The land that is known today as "Waverly Hill" was purchased by Major Thomas H. Hays in 1883 as the Hays family home. Since the new home was far away from any existing schools, Mr. Hays decided to open a local school for his daughters to attend. He started a
one-room schoolhouse on Pages Lane and hired Lizzie Lee Harris as the teacher.
Original sanatorium In the early 1900s,
Jefferson County was severely stricken with an outbreak of
tuberculosis. There were many tuberculosis cases in Louisville at the time because of all the wetlands along the Ohio River, which were perfect for the tuberculosis bacteria. To try to contain the disease, a two-story wooden sanatorium was opened which consisted of an administrative/main building and two open air pavilions, each housing 20 patients, for the treatment of "early cases". On August 31, 1912, all tuberculosis patients from the City Hospital were relocated to temporary quarters in tents on the grounds of Waverly Hills pending the completion of a hospital for advanced cases. In December 1912, a hospital for advanced cases opened for the treatment of another 40 patients. In 1914, a children's pavilion added another 50 beds making the known "capacity" around 130 patients. The children's pavilion was not only for sick children but also for the children of tuberculosis patients who could not be cared for properly otherwise. This report also mentions that the goal was to add a new building each year to continually grow so there may have even been more beds available than specifically listed.
Building of a durable facility and later closing of the sanatorium Due to constant need for repairs on the wooden structures, need for a more durable structure, as well as need for more beds so that people would not be turned away due to lack of space, construction of a five-story building that could hold more than 400 patients began in March 1924. The new building opened on October 17, 1926, but after the introduction of
streptomycin in 1943, the number of tuberculosis cases gradually lowered until there was no longer need for such a large hospital. The remaining patients were sent to Hazelwood Sanatorium in Louisville
Prison Simpsonville developer J. Clifford Todd bought the hospital in 1983 for $3,005,000. He and architect Milton Thompson wanted to convert it into a minimum-security prison for the state, but the developers dropped the plan after neighbors protested. Todd and Thompson then proposed converting the hospital into apartments, but they counted on Jefferson
Fiscal Court to buy around from them for $400,000, giving them the money to start the project.
Statue In March 1996, Robert Alberhasky bought Waverly Hills and the surrounding area. Alberhasky's Christ the Redeemer Foundation Inc. made plans to construct the world's tallest statue of
Jesus on the site, along with an arts and worship center. The statue, which was inspired by the famed
Christ the Redeemer statue on
Corcovado Mountain in
Rio de Janeiro, would have been designed by local sculptor
Ed Hamilton and architect Jasper Ward. The first phase of the development, coming in at a cost of $4 million, would have been a statue of tall and wide, situated on the roof of the sanatorium. The second phase would convert the old sanatorium into a chapel, theater, and a
gift shop at a cost of $8 million or more. The plan to construct this
religious icon fell through because donations to the project fell well short of expectations. In a period of a year, only $3,000 was raised towards the project despite efforts to pool money from across the nation. The project was canceled in December 1997.
Sounds of the Underground Music Festival Waverly Hills Sanatorium hosted the last show of the touring
music festival Sounds of the Underground on August 11, 2007. The show featured prominent acts in the
extreme metal and metalcore scene, including
Job for a Cowboy,
The Acacia Strain,
Hatebreed,
Shadows Fall,
Chimaira,
Gwar,
Cameo,
Lamb of God, and
The Number Twelve Looks Like You. Similar festivals or concerts will likely not happen again at the Waverly Hills Sanatorium, due to complaints made by local residents. == Tunnel ==