You don’t have to believe in ghosts to enjoy a ghost story about some of the most haunted places. Stories that grow up for generations around supposedly haunted houses can take on a fantastical life of their own in folklore, and the stories that surround the place can influence our experiences of them.
At the time, there was no known cure and the disease was often fatal. In some cases, doctors tried experimental methods to help relieve symptoms, and stories emerged of illicit medical experiments in which the drug often proved as fatal as the disease. Certainly, the sanatorium was the site of many deaths over the years, although claims that more than 60,000 patients died there are exaggerated, according to surviving hospital records. Historians say the real number was probably closer to 8,000, with a total of 152 deaths in 1945, the worst year of the epidemic.
In the years since Waverly Hills closed for good, vagrants, thrill seekers and ghost hunters who have ventured into the building have told of slamming doors and strange noises in the abandoned building. Others reported hearing the footsteps and screams of patients from the empty rooms.
Ghostly forms are said to congregate in the dark recesses of the building and are said to follow visitors through the narrow corridors. Phantom footsteps and voices are said to echo along the “death tunnel” or “body tunnel” – an underground tunnel that leads from the hospital to the railroad tracks at the bottom of the hill, to transport the dead away from the hospital where living patients would not see them.
The fifth floor of the hospital, where tuberculosis patients with mental disorders were allegedly treated, is believed to have the most activity. In particular, room 502, where two nurses are said to have committed suicide – one by hanging, the other by jumping to their death, is said to be haunted. Some visitors claimed to have seen mysterious shapes moving through the windows or heard voices telling them to “get out”.
Savannah, Georgia
Home to dozens of celebrated haunted houses and hundreds of ghost sightings, Savannah is often referred to as “the most haunted city in the United States” — especially from its many ghost tours, which often begin with a visit to the city’s historic Bonaventure Cemetery, a cluster of stone tombs, eerie statues and spooky trees draped in Spanish moss.
Among the cemetery’s “resident” ghosts is that of Gracie Watson, a 6-year-old girl who died of pneumonia in 1889. Her spirit is said to haunt the life-size statue that stands over her grave, which like several other funerary statues in the cemetery is sometimes said to move as if alive, while the sounds of children playing or crying are sometimes heard nearby. .
Hampton Lillibridge House in Savannah was built in 1797 and moved to its current location a few years later – despite the discovery of a mysterious crypt beneath the new property, which has never been opened. Since then, no fewer than 26 families living in the house have complained of various ghostly occurrences that have forced them to move out. These strange encounters included moving furniture and locking doors.
Valley House
According to Life magazine, the Whaley House in San Diego is “the most haunted house in America.” The home was built in 1857 on the site of a former cemetery and gallows. Over the years it served as a family home; grain store; San Diego County Court; the first commercial theater in the city; ballroom; billiard room; and school. Then it was opened as a museum in 1960.
The oldest ghost in the Wylie House is said to be the convicted outlaw “Yankee Jim” Robinson, who was hanged in 1852 from a gallows that stood on the property before the house was built.
Although Thomas Whaley, a settler and merchant, witnessed the gruesome execution of Yankee Jim, it did not stop him from purchasing the property a few years later and building a house there. But within weeks of moving in, the Whaleys reported hearing heavy footsteps, as if they were made by the boots of a big man.
Reports of footsteps and other sounds have persisted for more than 100 years: the youngest daughter of the family, who lived in the house until 1953, was said to be convinced that she was haunted by the ghost of Yankee Jim, and visitors to the museum in the 1960s also reported that they heard a phantom walking noise.
Other visitors report seeing the ghosts of the Whaley family and the ghost of a woman in a long skirt in the former county courthouse. A parapsychologist reported seeing a phantom dog running inside the house, similar to a fox terrier – the type of dog owned by the Whaley family.
Stanley Hotel in Colorado
The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado is known as the remote Overlook Mountain Hotel featured in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film The Shining. It was also the inspiration for Stephen King’s novel that was made into that movie, reportedly after he spent a night there during a blizzard.
The hotel was built in 1909 by Massachusetts inventor F.O. Stanley, who moved there with his wife Flora. Flora Stanley was an accomplished pianist, and according to myth, her ghost could sometimes be heard playing the piano in the music room at night. F.O. Stanley is sometimes out of place in old photos – a terrifying trick that inspired the final scene of the film. Hotel employees also say ghosts have been unpacking visitors’ bags and turning lights on and off, and the ghostly laughter of children can be heard in the hallways.
The hotel’s infamous Room 217, which appears in both the book and the film, is said to be haunted by the ghost of a maid who was allegedly thrown from a window there – but not killed – in a 1911 gas explosion. It is the room where King and his wife spent the night, according to his later interviews. But while the hotel is undeniably creepy, the terrifying events suggested in the book and film seem to have come entirely from his imagination.
It is now possible to book room 217 at the Stanley Hotel, among other rooms. “The Shining” runs regularly on one of the local television channels, and the hotel does a thriving ghost tour business. In addition to the ghosts of Stanley and the maid, a spooky cowboy is said to haunt room 428, and hotel staff say ghosts have been seen in the tunnels beneath the hotel that staff once used to navigate the vast property.
The Covered Bridges of New England
New England’s historic covered bridges have accumulated ghost stories over the years. One of the most famous is Emily’s Bridge in Stowe, Vermont, about 30 miles east of Burlington. The terrifying covered bridge was the scene of a young woman’s suicide by hanging in the mid-1800s, allegedly after she arranged to meet a lover there to elope, but he never showed up.
According to Atlas Obscura, Emily’s ghost is now said to haunt the bridge, leaving its claws on passing cars and scratching the backs of people crossing the bridge on foot. Strange sounds have also been reported there, including the sound of a woman screaming. Emily’s Bridge is now an addition to Vermont’s ghost tourism industry. (However, the town of Stowe passed an ordinance to keep people off the bridge at night to avoid disturbances from would-be ghost hunters.)
Another haunted bridge is the Eunice Williams Covered Bridge in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Named after Eunice Williams, who was killed in 1704 after being captured during an attack by French and Native American forces on the English settlement at Deerfield; 47 villagers died in the attack, and the survivors were forced to march nearly 300 miles, according to a local museum in Massachusetts.
Williams, the wife of a local pastor, had reportedly given birth just days earlier; she fell while the captives were marching along Green River and was killed by a blow from a tomahawk. Legend has it that Williams now haunts the covered bridge that was built on the spot; her ghost has been seen near the water under the bridge.
