SPECTRALWhat happened here
Waverly Hills opened in 1910 as a small hospital for tuberculosis, the “white plague” that was then a leading cause of death in the United States. As the disease spread, the present building opened in 1926 to hold more than 400 patients. Treatment meant rest, fresh air and sunlight on long open porches, and surgery that could be brutal.
The antibiotic streptomycin made sanatoriums obsolete, and Waverly closed in 1961. It reopened as a home for elderly patients, which closed in the early 1980s. Since 2001 the building has belonged to owners who are restoring it and fund the work with tours.
The legends
Its best-known feature is the “body chute”, a tunnel of about 500 feet running down the hillside, used to take the dead away out of sight of the living. Guides say it holds the building's strongest energy. In Room 502, legend says, a nurse died in 1928, and figures are reported at its windows.
Visitors also tell of a little boy called Timmy who rolls a ball along the third-floor corridor — ghost hunters leave balls there for him — and of shadow figures on the fourth floor.
Fact or legend?
The tunnel is real: it carried supplies up the hill and took bodies down to the railway, sparing patients the sight of hearses. Tour lore often puts the death toll in the tens of thousands; researchers who have gone through the records believe the true number was far lower. The Room 502 story has not been found in any record.
Visiting
Waverly Hills is private property, open for guided history and paranormal tours that must be booked in advance, and for seasonal events. There is no access without a booking.
