In 1883 a man by the name Major Thomas Hayes bought land which he built a school for his daughters to attend. It started out as a one room school house on pages lane in Louisville. He hired a woman by the name of Lizzie Lee Harris to teach at the new school. She loved the tiny one room school house and she had a fondness of Scott’s Waverley Novels. She started calling the school “Waverly School”. The Major liked the name and christened the property Waverly Hill.
In the early 1900’s there was an outbreak of tuberculosis. Louisville being a swampland at the time occasionally flooded and this gave way to perfect conditions for the Tuberculosis causing bacteria to grow. So in 1908 plans were underway to build a care facility to care for the patients stricken with tuberculosis. The board of tuberculosis which was established to find a suitable location was awarded $25,000 to use in building the new hospital to care for the Ill. Which was to be built on Waverly Hill.
In 1911 all the stricken patience were relocated from city hospital to Waverly Hill and placed in tents pending the completion of the new tuberculosis Hospital. And in December of 1912 the new hospital was opened. It started out as a two story frame building with a hipped roof and was designed to house only 40-50 patients at a time.
However with tuberculosis reaching near epidemic proportions among the public the tiny hospital became overcrowded with more then 140 patients. Soon plans to expand the hospital were enacted. The new care facility was designed to be a massive Gothic style sanatorium accommodate 400 patients. And was being considered the most modern care facility of its time. Approval was obtained to start construction of the well equipped hospital and in March of 1924 it began.
On October 17, 1926 the new 5 Story hospital opened its doors. In 1943 a new treatment known as Streptomycin was introduced. After the introduction the number of tuberculosis cases lowered until the need for such a large care facility was no longer. And Finally the remaining patients were transported to Hazel-wood which was a much smaller facility in Louisville. Waverly Hills was closed in June 1961 for quarantine.
In 1962 the building was re-opened as Wood haven Geriatric hospital. In 1981 Wood-haven was ordered by the courts to close due to alleged abuse of it patients. Although this was rumored to have happened no documentation can be found on the subject.
In 1983 the property was bought with plan to convert the building into a prison. Due to protests the plan was dropped. And the building set empty for more then 10 years.
In 1996 a man by the name Robert Alberta’s a life long resident of Louisville bought the property with plans to erect the worlds largest statue of Jesus Christ on the Waverly site, along with a worship center. However, his plans fell through for the lack of funds. As a result the property set abandoned for a number of years until he tried to have the building condemned in order to have the land developed. He was denied his motion, for the reason the building was considered a historical land mark. So He attempted to damage the structure by bulldozing around the south parameter, in hopes that the structure would give way and collapse. With the hopes of collecting money from his insurance. With his efforts failed, he sold the property to it current owners Tina & Charlie Mattingly in 2001. They intend to restore the building back to it original state.
In efforts to raise funds for the restoration of this historical building, the Mattingly’s hold tours. Each October they convert the building into a Haunted House attraction. Also throughout the year they hold ghost tours. For a fee you can be a paranormal investigator and hunt the ghosts of patients of the past. They have two levels of Ghost tours they offer one as a full night investigation and the other is a partial investigation. With all the proceeds going to the preservation of this historical site.
By their efforts the Mattingly’s are not only preserving the history of Waverly Hills but the history of all Kentuckians, Because Waverly Hills is part of all our history.
