THE STORY
Reported Haunting
Former patients are said to remain within the abandoned halls of St. Ignatius Hospital. Reports include full-bodied apparitions, disembodied conversations, crying, moving shadows, and the spirit of railroad worker F. E. Martin, the hospital's first recorded death.
St. Ignatius was the first hospital in Whitman County built in 1983. The building was sold in 1968 when a new hospital was built. The building then became St. Ignatius Manor and housed developmentally disabled adults until 2003. It was sold and was in disrepair, a week after the new owner bought it, pipes broke due to the cold weather and it was flooded. After some repairs the building then transferred to another owner and it has been sitting empty for over 10 years. There are many stories about the hauntings that go on in the old hospital. Doors open, you hear foot steps upstairs, you hear whispers, you hear brooms hit the floor. There are two rooms that people can not go into because of the feeling they get. Not sure what those rooms were, but it is consistently the same two rooms. People have felt like they have been touched or pushed. A number of people have heard someone say, “boo” and nobody is there. The old hospital has seen lots of births and deaths over the years. In the beginning there was no mortuary in the county. So the morgue is under the hospital. The hospital is in a residential area and people call the police if you try and get in. It is boarded up now and has locks on the doors. The owner is getting ready to turn it into high end apartments this year.