Hubs and I went to Louisville this past Labor Day weekend. I saw a concert at Riverbend with my bro, did an escape room with the fam, played pinball at RecBar, and made the obligatory stop at Skyline Chili. I know, I know- we missed Graeter’s. Truthfully, the main purpose of our trip was to visit Waverly Hills Sanatorium. Waverly Hills was not an official tourist attraction when I lived in Louisville fifteen years ago, and I have wanted to go ever since they started public tours. Afternoon, evening, and overnight tours are conducted March thru August, and in October, the first floor is converted to a haunted house. I am rarely home outside of Christmastime, so we had to make a special summer trip home.
We opted for a 7:30 pm, two-hour tour in the hopes that we would get a little bit of daylight and a little bit of darkness. However, it was a dark and stormy night, *ahem*, so the whole tour was pretty dark. Flashlights and flash photography were allowed in a few designated areas, but for the most part, the tour was conducted with ambient light only. We went to all five floors of the main building, and there were no functional elevators, no a/c, and only one place to sit down. The building was so neat no one cared about these minor discomforts.
The history of Waverly Hills was fascinating. It was a state-of-the-art facility in its heyday. At its peak, the 28-building facility situated on the outskirts of Louisville housed 400+ tuberculosis patients. Basic treatments included heliotherapy, fresh air, and good nutrition; some advanced cases were subject 
to dramatic experimental treatment like rib removal, or thoracoplasty. The patient death rate was one death per hour at its peak. The development of the antibiotic streptomycin rendered this large facility unnecessary, and it closed in 1961. It reopened in 1962 as an elder care facility that was shutdown in 1981 by the state. Around this time, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places because of its unique architecture and historical significance. The facility changed hands a few times, was stripped for parts, fell into disrepair, and was overrun with destructive trespassers before the current owners acquired it.
I suspect most Waverly Hills visitors do not come for the Tudor Gothic Revival architecture. The sanatorium has been featured on a number of television shows and is thought to be one of the most haunted places in America. A high Tuberculosis death rate coupled with a staff suicide, the murder of a resident vagrant and his dog, and elder care abuse are perfect fodder for ghost stories, real or imagined. Most locals have heard rumors about Room 502 or the body chute used to covertly remove numerous deceased bodies from the grounds. The tour helped me distinguish between fact and urban legend, and I felt like the folks who worked there took pride in and felt personally invested in the facility. I was fairly spooked at the onset, but by the end, I felt informed, and my heebie jeebies were gone. Personally, I would go back in a heartbeat. I would very much like to go on a day tour and see the interior building details that were lost in the dark. However, first-time visitors, you should definitely experience it in the dark.