St. Albans Sanatorium Seethes With Paranormal Energy Like No Other Place In The US

Updated September 16, 2017 30.4K views

St. Albans Sanatorium, located in Radford, VA, shut its doors in the early 1990s after a century of abuse and terror. Actually, the terror began even earlier, during the American colonial period when the Draper's Meadow Massacre occurred on the very site that would one day be a boy's school and later a mental hospital. It seems that almost every city and town the world over has some claim to paranormal fame. But, few could come close to matching the amount of ghostly activity that has been recorded and reported at the haunted St. Albans, one of the most haunted places in Virginia and, perhaps, the entire country.

Over more than 100 years, St. Albans was the site of severe emotional and physical abuse of patients and the numerous suicides it led to. Even when it was a boy's school at the turn of the 20th century, students were tormented by staff and encouraged to bully one another. A number of deaths were reported on the campus during the site's 20-year tenure as a school.

When the hospital closed its doors in the 1990s, a former patient purchased the property with plans to turn it into a center for learning. In order to raise the funds to make that happen, he hosts regular ghost tours and overnight ghost sleepovers at the old hospital. If he's eventually able to open his business, perhaps at long last something good will come from a place of such sorrow. Then again, there's plenty in the hospital's history that should have him thinking twice about wanting to spend so much time there.

St. Albans Earned The Top Spot As Most Haunted Place On The US East Coast
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There are plenty of haunted locations all over the east coast of the US, but a number of paranormal experts named St. Alban's Sanatorium in Radford, Virginia, as the "most active location on the east coast." This probably has to do with just how long the land there has been inhabited. Members of the Powhatan, Shawnee, and Cherokee tribal peoples all settled on the land. Then was the boy's school in the late 19th century. The mental hospital followed and ran until the '90s.
Pioneers Were Attacked And Murdered There In Early America
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In the fall of 1755, long before the cornerstone of St. Albans was laid, a band of angry Shawnee tribesmen descended upon the pioneer community of Drapers Meadow which would one day be the site of St. Albans. A number of settlers were murdered that day, and several people were taking as hostage by the Shawnee. One of these, a young mother named Mary Draper, was taken to what is now Kentucky but was able to eventually escape and walk nearly 800 miles back home. Some of the spirits from the massacre may still haunt the site today.
Cruelty And Suicide Plague The Memory Of The Boys School Built On The Site
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In the late 19th century, the original buildings of what would later become St. Albans Sanatorium were constructed. It opened as a Lutheran school for boys, purportedly to train up the next generation of southern gentlemen. However, the school quickly developed a reputation for harsh treatment and the encouragement of bullying between the students.
To complicate matters further, the school was highly competitive in athletics and had a rivalry with another school. The students were encouraged to go above and beyond to win games, and when they failed they were punished. While there are no "official" deaths on the record books, a number of deaths occurred on the campus, including suicides. A few students left after their first term, refusing to return due to the wretched atmosphere and cruel treatment. The school remained open for only 20 years, closing in 1911. But plenty of dark energies and emotions were left behind.
St. Albans Sanatorium Tried Untested Medical Treatments That Led To It's Patients' Suffering
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Five years after the Lutheran School For Boys shut its doors, Dr. J.C. King arrived in Radford to transform the buildings from a boys school to a hospital for the mentally ill. His idea was to revolutionize the treatment of mentally ill patients, a practice with a poor centuries-long reputation. King encouraged the latest techniques and technologies, while also purporting to offer compassion and good, basic patient care.
Initially, St. Albans Sanatorium became known as one of the most progressive treatment centers for the mentally il. However, in the early days, King's methods were untested and many patients suffered and died from the experimental nature of the techniques. A number of suicides reportedly took place at St. Albans. It is said that the spirits of the tortured and miserable patients of St. Albans linger and have made their presence known to those who visit.
Inhumane Treatments At St. Albans Included Shock Therapy And Induced Comas
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While society is grateful for innovative, and even experimental treatments and medicines that have saved countless lives, there was no such thing as patient consent in clinical trials like there is today. During the early 20th century, experimental treatments and drugs were used on patients without their consent.
Some of the "treatments" used at St. Albans were at the very least questionable, while some were absolutely barbaric. Some of these included something called Insulin Coma Therapy, electroconvulsive therapy, and hydro shock therapy. Patients were often left alone for many hours in treatment rooms, strapped to gurneys while they received frightening and painful treatment. Some of the mentally ill patients suffered a further decline in their health, while others died as a result of the treatments.
The "Suicide Bathroom" Is The Most Haunted Room Of The Asylum
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One of the most paranormally active areas inside modern-day St. Albans is the "Suicide Bathroom." In this bathroom four documented suicides took place. The ghostly activity emanating from this room is said to be more aggressive than any other spot on the property. Visitors say they can feel the overwhelmingly oppressive presence of two of the women who killed themselves in the room. Some visitors claimed to see full apparitions of the suicide victims, floating lights, and paranormal experts have made recordings of disembodied voices heard in the room.
Wailing Female Spirits Roam The St. Albans Bowling Alley
Video: YouTube
Another hotbed of ghostly activity at St. Albans is the sanatorium's bowling alley. It is said that an evil entity dwells there and some have reported seeing a set of red eyes floating in the room. Others claim the ghost of a little girl, named Allie, lingers there. She may have been the daughter of one of the hospital's patients. Also, the ghost of Gina Renee Hall, who was murdered near St. Albans in June 1980, is said to roam through the bowling alley.
Tortured Souls Linger In The Miserable Hydrotherapy Room
Video: YouTube
Another area of paranormal activity at St. Albans is the hydrotherapy room. Here is where some of the worst sort of treatments were carried out on patients. The term "hydrotherapy" may sound like something akin to a relaxing spa, but that was not remotely the case at St. Albans. Patients were either wrapped up tightly like mummies in icy towels or bound to gurneys, they were also sometimes strapped into steaming pools of water, unable to move or escape. Sometimes they were left there for days at a time. Other patients were violently hosed with water from a fire hose.
"Donald's Room" Was The Room Of A Violent Pedophile Who Lured Boys Into His Closet
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Perhaps the creepiest site of paranormal activity at St. Albans is "Donald's Room." Paranormal investigators have left this room shaken and baffled. The story of the room is that a maintenance man named Donald lived on the St. Albans campus and was a known pedophile. He expressed regular interest in luring young male patients to his room because he wanted to "get them into his closet." The worst tale told of the evil Donald has to do with his raping and killing a young boy who was abandoned at the sanatorium.
According to one paranormal expert, a visit with Donald's spirit that was so remarkable it bears including here:

"Our approach with Donald started off as our retired police detective, Mike, tried to get a remorseful confession out of Donald using a ghost box... after that, things got weird. Really weird. We started playing this little game with Donald that I’ll call "You Light Up My Parascope, I’ll Get Into Your Closet With You, You Homicidal Ghost"... All the guys in the room took turns talking to Donald, getting into his closet, Donald would respond by lighting up the Parascope, cutting up and laughing with us through the use of the ghost box...The entire session was irreverent, but not disrespectful to Donald. We did thank him for his time. But he left our minds more than a little blown to say the least."
A Number Of Named Ghosts Haunt St. Albans
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Spirits can be seen and sensed throughout St. Albans. One of those spirits, called Elizabeth, is known to sing to investigators. Another has been dubbed the Grumpy Old Man for his tendency to create loud noises that include bangs and heavy footsteps.
There Are Disembodied Voices In St. Albans's Attic
Video: YouTube
For such a large building, its truly remarkable that almost every area of St. Albans is known for paranormal activity. Even the attic of St. Albans has reported activity. Investigators have recorded a wide variety of disembodied voices, both male and female, calling out "Be brief," "Get out," "That's you," "It's not good," "It has begun," "Won't come," and more strange phrases.
Spirits Will Touch Visitors In The Infamous Electroshock Therapy Room
Video: YouTube
More ghostly footsteps and disembodied voices are heard in the sanatorium's infamous electroshock therapy room. In the early days of the sanatorium patients were given lobotomies. When those proved ineffective, an experimental electroshock therapy treatment was implemented. The experience was nothing less than terrifying for the patients, who experienced fractures, seizures, and severe memory loss. Some modern day visitors claim to have witnessed objects being thrown and cite instances of "spirit jumping," where a visitor has felt the touch of a spirit on their body.