I’ve always been a fan of ghost stories and decaying buildings.
This past Saturday I ended up, along with my youngest sister and my mama, at the long-abandoned Fever Hospital in Wellington.
The heritage building has been given to the SPCA by Wellington City Council to use as a new home for its animal hospital and education centre.
Ahead of starting extensive renovations the SPCA volunteers ran tours of the building -all for the price of a small donation going to the charity.
Opened in 1919 to treat TB and influenza sufferers, it was also home to people returning from the war. Later it was used as a chest hospital. Wellington Polytechnic’s Music Dept briefly used a wing in the late 1990s before it stood, abandoned, for the 10+ years.
We even got a ghost story or two! When standing in the room where they held corpses before moving them down the ramp at dusk or under the cover of darkness (as if that wasn’t creepy enough) they told us of Sister Slipper – a nurse during the 1970s who was known for, surprisingly, slippers. She’s been spotted about the place.
Of course, I don’t really believe in ghosts.
… not really.
