The Red Roof Church, or St. John the Evangelist, enjoys a prime location in the heart of the Quartier des Spectacles - and a reputation of being haunted by its founder, Reverend Edmund Wood. Not only did he go from offering masses within a crumbling cemetery to establishing a historic church, but he was also known to have banished an offensive gargoyle that was terrorizing the city in the 1890s.
Welcome to the one hundred and seventeenth installment of the Haunted Montreal Blog!
With over 600 documented ghost stories, Montreal is easily the most haunted city in Canada, if not all of North America. Haunted Montreal dedicates itself to researching these paranormal tales, and the Haunted Montreal Blog unveils a newly researched Montreal ghost story on the 13th of every month!
This service is free and you can sign up to our mailing list (top, right-hand corner for desktops and at the bottom for mobile devices) if you wish to receive it every month on the 13th! The blog is published in both English and French!
We are pleased to announce that our season of public outdoor ghost tours is now running and tickets are on sale! These include Haunted Old Montreal, Haunted Mountain, Haunted Downtown and Haunted Griffintown. Paranormal Investigations include Old Sainte-Antoine Cemetery and Colonial Old Montreal.
Haunted Montreal is also running our Haunted Pub Crawl every Sunday at 3 pm in English. For tours in French, these happen on the last Sunday of every month at 2 pm.
To learn more, see the schedule at the bottom of our home page and see more details in the Company News section below!
Private tours for all of our experiences (including outdoor tours) can be booked at any time based on the availability of our actors.
Clients can request any date, time, language and operating tour. These tours start at $235 for small groups of up to 7 people. Email info@hauntedmontreal.com to book a private tour!
We are also thrilled to announce that we have created Hidden Montreal, a sister company that will offer daytime tours focusing on the secrets and hidden history of the city. Details in the Company News section below!
Lastly, we have an online store for those interested in Haunted Montreal merchandise. More details are below in our Company News section!
This month we provide an update on the most haunted building in Downtown Montreal, which was recently reborn as a fancy supper club.
Haunted Research
Montreal’s most infamous haunted nightclub at 1234 de La Montagne has been reopened as a high-end Japanese steakhouse. Conceived by the Jegantic Hospitality Group, founded by John E. Gumbley, the old funeral home was rebranded as Yoko Luna.
The restaurant is Canada’s largest fine dining supper club with a 20,000 square foot space. Set in “a dream-like environment”, the establishment boasts a whiskey den, cocktail lounge, massive dining room and outdoor terraces.
However, with a dark history as a creepy and ghost-ridden funeral home, followed by a series of haunted nightclubs, one must wonder if and how the old hauntings are affecting the new supper club.
Opening Yoko Yuna in a haunted building is a bit ironic given strong Japanese superstitions about harmful ghosts and spirits.
Yūrei (幽霊) are spirits in Japanese folklore that are comparable to the Western concept of ghosts. Indeed, many Japanese believe that after death a human spirit is angry and impure. To purify and pacify the soul requires many rituals, which are performed over a period of seven years.
Intrigued, Haunted Montreal sent a team including our paranormal investigators Dominique Desormeaux and Holly Rhiannon.
Many staff members were mum on the subject of hauntings in the restaurant. However, a few confessed that religious authorities were brought in to exorcise spirits before Yoko Luna’s grand opening in May, 2022.
Using ghost-hunting apps including Necrophonic and Spirit Talker, Rhiannon and Desormeaux explored the old funeral home and interviewed staff members.
The paranormal duo experienced everything from cold draughts, unexplained music, old-time whistling and the smell of myrrh and incense, the kind found in churches or funeral homes.
According to Desormeaux:
“We met a hostess, whom we chatted with and asked her if she had had any paranormal experiences there. At first she was a bit reluctant, but then started telling us about some of her experiences. She showed us where the morgue was.”
He continued:
“The morgue was located in the basement where the ladies’ bathroom is now. The hostess even went to see if anyone was in the bathroom to let us in. Other staff came to see what we were doing. We managed to make contact with a spirit who called out the name of one of the three hostesses who was with us at the time. She ran away.”
Desormeaux also managed to photograph what appears to be a paranormal type of mist drifting through the old funeral home. He explained: “Often spirits who are moving through a space create paranormal mist – or if they are about to appear. Ghost materialization usually starts with orbs or mist.”
Rhiannon concluded: “One hostess described hearing “old-time whistling” that unsettled her enough to ask it to stop. Comments on our YouTube video—one of our most viewed—echo similar encounters with music and whistling. Given how many visitors independently report these experiences without prior knowledge of the location’s reputation, I believe Yoko Luna holds compelling signs of paranormal activity.”
Following Haunted Montreal’s investigation, it appears as though the former funeral home, now hosting Yoko Luna, is indeed still haunted by disturbed spirits from its past.
Company News
We are thrilled to announce that we have created Hidden Montreal, a sister company that will offer daytime tours focusing on the secrets and hidden history of the city! It is in the proto-type phase, which means we will seek feedback to improve our tours and imagery. Keep an eye out for discounted tickets and possibly some free tours!
Hidden Montreal offers a unique alternative to traditional walking tours and takes clients beyond the stories that never make the guidebooks.
By taking a deep dive into the city’s secret, forgotten and controversial history, we explore excluded topics like colonial atrocities, slavery, witchcraft, public executions, forgotten cemeteries and more – all the while visiting Montreal’s most popular sites, monuments and attractions.
Contemporary issues such as Truth and Reconciliation, language politics, true crime and Montreal scandals are also covered.
We will start with two Hidden Montreal walking tours:
Secrets of Colonial Old Montreal – To Be Announced! Stay tuned to the Haunted Montreal Facebook page!
The Irish Famine in Montreal – May 24th at 2pm in English! Tours in French are coming soon!
Returning to Haunted Montreal, our season of public outdoor ghost tours is open and tickets are on sale! These include Haunted Old Montreal, Haunted Mountain, Haunted Downtown and Haunted Griffintown. Paranormal Investigations include Old Sainte-Antoine Cemetery and Colonial Old Montreal.
Haunted Montreal is also running our Haunted Pub Crawl every Sunday at 3 pm in English. For tours in French, these happen on the last Sunday of every month at 2 pm.
Private tours for any of our experiences (including outdoor tours) can be booked at any time based on the availability of our actors.
Clients can request any date, time, language and operating tour. These tours are based on the availability of our actors and start at $235 for small groups of up to 7 people. Email info@hauntedmontreal.com to book a private tour!
You can also bring the Haunted Montreal experience to your office party, house, school or event by booking one of our Travelling Ghost Storytellers today.
Hear some of the spookiest tales from our tours and our blog told by a professional actor and storyteller. You provide the venue, we provide the stories and storyteller. Find out more and then contact info@hauntedmontreal.com
Our team also releases videos every second Saturday, in both languages, of ghost stories from the Haunted Montreal Blog. Hosted by Holly Rhiannon (in English) and Dr. Mab (in French), this initiative is sure to please ghost story fans!
Please like, subscribe and hit the bell!
In other news, if you want to send someone a haunted experience as a gift, you certainly can!
We are offering Haunted Montreal Gift Certificates through our website and redeemable via Eventbrite for any of our in-person or virtual events (no expiration date).
Finally, we have an online store for those interested in Haunted Montreal merchandise. We are selling t-shirts, magnets, sweatshirts (for those haunted fall and winter nights) and mugs with both the Haunted Montreal logo and our tour imagery.
Purchases can be ordered through our online store: shop.hauntedmontreal.com
Haunted Montreal has temporarily altered its blog experience due to a commitment on a big writing project!
The book is titled Haunted McGill, and is authored by yours truly, Donovan King! Our publisher is The Stygian Society.
McGill University isn’t just known for its academic prestige – it’s also home to some of Montreal’s most fascinating ghost stories. Our upcoming publication, Haunted McGill, digs into the campus’s eerie legends and real-life hauntings, taking you to key landmarks like the Roddick Gates, and the Arts Building, rumored to house lingering spirits.
We’re crowdfunding through The Stygian Society’s Scriptorium, with the first 25 backers receiving an exclusive 1st edition copy, beautiful art prints, and other spooky treasures. Help us reach our goal by July and secure your piece of Montreal’s haunted history. Don’t miss out – back us today and make history a little spookier!
Until publication, new stories at the Haunted Montreal Blog will be offered every two months, whereas every other month will feature an update to an old story. As always, these stories and updates will be released on the 13th of every month!
Haunted Montreal would like to thank all our clients who attended a ghost walk, haunted pub crawl, paranormal investigation or virtual event!
If you enjoyed the experience, we encourage you to write a review on our Tripadvisor page and/or on Google Reviews – something that really helps Haunted Montreal to market its tours.
Lastly, if you would like to receive the Haunted Montreal Blog on the 13th of every month, please sign up to our mailing list.
Coming Up On June 13: MacDonald Physics Building
Legend has it that McGill’s Macdonald Physics Building has been cursed since 1945. Constructed in 1893 by tobacco magnate Sir William Christopher MacDonald, the university aimed to attract the world’s best talent. In 1903, visiting New Zealand Professor Ernest Rutherford’s experiments about radioactivity ushered in the Atomic Age – and nuclear weapons. On the morning of August 6, 1945, an America B-52 bomber dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. The legend suggests that due to this unnatural violation, Mother Nature herself cursed the building to fall into ruin.
Author:
Donovan King is a postcolonial historian, teacher, tour guide and professional actor. As the founder of Haunted Montreal, he combines his skills to create the best possible Montreal ghost stories, in both writing and theatrical performance. King holds a DEC (Professional Theatre Acting, John Abbott College), BFA (Drama-in-Education, Concordia), B.Ed (History and English Teaching, McGill), MFA (Theatre Studies, University of Calgary) and ACS (Montreal Tourist Guide, Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec). He is also a certified Montreal Destination Specialist.
Translator (into French):
Claude Chevalot holds a master’s degree in applied linguistics from McGill University. She is a writer, editor and translator. For more than 15 years, she has devoted herself almost exclusively to literary translation and to the translation of texts on current and contemporary art.
Related Posts
Comments (0)