Waverly Hills Sanatorium, a Gothic Revival hulk on a hill south of Louisville, was built in 1926 as a tuberculosis treatment facility at a time when the disease was killing tens of thousands of Americans each year. The treatments employed here were the standard of the era — fresh air, rest, surgery — and the mortality rate was correspondingly grim. The building closed as a sanatorium in 1961 and has been derelict since the 1980s.
It is now one of the most famous haunted locations in America, running guided ghost tours and overnight investigation visits that sell out months in advance. Whether or not you believe in ghosts, the building itself is extraordinary — eight storeys of crumbling concrete, broken windows, and intact operating theatre equipment sitting exactly where it was left. The daytime tours are atmospheric enough; the overnight visits are for people who genuinely want to spend the night in a dark, cold, very large abandoned building.