America’s Most Haunted Hospitals and Asylums

ATHENS LUNATIC ASYLUM, OHIO

From 1874 to 1993, Athens Mental Hospital, now known as The Ridges, earned a dark reputation for its frequent lobotomies, housing of violent criminals, and how its grounds served as the final resting place for more than 1,900 of its patients – their headstones marked with not a name, but a number. Creepier still, a woman named Margaret Schilling reportedly disappeared in 1978 inside the hospital’s maze of wards. Her naked body was found a year later in an abandoned wing of the hospital—her clothes folded neatly by her side. Today, you can still see the stain left behind by her decaying body, and possibly her ghost on the top floor in ward No. 20.

Shut down and left to its not-so-merry ghosts in 1975, Taunton State Hospital was a product of the Kirkbride Plan, a massive 154-acre architectural approach that masked the deteriorating patients housed within its walls. While most of Taunton has since been demolished, its history is just too creepy to leave off the list. The hospital opened its door to some dangerous patients—including Jane Toppan, a serial-killing nurse with at least 31 souls on her list—though it’s stories about the staff that truly chill the spine. Legend has it doctors would shuffle patients down to the basement for a bit of satanic ritual. Later, reports of a “shadow man,” a ghost who crawls along the walls and watches patients, swirled.

Waverly Hills Sanatorium started out as Waverly School in the late 1800s and evolved into a hospital in 1908, designed to safely accommodate between 40 and 50 tuberculosis patients. As the disease developed into an epidemic, the hospital was expanded to support at least 400 patients and was considered to be one of the best facilities at the time. In 1961, the hospital was closed down, following the discovery of a tuberculosis-curing antibiotic.

Today, Waverly Hills Sanatorium is known by many as “the most spiritually active place in the world”, with paranormal reports every single day. Some of the most terrifying reports surround the story of a nurse who hanged herself by a light bulb wire when she discovered she had become pregnant out of wedlock by the owner of the sanatorium. Many unusual sightings have also been spotted in the area known as the Death Tunnel, where dead bodies were disposed of away from the eyes of the living.

Various paranormal TV shows have spent time recording at Waverly Hills Sanatorium, including the cast of Most Haunted – one of whom had scratches inflicted upon their body during their visit.

Alton Mental Health Hospital is the only facility in this list which remains a functioning hospital to this day. Built in the early 1900s, this hospital is known for the harsh mistreatment of its patients, many of whom were subject to electrode shock therapy, lobotomies, and cold water treatments – all of which were standard everyday practice at this hospital.

Many people today – including staff, patients, and visitors – have reported hearing unusual noises, from doors randomly slamming shut to undecipherable whisperings. One of the creepiest reports comes from a nurse who was on duty and heard someone ask, “Who’s that?” She turned around to respond and discovered that there was no one there and no one had been in the building at the time. Later that day the exact same thing happened in the same place to a second nurse.

Since this facility is still a hospital today, tours are strictly forbidden, but people who have taken photos on site whilst visiting patients have reportedly caught images of orbs with the pained face of a human male on the front.