Indiana State Sanatorium

A former tuberculosis hospital that operated from 1908 to 1968, then served as a nursing home until 2011. The isolated complex of buildings sits on a wooded hillside in Parke County and now offers guided tours and overnight paranormal investigations.

The Indiana State Sanatorium sits on over 500 acres of land three miles east of Rockville in west-central Indiana, a sprawling complex of buildings that once formed a self-sufficient community dedicated to fighting tuberculosis. In 1907, the state sought property for a hospital to combat the TB epidemic ravaging the nation, and the Rockville site was selected. Construction began immediately, and the sanatorium opened its doors to patients in 1911. Initially known as the Indiana State Tuberculosis Hospital, it was renamed the Indiana State Sanatorium in 1919. For decades, the facility treated hundreds of patients simultaneously, many of whom never left -- tuberculosis was a death sentence before the discovery of streptomycin in the 1940s made the disease curable.

The sanatorium ceased TB operations in 1968 as the disease became treatable, but the property was reborn in 1976 as the Lee Alan Bryant Health Care Center, serving as a nursing home and private mental hospital. The fifth floor housed violent male patients, and several separate incidents of suicide occurred when patients gained access to the roof. The facility closed permanently in 2011, with belongings, medical equipment, and personal effects left behind as though the staff had simply walked away.

After years of abandonment, ghost stories swirled around the old Rockville hospital. Locals reported lights flickering in buildings that had no electricity, figures moving behind windows in vacant wards, and sounds emanating from the complex at night. In response to these tales and the growing number of trespassers seeking the paranormal, the property opened to public ghost tours and investigations in 2021, offering access to over 120,000 square feet of historic buildings including the original tuberculosis hospital, nursing home wings, mental health wards, and thousands of feet of underground steam tunnels.

The paranormal activity reported at the sanatorium is extensive and consistent across hundreds of visitor accounts. Disembodied voices, both male and female, have been heard echoing through the halls of virtually every building on the property. Perhaps most haunting are the sounds of coughing and wheezing that visitors report hearing in the older wings -- respiratory distress from patients who died of the disease that brought them here, still suffering in death as they suffered in life. EVP recordings have captured unexplained audio throughout the complex.

A female figure frequently appears near the laundry facilities and office areas, her identity unknown but her presence documented in multiple ghost hunter videos. Shadow figures have been observed moving through corridors, disappearing around corners and through doorways. The laundry rooms generate some of the most dramatic poltergeist activity: objects have been reported moving or being thrown by themselves, and laundry machines have allegedly activated without human intervention -- the mundane machinery of a working hospital continuing to operate decades after the last patient departed.

Adams Hall, the five-story staff residence, produces phantom footsteps in the stairwells and an overwhelming sensation of unease on the upper floors. The underground steam tunnels connecting the buildings are among the most sought-after areas for investigators, their narrow passages and oppressive atmosphere creating an experience that is genuinely unsettling regardless of paranormal activity.

The Indiana State Sanatorium now hosts daytime tours, flashlight tours, overnight stays, and full paranormal investigations, and has even held a paranormal convention on the grounds. The property's combination of tuberculosis deaths, mental health patient suffering, documented suicides, and decades of abandonment make it one of the most actively haunted locations in Indiana.