Nestled among the new condo towers in western Griffintown, the Montreal Art Center and Museum stands out like a rare gem. It occupies the former 1879 Caledonian Iron Works factory, a Victorian-era company that produced engine parts for ships and trains, turbines and other complex metalworks. Today, the Montreal Art Center and Museum is considered as one of the most historical - and haunted - buildings in Griffintown.
Welcome to the one hundred and twenty-seventh 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 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. Plus there is a second English Pub Crawl this Sunday at 4pm.
Our regular outdoor public tours are on pause until next month, but the Irish Famine in Montreal Walking Tour returns on March 21st in the afternoon. Plus our second indoor Paranormal Investigation Montreal Art Center and Museum is March 21st in the evening.
More on this in our Company News section below.
This month, we revisit the story of The Phantom Calèche in Old Montreal, a part of town that no longer has actual calèches roaming its streets.
Haunted Research
In September, 2018, Haunted Montreal first reported on The Phantom Calèche, one of the city’s most dangerous and sinister hauntings. Described as a horse-drawn carriage that took unsuspecting visitors to the netherworld, it was able to blend into the urban fabric because calèche rides were a major part of the tourism industry in Old Montreal.
However, former Mayor Valerie Plante banished all horses in the City of Montreal in 2020. While some say animal rights activists prompted this decision, others believe it was to try and get rid of the phantom carriage once and for all.
The plan seems to have worked – there were no sightings or reports of The Phantom Calèche for almost five years. Indeed, almost all of Griffintown’s stables were torn down and replaced with condominium towers.
The only remnant of this centuries-old tradition is a small plot of land on Ottawa Street, the site of the former Griffintown Horse Palace.
Built in 1862 by an Irish carter named Martin Kiely, the Horse Palace originally consisted of a central courtyard surrounded by buildings. These included a brick house with an attached stable. There was also an inn for travellers along with a few wooden barns and sheds.
For well over a century, the Griffintown Horse Palace served as a stable mostly for draft horses. These strong beasts pulled loaded carts in the port, train depots and factories along the Lachine Canal. The horses were also used in agriculture, construction, and to transport milk and ice into the city.
Later, as gas-powered trucks replaced horses for industrial work, the animals at the Horse Palace shifted their work to carriage rides in Old Montreal.
In April 2012, the City of Montreal acquired part of the original Horse Palace site with the goal of creating a park with the stables preserved for tourists.
However, by 2017 the Horse Palace stable was deemed to be too dilapidated and was demolished.
The city finally established the Parc de l’Écurie-Horse Palace on the site in March 2023. Despite having no more stable or horses, the small greenspace is meant to commemorate the neighborhood’s working-class history.
Everything seemed to be going according to plan until late one night in November 2025, when the sinister Phantom Calèche briefly reappeared. A tourist staying in a hotel adjacent to the Parc de l’Écurie-Horse Palace was awoken to the sound of horses snorting, neighing and clomping their hooves outside.
She pulled back the curtains and looked out of the window only to see what appeared to be an old carriage with two draft horses hitched to it. Peering into the darkness, she noticed a tall man wearing a black coat in the front seat of the calèche, holding the reigns.
With the crack of the reigns, the horses reared up. The mysterious man turned and looked the tourist straight in the eye. He then beckoned her to approach with his finger, sending shivers up her spine. Terrified, she quickly closed the curtains. After a few seconds, she parted them ever so slightly so she could peek out to see what was happening.
The calèche was no longer there. It was as though it had vanished into thin air along with the horses and coachman.
The tourist, who had attended our Haunted Griffintown Ghost Tour, reached out to Haunted Montreal to explain her creepy experience. When informed that she had likely encountered the infamous Phantom Calèche, she was relieved that she had stayed within the safety of her hotel room.
In conclusion, while former mayor Valerie Plante may have succeeded in getting rid of all living horses in the City of Montreal, it seems she was unable to abolish the undead horses pulling the Phantom Calèche.
Company News
With St-Patrick’s Day coming up on Tuesday, March 17th, we are offering related events leading up to the parade next Sunday.
On Saturday, March 21 at 2pm, The Irish Famine in Montreal Walking Tour returns (in English). Join Donovan King and explore the sites connected to the thousands of Irish refugees who fled brutality and famine in 1847, arriving in Montreal on what became known as coffin ships.
There is no Haunted Pub Crawl on parade day, but we’re running two English Haunted Pub Crawls this coming Sunday, March 15. The regular 3pm tour is almost sold out, so we’ve added a second Crawl at 4pm. Following the parade, the Haunted Pub Crawl returns 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 bilingual Paranormal Investigations at the Montreal Art Center and Museum, the former Caledonian Iron Works Factory, sold out in February and is running again March 21 at 6pm. Good for beginners and seasoned investigators alike. Paranormal equipment will be provided, but please feel free to bring your own.
You can purchase your tickets here.
Haunted Montreal Founder and Owner (and the author of this very blog) Donovan King is still a working actor. He played deranged criminal and episode title character Chyldkrüsher on the TVA series ALERTES in French. You can watch his performance here.
King, as well as the host of our Colonial Secrets tour Sophie-Claude Miller were interviewed by City-TV News, talking about the unjust and exclusionary Montreal Municipal Bylaw G-2.
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 April 13: Ruins of Saint Eusèbe de Verceil Church
Situated on Fullum Street, the crumbling ruins of Saint Eusèbe de Verceil Church are causing a major headache for Montreal Catholic archdiocese. Church services were halted in 2009 due to a dwindling flock and rumours that the building was haunted. A major fire gutted the church in 2019 and since then it has witnessed vandalism, urban explorers and TikTokers streaming within the ruins. Things have reached a boiling point and the archdiocese wants the cursed church demolished.
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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