Haunted Linda Vista Hospital

Meaning ‘beautiful view,’ the Linda Vista Hospital is a former medical center located in Los Angeles, California. The hospital’s original intention was to be the main hospital for the employees of the Santa Fe Railroad and was first known as the Santa Fe Coast Lines Hospital. The hospital witnessed death, disease, and suffering.

Even today, it is an assisted living facility called Hollenbeck Terrace that still watches people reach the ends of their lives. In the beginning, it was one of Los Angeles’ oldest hospitals as it tended to some of the early residents including the scores of railroad workers that were working hard to connect one part of the country to the other. While the hospital is no longer in operation, some have told stories of the various hauntings that take place on the grounds themselves.

If you ever get to visit the City of Angels, it might be a place worth checking out if you don’t mind the intense Los Angeles traffic, that is!

A Storied History

The original building that once was Linda Vista Community Hospital opened its doors to employees of the Santa Fe Railroad in 1905. It had its own cows, chickens, and even provided its patients with a garden for fresh produce, a dairy for fresh milk, butter and eggs.

The original Moorish-style hospital building was designed by Charles Whittlesey and was known as the Santa Fe Coast Lines Hospital. It found such success that it started to expand and ended up as entire campus. The original building was replaced in the late 1930s and was renamed the Linda Vista Community Hospital.

BY the late 1970s, the railroad hospital association facilities were being used less and less, as more railroad workers began to adopt mainstream insurance policies. The area surrounding the hospital also began to lose money, and hospital funding was lessened. Like much of the country during this time, the Great Depression and World War II derailed the hospital’s good fortune and reputation.

Seeing the decline, the Santa Fe Railroad sold the 150-bed hospital to a healthcare company in 1980. According to a California Health Law News Report, when Linda Vista attempted to reduce expenses, the hospital experienced an increase in its death rates. During this time, the hospital was seeing an increase in patients with gunshot wounds and stabbings from the local neighborhoods due to gang violence in East LA. The quality of care at Linda Vista Hospital continually declined as doctors and nurses transferred to other hospitals and finally, in 1991, the hospital ceased all operations.

Decades after its closure, the building became a centerpiece for ghost investigators as rumors of strange activity began to swirl. In 2006, the hospital was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Post-closure, the hospital was also used as a site for filming movies and television shows such as Addams Family Values, The Longest Yard, Children of the Corn : Isaac’s Return, and Fatal Beauty to name a few. At that point, the hospital was cleaned out and had undergone some renovation to ensure that the building was up to code and used for the purpose of filming. From 1985 to as recent as 2015, the old Linda Vista Hospital was used for filming. Oddly enough, so many horror films set in Los Angeles were often using the hospital as a setting for even the most scariest of scenes. And the possibility of ghosts haunting the hallways made the scary scenes seem so real and authentic.

During these productions, the hospital’s haunted reputation started to grow. Reports came from film crews and actors of unexplained phenomena. Darting shadows, nighttime cries, and disembodied humming were all experienced by those working on the grounds of Linda Vista Hospital. Many claim to have been touched and pushed by these unseen forces. Three spirits in particular are reported most at the hospital, a lurking child in the surgical room, a pacing young woman in the hallways of the third floor, and the spirit of an orderly still making his rounds in the afterlife.

Hauntings of Linda Vista Hospital

Allegations of patient abuse began to come into the light years after the hospital had shut down. No investigations had ever been done on the reports of abuse filed by family members. Could this abuse have been the cause of some of the hauntings experienced at the hospital?

Many visitors have reported seeing three specific specters roaming the hospital. One of these spirits is that of a little girl who reportedly died on the operating table, of course, she is seen in the surgical room most. The spectral orderly who died unexpectedly while making his rounds is seen wandering the hallways checking each room. Another spirit is that of an unknown young woman who is seen pacing the third floor hallways.

Since it’s closure, countless ghost experts have spent the night in the hospital with the hopes of catching evidence on camera. It has become a hotbed of ghostly activity due to the untimely and tragic deaths of the patients who passed here throughout the years.

Is It Worth The LA Traffic To Visit?

The land that the hospital was on has since been renovated into a senior living facility. Since it is no longer abandoned and unable to accept visitors, it might not be the best idea to wander around the area looking for ghosts. The Linda Vista Hospital may still be the subject of controversy among lifelong residents of East Los Angeles, and it may be spoken of highly by ghost investigators and urban explorers, and it’s definitely a place that still has just a few ghosts hanging around. Los Angeles is truly a historic city with one of the most storied pasts.

A history of death, violence, and suffering coats the city like a layer of smog, suffocating energies that emanate into the city’s buildings and the land surrounding it. Have you ever ventured to Linda Vista Hospital or the grounds that remain? Perhaps the residents of the senior care facility have some stories of their own considering they now live on the property.

For more haunted hospitals, check out our article on Royal Hope Hospital in Florida, with a laundry list of hauntings all across the campus, including a feeling of despair in the mourning room, a ghostly surgeon that enjoys grabbing visitors’ clothes, and beds in the patient wards that move all on their own!

Sources Cited:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linda_Vista_Community_Hospital

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/linda-vista-hospital

https://www.travelchannel.com/shows/ghost-adventures/articles/la-purisima-haunted-history