Kentucky Hauntings(19)

The girl's family no longer lives there, but it is still a private residence. The window is still boarded up, so nobody knows if the face still appears or not. When we were there, it was sunny and peaceful, so we did not bother the owners. The face only appears, it is said, on dark and stormy nights.





Odd Happenings at Waverly Hills Sanatorium


We have been on many tours through Waverly, so we have personal experiences of our own to tell about. Many students in Roberta's classes at Pleasure Ridge Park High School sneaked into Waverly in the 1960s and 1970s because it was “the thing to do” to prove you were brave. These young people shared their experiences with us, too.

Waverly Hills Sanatorium, in southwestern Louisville, was formerly a tuberculosis hospital where thousands of people died before a cure was found for the deadly disease. Now it is famous for the ghosts of the dead who still linger there.

Tuberculosis was a disease that struck all ages. There were all types of people who were residents of the sanatorium, even entire families who became infected. Ghosts of children can be seen roaming the halls and playing in this now deserted place.

One night a tour guide was leading a group of tourists through Waverly when a question came up about the ghost of one of the children.

“I've heard there is a ghost of a little boy who plays with a blue ball here,” a tourist said. “Is that true?”

“Yes,” answered the guide. “We have reports of sightings of him. He was a patient here, but I haven't run into him myself.”

The guide was taking a few steps backward as he answered the question, when he suddenly slipped and fell. The group looked down to see if he had been hurt by the fall. They were surprised by what they saw. There at his feet was a little blue rubber ball that had rolled from somewhere on its own.

“Well,” said the guide, getting to his feet. “It looks like I've just had my first encounter!”

Other ghosts there seem to be indulging in their old habits. Some visitors see a tiny glowing ahead of them down the hall. One ghost sometimes comes out to meet the tour guests and have a smoke!

“When our smoker ghost was alive,” said the guide, “she would often ask everybody she saw if they could spare a cigarette. You would think that someone suffering from a deadly lung disease would not be interested in smoking, but I guess she figured the damage had already been done.”

Not all ghosts at Waverly are human, and not all groups who go there are led by tour guides. Before the current owners, Charles and Tina Mattingly, purchased the building and tightened security, it was like a “rite of passage” for boys to prove their courage by sneaking into the building and exploring alone. Some boys had heard that a homeless man and his dog had wandered into Waverly and died there. Their ghosts were said to roam the halls. The boys didn't know whether to believe the story or not, so they sneaked inside to try to find out for themselves. They were soon to wish that they had stayed outside.

They were about halfway down the hall when they heard a low growl of what sounded like a dog in the area where the old elevator shaft had been. It had been closed off after the homeless man and his dog had supposedly fallen to their death down the shaft. No electricity was on in the building, so the boys couldn't see the dog. Suddenly the empty elevator shaft lit up, and they heard the dog again. The growling seemed to be very near.

The boys ran as fast as they could, but the dog seemed to be gaining on them. They reached the outside door, thinking the dog was sure to leap at them. It did not follow them through the door, though. They fell to the ground to catch their breath, but all was silent behind them, like nothing had ever been there at all.





Steamboat Ghosts


We have heard steamboat stories from crew members and read them in articles we found online. We experienced some paranormal happenings ourselves.

Steamboats have a certain romantic, haunting appeal in our history. Though the Delta Queen was not Louisville's own, Louisville citizens have always felt a special connection to this wonderful old boat because of the former annual steamboat races between the Delta Queen and the Belle of Louisville.

The Great Steamboat Race was a yearly event that took place the Wednesday before the first Saturday in May, three days before the Kentucky Derby. It started in 1963 and continued each year through 2008. The race started underneath the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge, continued to Six Mile Island, and then returned to the bridge, covering a distance of fourteen miles. Other vessels joined the competition occasionally, but the races through the years were mainly between the Belle of Louisville and the Delta Queen. They battled for the prize of the Golden Antlers, which passed fairly evenly back and forth between the two boats.