register of Historic Places. Originally the property belonged to Major Thomas H. Hays, who purchased it in 1883 to build his family home. The home was far away from any school and so the Major hired Lizzie Harris as a teacher and opened a school nearby for his children and the other children in the area. Miss Harris was a fan of Walter Scott's Waverley novels and so named the school Waverley School. Major Hays liked the name and so called his property Waverley Hills.
In the late 1800s and early1900s the entire country began to experience outbreaks of Tuberculosis and Louisville's location along the Ohio River resulted in an especially devastating outbreak. In 1911 Louisville was updating the City Hospital and decided to open a separate Tuberculosis hospital. The Waverly Hills property was selected. At first an administrative building and two open air pavilions were erected which could house 40 patients deemed to be early cases. In August of 1912 the current Tuberculosis patients from City Hospital were transferred to Waverly. In December of 1912 a hospital for advanced cases was opened that could hold another 40 patients. By 1914 a "children's pavilion" was added with enough room for 50 beds. Waverly could now hold at least 130 patients and still the outbreak demanded more rooms. More buildings were added throughout the years.
In 1924 construction on the five story, 400 bed, structure that stands today was begun. A little over two years later in October of 1926 the building was opened.
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| Photo by Meghan Keohane |
Some country wide estimates report that over 400 people died every day from Tuberculosis and Kentucky was particularly hard hit.
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| Kentucky TB Association Ad, 1945. |
The second, third, and fourth floors consisted mostly of patient rooms with a few variations. One side of the building (seen here) had a long exterior hall. This was because one of the primary treatments for Tuberculosis at the time was fresh air. Patients' beds would be rolled into the hall, called the Solarium, and left there sometimes for months. Most rooms had two beds but some on the upper floors had up to four. On the other side of the building were private rooms and terminal rooms. Patients who were not responding to the fresh air treatments could be wheeled across the hall and given more privacy.
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| Photo by Meghan Keohane |
On the fifth floor there were two wards. One side was for children and included an outdoor playground on the roof. The other side was for patients who suffered from Tuberculosis of the brain.
Besides fresh air and sunlight, Heliotherapy, the other main treatment for Tuberculosis was nutrition. If those two treatments failed on the fourth floor was an operating room. To us today the treatments and operations performed on Tuberculosis patients sounds barbaric. However that is given the information we now know and medicine has made huge advancements since even the 1960s. One thing I found very important to keep in mind was that as terrible and painful as the operations sound they were done by doctors and nurses who truly believed this was the only way to try and save their patients. Some of the surgical treatments included removing ribs, inflating lungs with balloons, and the worst involved cutting open the back and sides. The surgeries had two aims. First: to try and kill the bacteria by depriving it of oxygen. Second: to give the lungs room to expand.
The first floor is where the morgue was located. In 1945 records indicate that over 162 people died at Waverly. Using that it is assumed that realistically 6,000-8,000 people died from Tuberculosis over the years the hospital was functioning, though some reports will give numbers in the tens of thousands. Nearby the morgue is a tunnel called the 'body chute' or 'death tunnel.' When the Sanatorium was first built so was the tunnel with the purpose of providing easy access for supplies to be brought inside during winter and inclement weather. Eventually however as the death numbers rose the tunnel began to serve another purpose. Rather than having hearses or ambulances pull up to the Sanatorium every other day bodies could be taken through the tunnel to the train tracks that brought the supplies.
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| Photo by Meghan Keohane |
Now despite the fact that I did research beforehand I still signed up for the two hour ghost tour. I wanted to hear the stories from those who would know best, to make sure the info I had was correct since I saw conflicting reports. Our tour guide's name was Dale. Let me say this - I would take a tour any day of the week with him. He was so knowledgeable and personable I couldn't have asked for better. For those looking at this though let me stress this - tickets say you are not allowed to take photo or video during the two hour ghost tour. Now there were two instances when we were allowed but that was only because we were ahead of schedule on the tour. This is probably for several reasons. First: if I videoed the entire tour then someone could just watch that video instead of actually taking the tour. Second: is probably for the privacy of the tour guides and other people on the tour. Third: is because they don't want people hanging back to get a good photo and holding up the tour. All three very good reasons. If you want to take pictures and video then go on the ghost hunt. I highly recommend you go on both.
4. Haunted History:
The fourth floor - Stories tell of shadow figures that haunt this floor. There are several different types among which is the Creeper, a hunched over figure that moves up and down the halls, walls, and ceiling. Also there are reports of the operating room door closing itself. One of the treatments basically involved cutting open the back and leaving the patient ribs exposed. The thought was it added more room for the lungs to expand. Most died during this operation and it was definitely a last ditch effort to save a life. I think this is the origin of the creeper since the hunched over figure would be the permanent position of anyone who survived this surgery.
The third floor - This one is an all over type story. Apparently a child named Timmy has been identified as haunting the location. As a result there are toy balls all over the place and at various points they start rolling around on their own. Timmy was first encountered and the name attached on the third floor but due to numerous investigations there are balls on every floor.
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| Photo by Meghan Keohane |
2nd floor - On the second floor is a room that belonged to sisters Lois and Audrey Higgs. Audrey recovered from Tuberculosis and eventually went home. Lois, however, passed away at Waverly. There are reports by investigators of hearing Lois calling for her sister. Also on the second floor is a kitchen and cafeteria. There are reports that sometimes visitors smell bread baking and capture EVP, electronic voice phenomenon, in the cafeteria.
1st floor - Obviously the morgue and body chute have attracted a lot of attention from paranormal investigators and for good reason. Shadows seem to move and close in on people in the body chute.
Overall - Throughout Waverly people report hearing doors close, breaths, wheezing, and temperature fluctuations.
5. Evidence:
Having decided this is something we like doing and plan on continuing doing we are trying to set up good habits. It has been time consuming but I think it will be worth it. We have created a transcript of everything from the two voice recorders that we were carrying so we have a continuous 6 hour dialogue. We then took the cameras and small voice recorder to match it up with the transcript so that in that document will be every sound and occurrence that we documented.
As far as bad feelings go for the most part we were both ok. Each time we were in the operating room we both felt as if there was a pressure on our chests, with Meg being more effected then myself and on the recording you can hear her coughing. Also there was one point on the fourth floor hall when we both felt uneasy. In order to try and interact with the residents there are a series of normal questions to ask like for example, "is anyone here with us?" Well on this particular occasion Meghan asked, "Is there anything here?" It stood out because in the entire six hours that was the only time we referred to a 'thing' rather than addressing a person.
On the voice recorders we were carrying I have numerous times where we heard breaths, wheezing, whistling, and also clicking or crackling that is similar to some of the noises made by diseased lungs. A search on youtube called the crackling sound Rales. Here is a video from youtube of the sound:
We also heard numerous doors slamming but that could have been others slamming doors so we never really spent time on that.
Meghan had one photo that was taken early in the day when the tour guide allowed us a few minutes to take photos.
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| Photo by Meghan Keohane |
In the second window from the left and about a foot above the people standing in the fifth floor room there is what looks like half a face floating.
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| Floating face close up |
On the fourth floor Meghan was taking multiple pictures in a row and seems to have caught shadow/mist moving.
In the picture above the hall is clear illuminated by the red of an exit light. In the picture below I have put a box around where a strange mist moves across the camera field of view. These pictures were taken one right after the other.
First is a video that really has nothing to do with the thermal except it caught a sigh on it that was not myself or Meghan.
The second video has a small round shape at the far end of the third floor hall that seemed to be playing with me and moving around. Now some of the movement is from me trying to center the shape in my camera and get a thermal reading but beside that it seems to bop around a little bit. It made me think of a child peering around a corner playing hide and seek.
Before the investigation the group was split in half. Our group was sent to the upper floors and then split in half further. We began on the third floor and after a little over an hour we moved to the fourth and fifth floors.
Third Floor
At some point I switched cameras because my batteries kept draining and turning off. I have this short video made up of several clips.
Next is a video I made of the recordings from the third floor. The background picture is a picture I took when it is my recorder and a picture Meg took for her recorder. The video is chronological of our investigation on this floor and has title screens to give an idea of where we are in the building (day room/ halls/Solarium.) I will also have text on the screen commenting on what we are doing and warning when I hear something. Then there will be a break and I will have text that says something like, "Did you hear? Go back to listen again or keep watching for what I heard?" this gives time for people who want to go back and try and hear on their own before I write what I heard. Now just to be clear about some of the terms I use when I refer to an intelligent EVP it means I think the answer is reacting to what we have said or done as opposed to a residual EVP which could be a repeating EVP like a place memory that is repeating past events. The last note about these videos is that at times you hear other voices and that is the other people in the group. For the most part I have tried to rule out others when I point out EVPs.
Specifically about the third floor we had a good time on this floor. I don't remember feeling unwanted as we walked around the floor. We had some fun experiences and I really wish I had done more burst EVP sessions, where I ask questions and listen back right then and there because I think we have times where spirits are responding to us. Especially on this floor at one point when Meg was taking pictures. I think for the most part on the third floor the spirits were more playful and welcoming.
Fifth and Fourth Floor
After the third floor we moved to the fifth floor. There Meg stopped to read a children's story while she was sitting where the playground was located so long ago. We had mentioned as we walked on the third floor that we would be doing that for any spirits who may have wanted to listen especially since the ghost child Timmy is associated with the third floor.
As Meg was reading I had a camera set on her as well as I walked around with a different camera. As I moved around and recorded Meghan reading I kept thinking I was seeing movement in the shadows but could not catch anything on camera. I also upon playing back the recording heard phantom breathes, which actually happened throughout the night. The hand held camera had a lot of trouble. At various points the recording skips time and misses part of the story. I used this camera at the Crescent Hotel as well as on other road trips and have never had that problem before. In this next video I actually catch a small light anomaly just before the video skips time again.
Here is a longer video of Meg reading the story. During the video I call out when we hear EVPs or see something strange like an orb, small ball of light.
Hopefully it would have been nice to any children still roaming the halls of Waverly to have a story read to them like I would assume parents and caretakers had done when they were alive. I think it was a success and some of the EVPs make me think of the way small children would just randomly call out.
After reading her story we went over to room 502 where we captured another EVP.
There was a strange moment on our voice recorder where I seemed to be confused and unresponsive to Meg asking me questions then I basically began narrating what I was doing as if filling Meg in on what had happened when she was standing next to me the whole time.
Fourth Floor
Next we went to the fourth floor where we had one of our strangest experiences but I don't have video from it. I include it in full on the fourth/fifth floor voice recordings from my voice recorder. We were walking along the solarium and we felt as if something moved between us. There was a bang that others in the group heard and they thought they saw something. They chased it and ended up by us. At this point I got several strange EVPs on the recorder. Also on the thermal camera I saw a cold spot on the ceiling above us as if something was absorbing the heat. Our experience corroborated what the others had seen and chased.
As I said before the fourth floor had the operating room which greatly affected Meg. As we walked around that floor shadows seemed to twist and move. I really wanted something to happen in the Operating Room but Meg could only stay in there a short time. Also there were others from the group there and I felt like I was intruding on their own investigating. Again that is part of being in a group investigation. When I go back I will probably try and return to the operating room even though it also caused me to feel as though I was having trouble breathing, but not as badly as it affected Meghan. I wanted to try and make contact with patients or even doctors who still remain. One thing that struck me as I researched the Sanatorium and old treatments for Tuberculosis was how painful and brutal some of the treatments seemed. With the knowledge that we now have of the disease the old operations seem more like torture than actual treatment. But TB was a mystery at the time and these were operations done with the thought that it was the only chance a patient had to recover if they were not doing well with the sun and nutritional treatment. Another name for TB was consumption because the disease seemed to consume the whole individual. Had we been able to spend more time in the operating room I was going to try and empathize with the doctors who took an oath to do no harm to their patients and must have, I assume, felt conflicted about the pain and damage they had to cause in order to try and save a life. I also wanted to try and communicate with patients and did at a later point, but not as much as I originally planned, by asking if they were aware of the vaccine that had eventually been discovered for Tuberculosis and if it gave comfort that perhaps studies done on them helped save countless lives.
Here is the video of all our recordings from the fifth and fourth floors.
First Floor
After the fourth floor there was a half hour break to use the bathroom and have a drink or bite to eat. Then the groups swapped and we went to the first floor. The first floor has the morgue, body chute, and the area that is set up for their Haunted House at Halloween. I again do not have video from this area. One cool thing about the first floor was that our group stayed together a bit more and we got to know some of the others. One of the members of the group had a "spirit box" app or white noise generator on her phone and I think we managed to confirm some of what her app gave us with the EVPs we captured on this floor.
In one of the small storage rooms I kept feeling someone touching my arm like a child trying to get attention and on the recorder there are several EVPs I hear that sound childlike. It makes me want to go back to that room next time and maybe spend some more time there trying to communicate.
Second Floor
Next we went to the second floor where I wanted to go to Lois and Audrey Higgs room. This is where having multiple voice recorders really helped. On one recorder we got super excited when we thought we had an EVP of Lois saying "my sister" a different recorder debunked that as being me speaking saying "like stay still". It certainly helped us with accuracy. We did however get our best video. Again nothing that will change someone's mind but watch this video as we capture what could be a spirit manifesting itself.
At some point we begin questioning who we may be speaking too since obviously many patients would have had that room not just Lois and Audrey. After spending a good amount of time in that room we went out into the halls to find the cafeteria. Here we continue to get some good intelligent EVPs and actually some of my favorite EVPs. We also got a bit of a jump scare. Finally we ended our night in the cafeteria where we have heard good EVPs have been captured and sometimes people smell bread baking. We didn't get much there but it was the very end of the night, practically morning.
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