The early stages are painless, easy to pass off as a bad cold. It is no wonder that around 60,000 people died here. It was reported in an article found on this Waverly Hills Sanitarium page on, that of the patients who were admitted to this TB treatment hospital, only 25% were in the first or early stages of the disease, 27% were in the second stage and a big whopping 47% were in the advanced, last stages. While these methods were effective for some patients, who recovered and went home, many died in the hospital, despite the best efforts of the medical staff. Also, as it was discovered that ultraviolet light could kill the bacteria infecting the body, so this hospital had this tool to combat the disease as well. A kitchen, barber shop, laundry, dentist, library, etc., were available on site.īecause there were no antibiotics invented yet, the standard treatment basically revolved around natural cures lots of rest, good diet, plenty of sun and fresh air, with the idea of boosting the infected patient’s natural defenses. The Sanitarium was a self-contained city, offering everything a person needs. A major effort was made to make the public aware of the first signs of the disease, which if caught early, the patient had a much better chance of beating it. The dedicated staff also lived in residence at the hospital, dedicating their careers to the management and defeat of the TB bacteria. So in 1926, a five story, stone, gothic structured, 500 bed, state of the art hospital (for its time) opened, built around the needs of patients and staff in fighting this “white plague” in the search for a cure. It was decided that a much larger hospital dedicated to the fighting of this horror should be added to the already existing facility.

It is said that more people died from TB than Americans who died in WW1. However this “white plague” swept over the population, and by the 1920s, TB outbreaks grew, overwhelming this small facility. In 1910, a small 140 bed Waverly Hills Sanitarium was opened outside of Louisville on an isolated hilly area, where fresh air blew freely, and a caring staff tried their best to nurse the afflicted back to health. TB also sometimes infected bones, the brain, the eyes and larynx. This insidious disease, named the “white plague” eventually destroyed the lungs, slowly suffocating people who caught the TB bug. Unfortunately, the climate and water/land geography qualities of Louisville, Kentucky, offered the perfect conditions to grow the TB bacteria, which resulted in whole families coming down with this very contagious disease, which was in its heyday from 1910-1936, though it was still a threat up until the discovery of the vital antibiotic which became a formidable foe and defeated TB. Other staff who caught TB and died here are still on duty! A staff member with a broken heart committed suicide.

TB patients are still here, hoping to get better.

Kentucky sanitarium