History:

Located in Parke County, the Indiana State Sanatorium has attracted the attention of tourists with its ghostly atmosphere and eerie backstory. The sanatorium was initially built in 1907 to treat patients with tuberculosis. Its story is mildly similar to Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Louisville, which I previously wrote an article about that delves further into the history of tuberculosis, here. 

The sanatorium was designed with quarantine in mind, many of its features are designed to keep patients in, and the outside world separate. The grounds even had a school built onto them to ensure that patients could receive the education that everyone else did. 

The hospital kept running until the middle to later 50s, when tuberculosis became a problem of the past. After tuberculosis died out, the hospital was primarily used to treat psychiatric patients until the early 2000s. 

Hauntings:

Interestingly enough, many visitors and paranormal investigators report poltergeist-like activity. Many of the accounts sound just like something out of any thriller, but investigators swear that said activity occurred. The laundry room is reportedly haunted, with machines going by themselves, objects flying, and otherworldly occurrences. 

Apparitions, disembodied voices, and other common paranormal phenomena have been reported as well. Unfortunately, reported activity is limited, because the sanatorium was recently opened for public touring in 2021.  

Whether or not there is truly peculiar supernatural activity at the sanatorium, its historical past makes it something worth investigating.

Works Cited:

Featured image by Lora Olive- check out the rest of their gallery here

https://www.podpage.com/haunted-history-chronicles/blog/a-new-haunt-has-arrived-the-indiana-state-sanatorium-by-courtney-eastman/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockville,_Indiana

https://indstate.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/isulib/id/2518

https://digital.library.in.gov/Record/WV3_isulib-2518

Explore