Explore the Virginia's Haunted St. Albans Sanatorium with Nick Groff

Haunted Hidden Gem: Here’s How You Can Explore the Abandoned Halls of St. Albans Sanatorium

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You may have never heard of it, but St. Albans Sanatorium is a building that perfectly fits the mental image of an abandoned lunatic asylum on a hill. In 1916 the massive property was converted from the St Albans Lutheran Boys School into a sanatarium for the mentally ill, and if the paranormal researchers are believed, some of the patients still walk the halls to this day. Now, you can investigate this haunted hidden gem yourself.

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At the time, St. Albans Sanatorium was considered very forward thinking hospital, but what was actually happening behind their doors were a strange string of bizarre medical practices from hydrotherapy to long-term isolation. Today the massive bathtubs are still there, along with the isolation rooms, a bowling alley, and even the rooftop garden, complete with a wraparound cage to keep patients from jumping to their deaths.

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By the mid 40s the hospital had treated 6509 patients with a staff of only 48 nurses and doctors, so you can imagine what kind of “treatment” the patients were actually getting. The understaffing remained a common problem at the hospital, and in the mid 90s it closed its doors for good. Unfortunately, it seems the dead didn’t get the message.

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There are many spirits who are rumored to haunt St. Albans Sanatorium, so many, in fact, that tour staff have lost count of the exact number over the years. One of the most active locations of the hotel is the basement bowling alley, which is said to be a favorite haunt of a little girl who had likely once been the child of a patient at the hospital.

St. Albans Sanatorium’s many hallways are also haunted by dark shadows that dart in and out of view when the living turn to look at them. And though there are many locations in the hospital to explore, there’s one that’s alarmingly more active than the rest: an unassuming bathroom in the women’s ward.

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Known as the “suicide bathroom”, two female patients took their lives here, and investigators believe that because of their deaths, the paranormal activity experienced and reported in this small room has proven to be far more aggressive than in many of the building’s other hotspots. Both women are said to still haunt the area with an unbelievably oppressive feeling that’s impossible not to experience when you’re in the room itself.

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Though St. Albans Sanatorium is sometimes eclipsed by it’s bigger brothers Waverly Hills or PennHurst Asylum, it’s an incredible piece of haunted history that deserves to not only be explored but preserved. Luckily, the Nick Groff Tour is headed to the asylum in July for their final stop on the 2016 tour, and their bringing out the big guns for this one. Special guests Paranormal Lockdown’s Katrina Wiedman and Haunted Collector’s John Zaffis will be in tow to lead guests on a guided investigation to some of the most active spots in the hospital.

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The world’s only Traveling Museum Of The Paranormal And Occult will also be in attendance with a collection of haunted, cursed, and occult-related items for audiences to touch, photograph, and experiment with, including a few brand new artifacts donated by Ghost Mine‘s Patrick H.T. Doyle and Finding Bigfoot‘s Cliff Barackman.

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If you’d like to investigate St. Albans Sanatorium with the Nick Groff Tour, we’ll be rolling into town on July 16, so grab your tickets and get ready to spend the night in one of the country’s most haunted locations.


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