



A place that was once home for dying tubercular patients and now a popular tourist attraction for paranormal investigators may become more than a haunted hospital sometime in the near future. The owners of the Waverly Hills Sanatorium filed a zoning plan last spring to convert the former hospital into a hotel and the zoning committee voted in favor for city council to approve the zoning for the project last week.

Owners Charlie and Tina Mattingly have plans to turn the former tuberculosis hospital into a 120-room four star hotel, convention center, and liquor bottling business. The hotel will cater to the haunted hotel tourists as well as regular guests.

According to the plans, the first floor will be used to for a 3,050 square foot restaurant and an 8,500 square foot conference center. The second and third floors will have 120 hotel rooms. The fourth floor will have meeting rooms and a museum focusing on the hospital.

Last Tuesday, the Louisville Metro Council’s Planning, Zoning, Design, and Land Development Committee voted unanimously for recommendations to approve zoning for the Mattingly’s project.

The Waverly Hills Sanatorium hospital was open for fifty-two years, from 1910 to 1962. It later reopened as a nursing home but it finally closed in 1982. Over the years, some of the the property’s owners have proposed to turn the building into many things, some of which include a prison and a 150-foot statue of Jesus.

The Mattinglys purchased the hospital and the 29-acre property for $230,000 in 2001, and in 2012 acquired an additional 80 acres for $800,000. They have been conducting ghost tours in the former tuberculosis hospital and they estimate that about 10,000 people come on their tours every year. The revenue from the tours is used to renovate the building and the surrounding property. The Mattingly’s say that they will continue to host paranormal enthusiasts when the building becomes a hotel.

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