The Yorktown Memorial Hospital was once a place of healing and recovery, but after its closure, became better known for the paranormal encounters and ghostly sightings that have shrouded the hospital. The paranormal activity has become so well known that people travel from all over the world to explore the abandoned hospital and experience it for themselves. It is no surprise then that it has become one of the most haunted places in Texas.
The Yorktown Memorial Hospital
The Yorktown Memorial Hospital, whose name honors those from Yorktown, Texas, who lost their lives during WWII, was built in 1950 and opened the following year. The 30,000-square-foot building cost approximately $500,000 to build and was operated by the Felician Sisters, an order of Catholic nuns. The hospital consisted of two administration offices with two wings on either side, and the second floors of the wings operated solely as living quarters for those who worked there. The hospital also featured a chapel and a basement.
The nuns operated the hospital up until 1986 when it closed as a result of another hospital having been built just a few miles away in Cuero, Texas. After this, the building was converted and reopened as a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center. However, its new role was short-lived, as it closed again in the 1990s. Following this, a private owner purchased the property and offered tours of the abandoned building to the public. In 2018, these tours came to an end after the city of Yorktown cited the owner with building code violations.
During the Felician Sisters’ administration, it is believed that over 500 patients died in just a six-year span. In all the years that the hospital was operational, the total number of deaths is said to be around 2,000.
Spirits are said to roam the abandoned building
Yorktown Memorial Hospital is believed to be haunted by those who both worked there and died there. One spirit believed to still be there is that of the incompetent practitioner Dr. Leon Norwierski. Norwierski practiced well into his 90s and earned himself a reputation as one to make fatal mistakes. In one story, he is said to have “accidentally” slit the throat of his patient while performing an operation on their thyroid, killing them. Whether he did this on purpose or genuinely by accident is unknown.
Norwierski’s patients are believed to roam the halls with him, including the friendlier spirit of a little girl named Stacy. Her favorite story was “The Poky Little Puppy,” a book that Norwierski himself was said to have gifted to her. Paranormal investigators are supposedly able to coax her spirit into activity by sitting down at the hospital library and reading from the book.
The ghosts of the nuns who worked there are also said to haunt the abandoned hospital and are supposedly quite active. Those who attempt to explore the abandoned building in unacceptable clothing for a hospital have reported being attacked by the spirits of the nuns, citing being scratched, pushed, and forced out of the building. People with tattoos have reported this even more so.
The spirits have been caught speaking to explorers
Considering that Yorktown Memorial Hospital seems to be riddled with ghost activity, several paranormal investigators from all over the world have ventured within its walls to try and capture the spirits there. Many have managed to gather pictures and audio clips of what they believe are spirits communicating or interacting with them in some way.
The abandoned hospital made it on television after the crew of Ghost Adventures visited the hospital. During their time there, they caught clear electronic voice phenomena (EVPs) where the spirits were believed to be saying things like, “You Wanna Play?,” “It Must Be Told, And I’ll Tell Them You Did It,” “It’s Sick,” “Don’t Go In The Bathroom,” “Okay,” “Get In There,” and “The Killer Is Coming, Get To The Hallway.”
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Despite its relatively short existence, Yorktown Memorial Hospital quickly became one of the most haunted places in Texas.