Linda Vista Community Hospital

This Boyle Heights hospital opened in 1905 as Santa Fe Coast Lines Hospital for railroad workers. Redesigned in the 1920s and renamed Linda Vista Community Hospital in 1937, it served the community until operational cuts in the 1970s led to its decline. During the 1980s, it primarily treated victims of gang violence as crime rose dramatically. The hospital closed in 1991 and became a legendary haunted location before its conversion to senior housing in 2015.

Linda Vista Community Hospital, perched on a hilltop in Los Angeles' Boyle Heights neighborhood, stands as one of America's most haunted medical facilities. Originally opened on November 1, 1905 as the Santa Fe Coast Lines Hospital to serve railroad employees, the Moorish-style building was designed by renowned architect Charles Whittlesey. The original structure was replaced in 1925 with a T-shaped concrete building designed by H.L. Gilman, who also contributed to Union Station's design. Major additions followed in 1931 and 1938, when a six-story administrative wing was added at a cost of $300,000.

The hospital's dark chapter began in the 1970s when the neighborhood around Boyle Heights transformed into a gang warfare zone. As more railroad workers switched to conventional insurance policies, the facility became increasingly dependent on treating victims of the escalating violence—gunshot wounds, stabbings, and other traumatic injuries flooded the emergency department. Making matters worse, most victims were uninsured or underinsured, devastating the hospital's finances. When Linda Vista was forced to cut operational costs, the quality of care plummeted and death rates climbed alarmingly. According to California Health Law News reports, rumors spread of botched surgeries and negligent care. In 1988, the hospital stopped accepting ambulances in their emergency room. By 1991, the doors closed forever on a facility that had witnessed countless violent deaths over two decades.

Three spirits are most frequently encountered within these walls. The most famous is a little girl, possibly struck by a car, who died on the operating table. Ghost hunters have captured EVPs of her laughing, humming, and singing in the surgical suite. She has been spotted near the hospital's entrance sign and in the operating room where she drew her last breath. During Ghost Adventures' 2009 investigation, independent investigators played the team a chilling recording of this little girl laughing, and the crew later captured their own EVP of her humming—the same melody others had recorded months earlier.

A spectral orderly who died unexpectedly during his night rounds continues his eternal shift, checking each room as if the hospital never closed. Witnesses report seeing his shadowy figure moving through the corridors, opening and closing doors. On the third floor, a young woman paces endlessly through the hallways. Some believe she was a nurse from the hospital's early days; her footsteps echo through empty corridors, and she occasionally manifests before walking directly through walls.

But these are not the only presences. Menacing apparitions have been seen emerging from shadows, sending terrified visitors fleeing into the night. Blood-curdling screams echo through the building when only a handful of people stand frozen in the darkness. Disembodied voices approach from nowhere. Film crews shooting here have reported unexplained phenomena during productions.

Ghost Adventures investigated Linda Vista twice—in Season 3 (2009) and Season 6 (2012). During the first investigation, they captured a striking piece of evidence: a six-foot-tall white misty figure passing by a surgeon's chair that moved on its own. A paranormal video expert confirmed the footage could not be explained by vehicle headlights or camera reflections. EVPs captured included voices saying "maybe," "stop it," "ready or not...here I come," "thank you," and hauntingly, "don't leave me." They also documented residual sounds—humming, male voices, screaming, moaning, sick patient breathing, and a girl's voice singing.

When they returned in 2012, investigator Nick Groff sought to contact a female spirit who had reached out to him during the first visit. One week before filming, a nurse reported seeing the same apparition Nick had encountered—but this time she was covered in blood. The team built an electrified ghost chamber attempting to manifest the spirit. Guest investigator Chad Lindberg felt unseen hands repeatedly shaking his hand, and afterward discovered three unexplained scratch marks on his back. Spirit Box responses included a female voice saying "nurse" and "help yourself."

The hospital's atmospheric decay made it irresistible to Hollywood. Over 60 productions filmed there before its 2015 conversion to senior housing, including Addams Family Values (1993), L.A. Confidential (1997), End of Days (1999), Pearl Harbor (2001), The Longest Yard (2005), Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013), and Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015). Television shows including ER, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed, Dexter, True Blood, and Criminal Minds all used its decaying halls. The building was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 2002 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006. Today, as Hollenbeck Terrace senior living facility, the building's darkest days may be behind it—but those who died within its walls may never leave.