Montrealers are heading to the polls on November 2 to elect a new mayor. While the citizens have the democratic privilege of voting, the Dead certainly do not. As such, Haunted Montreal will be representing them and making demands to the mayoral candidates on their behalf. Generally-speaking, the Dead want two things: to be remembered and to be respected.
Welcome to the one hundred and twenty-fifth 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!
Our outdoor public tours are on pause until the Spring, but our Haunted Pub Crawl still runs every Sunday at 3 pm in English. Tours in French happen on the last Sunday of every month at 2 pm.
We are also offering the Travelling Ghost Storyteller experience. Bring our stories to your party or event.
You can still book all of our experiences, except for Haunted Mountain, as private tours. These 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 8 people.
More information on this, our schedule, Gift Certificates and other events and projects in the works in our Company News section.
This month, we revisit the old Dow Brewery in Griffintown. There are now development plans for the abandoned, and purportedly haunted, sections.
Haunted Research
The abandoned Dow Brewery is in the process of being repurposed into a new campus pavilion by the École Technologie Superieure. To be named the Dow Complex, the project is epic and fraught with concerns due to the haunted history of the site.
In October 2023, Haunted Montreal blogged about the haunted brewery, describing the disturbing ghost of a little girl crying who had been discovered by paranormal investigators. We also looked at rumours that that mafia had used the abandoned site to dispose of unwanted corpses by burying or otherwise concealing them.
Many of the buildings are in a state of ruin and are contaminated with asbestos. As such, Amiante National Asbestos has been hired to remove the toxic contaminants and mold before stripping away all interior industrial elements.
Once the contamination and interior machinery are removed, the plan is to demolish several buildings of the old brewery. Architectural designs suggest some buildings will be preserved and repurposed whereas others will be destroyed to make way for the new campus.
Because there have been breweries onsite since the early 1800s, many of the existing buildings have historical value – and ghost stories.
Indeed, the building marked GH on the map is the oldest building in the complex and dates from 1860. Slated for demolition, it was originally a cold storage facility used in the brewing process.
Located at 400 Montfort Street on the corner of Saint-Paul Street, the stone building is currently clad in metal fencing to prevent it from shedding materials onto the street below.
Demolition plans would see it replaced with a modern structure to serve the students and professors at the École Technologie Superieure.
Designed in a banal style, the new building is much taller, boxy in design and features various rectangular windows in a pattern.
However, heritage organizations such as the Conseil du patrimoine de Montréal and the Office de consultation publique de Montréal would prefer that the 1860 cold storage facility be preserved. They believe it would be better for the structure to be repurposed into the new complex because of its historical value.
Furthermore, Haunted Montreal has learned about a ghostly legend associated with the former cold storage building that is slated for demolition. It is visible in a 1909 map as a blue building in the lower right portion of the complex.
The legend involves the ghost of a Scottish assistant brewmaster who worked there during the Victorian era. The bizarre tale was known to many workers at the Dow Brewery, which ceased operation in 1998.
According to one retired employee, who is now in his eighties, employees called the ghostly assistant “Archibald”.
When alive, he was said to spend a lot of time at the Dow Brewery, especially in the cold storage building where he could check on the fermenting beer. To keep the temperature low enough to ferment and age the beer, ice blocks were cut from the St. Lawrence River and stored in boxes filled with sawdust to slow down the melting.
Thick masonry walls also helped keep the cold storage cool.
Archibald was also known to play the bagpipes and may have been a member of The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) of Canada. According to the legend, beer and bagpipes were the two things Archibald loved the most.
It wasn’t uncommon for him to combine his passions by playing his bagpipes while overseeing the fermentation of the beer in the cold storage area. Apparently, he believed the droning of the bagpipes would improve the flavour and quality of the beer.
In addition to brewing beer, Archibald also liked to drink it – often in copious amounts. As such, the Dow Brewery was the ideal workplace for him, and he was often drunk on the job.
Unfortunately, according to the legend, early one morning before sunrise the night watchman made a horrifying discovery while doing his rounds. Inside the cold storage area he discovered Archibald’s bagpipes lying on the ground next to one of the union casks. Union casks were large wooden vessels, typically made of oak, that held beer during cold conditioning. These were shallow, wide tuns to expose more surface area to the cold.
When the watchman leaned over to look in the cask, he was shocked to see Archibald’s lifeless body floating face down in the fermenting beer.
Since that terrible day, brewery workers sometimes reported hearing the faint drone of the bagpipes in the cold storage. On other occasions, a ghostly man, dripping from head to toe was seen wandering the area, always leaving a wet trail of beer in his wake which remained after he had disappeared into thin air.
Such is the legacy of the haunted cold room at the old Dow Brewery.
In conclusion, as the École Technologie Superieure moves forward with its plans to gut the old brewery to create a new campus, there are fears that human remains could be found and nearly-forgotten ghosts might be stirred up during the work. It does not bode well for the school’s complex.
Company News
Haunted Montreal is running our Haunted Pub Crawl every Sunday at 3 pm in English throughout the winter months. Tours in French happen on the last Sunday of every month at 2 pm.
Our public outdoor tours resume in the spring, and tickets for all of our May 2026 dates are now on sale. We will also be launching an indoor Paranormal Investigation (details next month).
Private tours for any of our experiences (including outdoor tours, except for Haunted Mountain) 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 8 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
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).
Our online shop is offline for the next few months. If you would like to purchase any Haunted Montreal-branded t-shirts or mugs in the meantime, please contact us at 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!
Haunted Montreal also has temporarily altered its blog experience due to a commitment on a big writing project! Until further notice, we will be offering updates on old stories every second month and the regular blog service alternating.
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 each month, please sign up to our mailing list.
Coming up on February 13: Montreal Art Center and Museum
Located in Griffintown, the Montreal Art Center and Museum is in the former 1879 Caledonian Iron Works factory. The company produced parts for ship engines and trains during an era when there were no safety codes or labour laws. In 2010, the structure was acquired by The Montreal Art Centre, a not-for-profit community arts hub. However, the owners soon realized that their new home was rife with paranormal activity, including a ghost named Paddy. Today, as the center carries out its vision, artists and visitors never know what strange things they might encounter in the old factory.
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.
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