History & local legend
The former White Haven Sanatorium campus in Luzerne County treated tuberculosis patients in buildings laid out above its steam plant. After abandonment, local lore warned that taking anything from the grounds would bring death.
A visitor whose account was preserved in 2002 described entering a building uphill from the old powerhouse and finding newspapers and finger paints in the basement. The visitor deliberately took a cap from a paint container and later recounted surviving the supposed curse. Separate accounts described mist on the old hospital grounds.
Sources
- Pennsylvania Hauntings, 2002 archive, first-person old sanatorium visit and the finger-paint cap
- Shadowlands, White Haven Hospital behind the Powerhouse restaurant, 2004 mist report
- Olmsted Archives, Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, original sanatorium property plan showing main building, cottages, pavilion and steam plant
- Powerhouse Eatery, historical account of the sanatorium and 1946 transfer to Jefferson Medical College
- U.S. Geological Survey, 1950 White Haven quadrangle, original campus labeled Jefferson Hospital
- AFSCME Local 2334, White Haven Center institutional history and original 1901 opening
