The Creeper and Modern Day Preservation

This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Hello, it's Richie McClain Smith here. To let you know that I now have a substack page. If you enjoy Unexplained and want to go deeper into the world of the show, I've created a new space for all the bits that don't quite fit into the podcast, including the Unexplained addendum, a weekly companion piece to each new episode. Expect essays that lean more academic and analytical, explorations of folklore, psychology, And the shadowy corners of history that have shaped the stories you hear on the show. but it's also a home for something more personal. My fiction My strange amusing. And the odd fragments that don't belong anywhere else. Search for Richard McClain Smith on Substack. Or go to Richard McClain Smith dot substack.com. Find out more and subscribe. If you'd like a little bit more of me and Unexplained in your week, join me on Substack and let's keep exploring the unknown together. New writing most Tuesdays. beneath Edmondson County, in the central belt of Kentucky. There is a hidden world of rock and shadow. Mammoth Cave is the largest known cave system in the world. To date, over 420 square miles of passageway have been surveyed, with additional mapping every year. The vast honeycomb structure encompasses cathedral like vaults. claustrophobic tunnels, and the so-called bottomless pit. that drops for 105 feet straight down. ready to swallow anyone who takes an unwary step. It's an awesome but alienating environment. Yet, for a short while in the 19th century, it was home to a very particular community, for whom it offered a last possible antidote. To their dwindling hope. Croggan was a physician and native of Kentucky. who specialised in the study of tuberculosis, or TB. Elsewhere in the world, the disease was known as consumption. Scalar. Kentucky. They called it the White Plague. B attacks the lungs and respiratory system, consuming the sufferer's energy and ability to breathe. until finally they choke on their last breath. For most of humankind's history, it has been a death sentence. As late as the 180s, it was approximated that one in seven human beings worldwide died of TB or related conditions. and though the first major progress towards a vaccine was made in 1906, widespread success in treating the disease would not arrive until after the Second World War. in the form of antibiotics. But in 1842, Dr Crogan had a plan Grogan was a believer in the humoral tradition of medicine. The idea that ailments were due to an imbalance in one or more of the four humans that supposedly regulated the body. As mentioned in our Charles Walton episode a few weeks ago. These were yellow bile. File. And flam. and the white plague, according to Dr. Crogan. be blamed on excess phlegm, brought about by unregulated temperature and humidity. The answer therefore was simple. Place offering a consistent dry environment that could help stabilize the patient's imbalanced system. Cave fit the bill perfectly. Krogan's ambition was to turn Mammoth Cave into a luxury underground health spa. But he began his experiment with just 15 people. 11 TB infected patients Companions and the child of a patient. They would be fed and served by the enslaved people that had been included in Dr. Krogan's purchase of the cave. The group entered it in the winter of 1842. with the intention of remaining within indefinitely. until sufficiently recovered enough to leave. They lived in roofless stone huts. and their only source of light was from oil lamps and fires, both of which filled the caverns with noxious fumes, no doubt ailing their already weakened lungs. The patients became unwilling exhibitions for tourists who saw them as a novel addition to the long running cave tours. Those who encountered the commune. spoke of pale skeletal figures scuttling in and out of the lamplight. The caves reverberated with the constant sound of coughing. The experiment ended after just five months. By then. Five of the group had died. I teach death. The bodies were laid out on a low, flat stone they called corpse rock. more would die upon leaving the cave. No doubt further weakened by their time underground. Trogan himself eventually became infected with TB. He died from the disease in eighteen forty-nine. It isn't known how many of the enslaved people that he forced to take part in this failed endeavour also died as a result. Stephen and Charlotte Bishop and their six year old son Thomas were three of them. Stephen, who is considered one of the first explorers and guides of the cave system, was only 38 when he died. We can only assume as a result of contracting T B The fate of his wife and son are not known. Subsequent visitors to the cave have reported hearing strange noises around the site. Now known as the tuberculosis ward. In particular, they describe hearing shuffling feet. Muttering voices. chorus of harsh, persistent coughs. As eerie as that echo of the past may be, it is neither the soul nor normost lingering trace of Kentucky's battle with tuberculosis. disease would return to wreak havoc again. And next time, the medical establishment's fight back would have loftier ambitions. And leave an even more haunting legacy. You're listening to Unexplained. And I'm Richard McLean. When the White Plague returned to Kentucky in the early 1900s, it was Jefferson County that took the brunt. as the most densely populated area in the state Situated along the Ohio River wetlands. Jefferson, and in particular the city of Louisville, was the perfect environment for a highly contagious disease to run rampant. At the turn of the century, it had the highest TB infection rate in the nation. Scant progress had been made in treating the disease beyond the convalescence and quarantine at the core of Dr. Crogan's Mammoth Cave project. and though the authorities had no desire to follow in the doctor's subterranean footsteps. Like him, they sought to remove the infected from society. placing them somewhere clean and comfortable to attempt what recovery they could. They looked to the sanatorium. The concept was still relatively new in the early 20th century. Built around the idea of nourishment and dry fresh air, the sanatorium was not a million miles away from what Dr. Crogan had envisioned. Whereas Crogan went down into the earth, however. The more modern sanatoria prized higher altitudes, as doctors theorized that increased external pressure would better match that of the body's interior, enhancing the flow of oxygen carrying blood cells. The first sanatorium designed specifically for the treatment of TB is Built in Germany in eighteen sixty three. The model spread across the high altitude regions of Europe. before making the leap to the United States. New York was home to the first American facility. the Adirondack Cottage Sanatorium, which opened in 1885. Others followed in North Carolina, Arizona, and Oregon. By 1911, need for such an institution was truly dire in Jefferson, Kentucky. especially as the recently commissioned plans for a new Louisville hospital included no provision for TB patients. Instead, the local board at the Tuberculosis Association were given a $25,000 grant. to build their own bespoke hospital. They cast around Louisville for a likely sight. and soon honed in on a plot of land. Known as Waverley Hill. Waverly Hill was named by the school teacher who taught at the one room school that occupied the site. She was a huge fan of Walter Scott's Waverly novels, and had named the school accordingly. The landlord had appreciated the whimsy. The name to his whole property. When the tuberculosis association purchased the land, they kept the name. At some unspecified point in time, an S was added, pluralizing it to Waverly Hills. The name start. and has ever since been synonymous with the haunting heritage of early medical practices. Waverly Hills is a primary node on the American Atlas of bad places. It began humbly. The first iteration of the sanatorium was a simple wooden structure, with space for 40 patients in the early stages of the disease. They were split into two wards, each housing 2 patients. These were more pavilion tents than buildings. allowing for the best possible airflow, but presumably less than comfortable in the baking sun or pouring rain. At first the only solid structure was the two-story administration office, where the skeleton staff did the best they could And it should be said, unlike many supposedly haunted hospitals, Waverly Hills has little history of wanton cruelty. Patients were made as comfortable as possible, seated by large open windows or on spacious porches for maximum ventilation. Sunlight was key, and specialist sunrooms were set up. To subject the lungs to bacteria killing UV light. approach has since become recognized practice in the treatment of TB. Sadly, other practices were somewhat less efficacious. such as the artificial pneumothorax procedure. in which balloons would be inserted into the patient's lung and inflated. with disastrous results. I will leave it to your imagination to guess at what those might have been exactly. Even more extreme cases saw the removal of muscle and rib from the chest theoretically allowing the lungs more room to expand. It was an extremely violent last resort. And often, if the surgery itself didn't kill, the ensuing infection did. This need for more extreme treatment. led to the first expansion of Waverly Hills. In December 1912, the first solid wards were built at Waverley to care for another 40 patients with even more severe symptoms. These were bust in en masse from the overrun Louisville City Hospital. Two years later, in 1914, the children's pavilion was completed. This housed up to 50 young people, but the tragedy of the arrangement was that, in addition to children with TB, The pavilion also housed the uninfected offspring of Waverley's adult patients, if they had nowhere else to go. time, it wasn't understood that TB largely spread from person to person, through the air. As such. Waverly Hills almost certainly introduced healthy children to the fatal disease. At this point, Waverly had an official capacity of 130 patients. Sadly, this was a drop in the ocean of cases afflicting Jefferson County and the hastily assembled wooden canvas was proving no match for the Kentucky winters. It wasn't until october nineteen twenty six that that the far more substantial Waverly Hills, as it is known today, was finally constructed. At five stories high, with room for 435 patients, it was a welcome but foreboding sight. Built from red stove in the Victorian Gothic style. outward on long wings from a central entrance hall. and was dotted with windows that, although provided access to light and fresh air for its patients, seemed also to peer down at approaching visitors like the many eyes of a gigantic spider. This was Waverly Hills in its final form as a sanatorium. A grand edifice to the final decades of humanity's besiegement by the white plague. The widespread introduction of the streptomycin antibiotic in 1943, saw a rapid decline in the need for convalescence. And by the nineteen fifties, the hospital had become largely redundant. In 1961, it was closed down for good. Thousands of patients met their end there. Exactly how many, it's impossible to say. The lowest estimate is 6,000 deaths, while some claims multiply that up to 10 times. The truth, however, will remain forever lost, as patient records were kept off site at an office in Louisville, and destroyed in the huge flood of 1937. Regardless, Waverley Hills saw its fair share of individuals, shuffling grimly off this mortal coil. And it's no surprise that there are stories. The earliest reports that something more malignant than bacteria lurked in Waverley Hills date back to 1928. This is the year in which a nurse named Mary Hillenberg hanged herself from the light fixture in room 502. A nurse's station on the fifth floor of the building. It's often been rumored that the fifth floor was reserved for TB patients who also suffered from severe mental illness. In truth. The top floor was in fact reserved for the most severe infections. where the TB had reached deep into the bone itself. These patients were placed nearest the heliotherapy department for ready access to sunlight on the roof or in a UV room. Most poignantly, the children of the hospital had a swing set built on the roof. Still. The fifth floor was a grim place to work. The precise cause of Mary Hillenberg's suicide is debated. Some speak to the tragic futility of her daily tasks. Pushing back against the inevitable deaths of those under her care. more often repeated theory is that she was pregnant out of wedlock. And took her own life out of shame. But some dispute the story. In May 2010, the team at Darkness Radio hosted a paranormal conference in Kentucky and invited guests to join them on a late night excursion to the abandoned shell of Waverly Hills Sanatorium. Among the visitors to the ominous property that night were self described mediums, Lynn Sutherland Olson. Ronda Sheenla. Even in daylight, such buildings, their sheer size, their monolithic uniformity, and the combination of tragedy and death that's harbour within, will send a shiver up the spine. But at night. as the moon peeks out intermittently from behind the scudding clouds above, With the black mass of the gothic style sanatorium looming over you. The dark rooms behind its windows even blacker still. The eeriness can become all consuming. And so it was with no little trepidation that Lynn and Rhonda along with the handful of other visitors attending that night. Enter the building's front doors. before pressing on into the seemingly endless labyrinth of darkened corridors beyond As the visitors fan out, each felt their own way along whatever strange essence of the past they seemed to have tuned into. As they all steadily wandered deeper into the building, Lynn and Rhonda eventually found their way to the third floor. It was there that Lyn claimed that something suddenly made contact with Rhonda. called herself Mary. Although Lyn and Ronda were aware of Room 502 and its unsettling reputation, both claimed not to have heard the name Mary associated with it before. as this apparent entity spoke to Rhonda. She in turn relayed the story to Lynn about how she'd met her untimely end in room 502. Arriving outside the room sometime later, Both Lynn and Ronda immediately sensed a wicked energy emanating from inside of it. Rhonda claimed to sense Mary's presence again. quickly struck up another conversation with the apparent entity. Linda meanwhile claimed to pick up an equally tortured presence in the room's adjoining bathroom. Writing about the experience later on her own WordPress site. Linda claimed it was the spirit of a former intern. The man who'd supposedly got Mary pregnant. Which some believed was the reason the woman had taken her own life. Only that wasn't the end, according to Lynn. It was some weeks later that Lynn and Rhonda decided to try and reconnect with Mary once again. This time, the story Mary apparently gave Rhonda was very different. The man Lynn had apparently met in the bathroom of room 502 wasn't just the father of Mary's unborn child. He was also their murderer. One of them in any case. According to Lynn. When he discovered Mary was pregnant. He convinced her to have an abortion, to save himself the shame of fathering a child out of wedlock. woman that his parents apparently didn't approve of. Lynn recounted a vision of Mary's hanging body. with her lower half drenched in blood. Supposedly from the botched abortion. rather than wait for her to bleed out. The intern, along with three colleagues, had decided to hang her instead and make her death look like a suicide. though quite how they were planning to explain away the blood from a botched abortion, is anyone's guess. Either way. There really was a Mary Hillenberg, who was found hanged in room five oh two. And regardless of the truth of how or why The room inevitably developed a sinister reputation soon after. And perhaps an energy all of its own. Four years later, in the winter of nineteen thirty two, Another nurse is said to have thrown herself from the room's balcony. Though several colleagues tried to stop her, she slipped by them. And let's plummeting to the lawn below. Unlike Mary Hillenberg, this other nurse's name has been lost to time. Is it a true story? Did something in the room somehow make her do it? Or is it simply one more legend? folded into the history of Waverly Hills. Whatever the case may be, what is certain are the many complaints and claims made by staff and patients. who spent time in the eerie property over the years. Many are said to have reported feeling cold spots in the rooms. On even the most humid of days. or a feeling of intense depression that dissipated the moment they left. Several nurses claimed to see a dim female shape dressed in white. Disembodied voice. Screaming Get Out. Two months after Lynn and Ronda's visit in twenty ten. One of Waverly Hills's current owners, Charlie Mattingley, was apparently alone at the property. When a woman arrived claiming to be working on post-production for a paranormal show that had recently filmed there. After Charlie let her into the building, she climbed the stairs from the main hallway and quickly out of sight. Slightly irped by her uninvited arrival. Charlie called the number he'd been given by the production company to check her credentials. company told him that they hadn't sent anyone to Waverly Hills that day. Charlie radioed his security staff, and two members of the team were promptly dispatched to find the mysterious woman. They eventually caught up with her on the third floor landing, where she admitted she'd lied to gain admittance. So she apparently wouldn't give them her name. explained that she was a medium who'd been drawn to the third floor of the old sanatorium. After making contact with the spirit of a young girl named Mary, Charlie was immediately. Accounts of the hospital's apparent hauntings were hardly kept secret. Mary was just about the most obvious name the so-called medium could have plucked out of the air. He was about to demand she leave. and fixed her gaze on a nearby door. Since he didn't want to manhandle a stranger. Charlie was content to let her cross the corridor. Wander into the room beyond. This was Mary's room, she said. If you look in the closet, you'll find her things. By now a little curious himself, Charlie obliged, but when he opened the closet, all he could see was dust and scattered debris. But before he could say a word. The woman stepped up beside him and said, You're looking in the wrong place. She pointed to the back of the closet, where a crack in the plaster exposed a cavity. Charlie reached in and felt several loose objects. First he pulled out a metal fork. Which everyone present could only look at in confusion. Followed by a single small house slipper. Then he reached behind the plaster again and withdrew three brown photographs. The first was of a stretch of rural road, empty and tree line. The second captured a group of four middle aged men sitting on a wall, seemingly at rest from work. The final photograph was of a young woman with a shy smile and long brown hair. Back in neat cursive. was written the name Mary Lee. Point according to Charlie. The mysterious woman gave a slight smile and left the room. Despite calling her back. She apparently ignored them. Descended the stairs and left the hospital. No one to this day knows her name. Or who she really was. Every floor of Waverly Hills has its own share of legend and encounter. On the ground floor of the north wing, there is a pair of old stained wooden doors. They give access to a grim concrete tunnel. Running five hundred and twenty five feet on a downward slant. The tunnel was once equipped with a pulley car system to carry supplies from the bottom of the hill. However, at the peak of the hospital's capacity, the death chute, as it was morbidly named, was used to discreetly transport bod to a receiving hearse. During those peak years, over a thousand bodies made their final journey through this dark conduit. It's no surprise that such a Macabre feature has become an epicenter for much of the hospital's alleged uncanny activity. Several ghosts are said to appear in and around the tunnel. including the shade of an old man and his dog. Tina Mattingley, the wife of Charlie and co-owner of the property. BuzzFeed reported that while locking up after a guided tour, She saw a tall, dishevelled man with long thinning hair. He didn't move, simply stared. caught in the beam of her flashlight. Tina jumped back in shock and lost sight of him. herself, she began to explore nearby rooms, looking for what she presumed was a member of the tour or an intruder. Returning to the main corridor, she looked down to where a German Shepherd dog was lying calmly on the floor. Cool to it. But it refused to move. After a second it was gone. According to Tina. I didn't see it disappear. It didn't get up and walk away. It just wasn't there anymore. Tina likes to think that even if what remains of the old man is stuck in the grounds of the hospital, Then at least he's with his best friend. ghost most associated with the tunnel and ground floor is similarly benign. Many visitors claim to have interacted with the shadow of a young boy, who legend has it was named Timmy. According to law. Timmy first came to the hospital in 1930 when he was six, accompanying his affected parents. When they died in the upper wards, Tim was placed in the children's hospital, where he first caught the disease, and then succumbed to it. apparently seen throughout the grounds, but mostly at the tunnel entrance, Timmy has become the focus of most ghost hunting expeditions to Waverly Hills. both because of the mass of physical phenomena associated with its presence. but also because the playful spirit of a six year old boy is a far less fearsome prospect than other lingering residents. After all. No one wants to meet the creeper. The shadowy figure known as the creeper has the most fearsome reputation. said to have been encountered all over the hospital. Most associated with the second and fourth flaws. Creeper is said to be a humanoid figure. Seemingly made from nothing but corporeal shadow. Those who claim to have seen it. And there are many. Describe it in unnervingly consistent terms, as a dark figure, with arms that seem too long for its body, and everything below the waist. dwindling into an ill defined mass. It rarely approaches directly, and is most often spotted from the corner of a nervous eye. crawling along the walls or ceiling when the visitor's back is turned. Many photos have been taken of strange out of place shadows in the halls that make no sense in relation to light sources. In the early 2020s, a woman named Moira was taking part in a guided tour of the sanatorium when she started to feel a little too unnerved by the stories of death and disease. tour guide was showing off the heliotherapy rooms on the fifth floor. Moiva excused herself and descended to the second floor. Stepping inside, she was immediately surprised by a distinct chill in the room, despite it being a pleasant day outside. Moira was about to enter a cubicle when she heard the unsettling sound of heavy dragging. Coming from the corridor beyond. Do Slowly groaned open. Moira fixed her attention on the middle of the doorway, where a human would be framed. But it stayed empty. It was only when her gaze jerked upwards when she saw the long dark arms reaching around the upper segment of the door. Moira claims that a human torso then pulled itself into the bathroom. across the ceiling in a series of uncanny, jerking movements. The thing whatever it was. is said to have pursued Moira into a cubicle. before she eventually managed to run away and rejoin the group. After reporting what had happened to the tour guide, she was met with only a knowing smile. Despite years of research and apparent encounters, no one has ever found a cause. Backstory or explanation for that most sinister of Waverley's residents. Co owner Tina Mattingley. claims that some troublesome patients were kept from roaming the halls by having weights attached to their legs. If any staff heard the dragging of the irons, They would know that someone was out of their room. Though this has never been verified. For the next half century, after it ceased to be a sanatorium, Waverly Hills went through various owners and reincarnation. From nineteen sixty two to nineteen eighty. It was a geriatric care facility. which was eventually shut down amid controversy about patient cruelty. Including the liberal application of electroshock therapy. After that, it stood empty for twenty years. One developer, J. Clifford Todd, had plans to reopen it as a prison. And failing that. Luxury apartments. But in the end couldn't raise the capital. A subsequent owner had plans to demolish the hospital and replace it with the world's largest statue of Jesus. The project fell short of its fundraising aims, and Waverly Hills continued its lonely vigil as just another dilapidated ruin on the edge of an American town. gathering shadows and rumours along with its dust. Finally in two thousand and one. A full forty years after it closed its doors on the last TB patient. property was purchased by the Mattingley's. Rather than demolishing the ruin. The Matingley's turned it into a museum and leased it to the Waverley Hills Historical Society, who run regular tours of both the history and the hauntings. Today, if you dare You can run your own personal expedition into the facility and spend a long night alone inside what some claim to be America's most haunted hospital. But the precise nature of just who You might encounter there. Seems destined to forever remain. Play. This episode was written by Neil McRobert. and produced by Richard McLean Smith. Thank you as ever for listening. Unexplained is an AV Club Productions podcast created by Richard McClain Smith. All other elements of the podcast, including the music, are also produced by me, Richard McLean Smith. Unexplained the book and audiobook is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon, Barnes <unk> Noble, Waterstones and other bookstores. Please subscribe to and rate the show wherever you get your podcasts. And feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps you have an explanation or a story of your own you'd like to share. You can find out more at unexplained podcast dot com. and reaches online through X and Blue Sky, but unexplained pod. And Facebook at facebook.com. Forward slash. Unexplained podcast.