Initially built in 1904 in the Boyle Heights neighborhood off the southeast corner of Hollenbeck Park in Los Angeles as a hospital for employees of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, the facility thrived in its early years.

Known first as The Santa Fe Coastlines Hospital, the grand stucco building became the Linda Vista Community Hospital in 1937 after a large razing, rebuilding and expansion.

The Mission Revival-style hospital built on four acres included a park and gardens for the recovering patients. Struggling financially in its last years, Linda Vista closed its doors in 1991.

Linda Vista has been used as a film location for several TV shows and movies including “The Longest Yard,” “Pearl Harbor,” “End of Days,” “True Blood,” “Dexter,” and “Circle of Ei8ht.”

Film crew members have heard “cries in the night and unexplained humming,” seen “darting shadows” and apparitions including an orderly in white making his rounds and sometimes “lurking by the windows,” and a little girl in the surgery room.

On the third floor, “a young woman paces the hallways.” Some of the overnight security and production crews claim unseen forces have “touched and pushed” them.

Other paranormal experiences at the Linda Vista include feelings of being watched, strange smells, things moving, doors shutting, and lights flickering. The caretaker, Francis Kortekaas said the water at the scrub sink on the 5th floor is operated by a leg-lever and it turns on by itself. A little girl screaming for help has also been heard on the fifth floor.

Kortekaas has also felt a small child grab his hand several times as he was walking through the old building.

The shadow of a young doctor is said to have been glimpsed in the building by the locals in the area. They believe it is Dr. Dennis Leon who is said to have tragically ended his career there when he unpredictably lost a young patient.

As of 2013, the hospital nurses’ residences housed in a separate three-story building connected to the hospital by a tunnel and the hospital itself are being converted into senior apartments through a $40 million renovation according to the Los Angeles Times.

References and additional information:

http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/ghost-adventures/articles/linda-vista-haunted-history

http://blog.zap2it.com/pop2it/2012/05/haunted-la-hospital-linda-vista-to-be-converted-to-senior-living.html

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-hospital4-2010apr04,0,6306412.story