Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainThe demolished hilltop tuberculosis sanatorium near Howell that opened in 1907 and later treated developmentally disabled patients, leaving behind a haunted reputation that lingered over the upscale subdivision built on its grounds.
High Hillcrest Drive (former Hillcrest Center grounds), Howell, MI 48843
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages
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Free
The sanatorium buildings were demolished in 1985; an upscale residential subdivision now occupies the hilltop site.
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Limited Access
Former hospital grounds on a hilltop, now a private residential subdivision
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Photos OK
Est. 1907 · Michigan State Sanatorium (1907) · Hilltop Tuberculosis Rest-Cure Facility · Howell State Hospital (1961) · Hillcrest Regional Center for the Developmentally Disabled (1978)
In 1890 the Michigan State Board of Health began petitioning the legislature to fund a state sanatorium for the treatment of tuberculosis. After reviewing more than twenty candidate sites, the board selected a hilltop near Howell in Livingston County in 1906, drawn by its elevation of roughly 1,100 feet above sea level — described at the time as the highest point of the natural watershed in the Lower Peninsula, prized for the fresh-air 'rest cure' then standard in TB treatment.
The Michigan State Sanatorium at Howell opened on September 7, 1907, admitting its first two patients. Over the following decades it expanded dramatically, growing from a 16-bed operation into a campus of roughly 500 beds with children's cottages, employee quarters, a laundry, and assorted outbuildings, built out steadily between 1909 and 1930.
The arrival of effective antibiotic therapy in the early 1950s caused tuberculosis deaths at the facility to fall sharply, and its original mission faded. Between 1958 and 1960 the sanatorium began admitting developmentally disabled patients, and in 1961 it was transferred to the Department of Mental Health and renamed Howell State Hospital. In 1978 it became the Hillcrest Regional Center for the Developmentally Disabled.
The state closed Hillcrest in 1982, unable to afford its upkeep, and the buildings stood disused before being demolished in 1985. The property was sold in 1987, and an upscale residential subdivision was developed on the hilltop grounds. As with many large institutions of its era, the facility's long history encompassed both genuine care and the hardships of a period when both tuberculosis and developmental disability were poorly understood.
Sources
The Howell sanatorium carried a haunted reputation long before its demolition, recounted in regional outlets such as 99.1 WFMK and the local Mysterious Michigan history project. According to those accounts and the original Shadowlands submission, the hilltop and the homes later built on it have been associated with unexplained phenomena that residents and visitors connect to the patients who died there over its seventy-five years of operation.
Reported experiences include an apparition described by one witness as a transparent but clearly defined man with red hair, blue eyes, and dark trousers with suspenders; self-activating water faucets; loud footsteps from basements at all hours; the disembodied sounds of children playing; cold spots; and pets behaving as though disturbed by something unseen. Reader submissions collected by Mysterious Michigan attribute several of these accounts to residents identified only by first name.
These accounts are presented as the area's ghost tradition, reported by local residents and regional media, rather than as verified supernatural fact. Out of respect for the real people who lived and died in institutional care on this hilltop — first tuberculosis patients, later developmentally disabled residents — the site's history is treated as a serious subject rather than a thrill narrative.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
The hilltop where the Michigan State Sanatorium at Howell once stood is now an upscale subdivision off High Hillcrest Drive. The buildings are gone; the area is of historical and folkloric interest only. Respect residents' privacy and posted signage.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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