Haunted Downtown

Haunted Montreal Blog #111 – Update on Montreal’s Haunted Pubs and Drinking Establishments

In 2019, the Haunted Montreal Blog identified 40 haunted pubs, watering holes and other drinking establishments dotting the city. In the bar industry, places often fold and new businesses are born, including in haunted buildings. One common question is this: do the ghosts remain when a new owner takes over the drinking venue? In 2024, the haunted drinking landscape has changed somewhat in Montreal. Some places have gone bankrupt and been reopened under new brands. Others were demolished and replaced with condos - and new haunted drinking establishments have also been discovered!

Haunted Montreal Blog #110 – McGill Arts Building

McGill University’s Arts Building is an iconic symbol of the institution. Constructed in 1843, as the oldest structure standing on campus, it is also reputed to be haunted. This may be due to its deranged history as the first edifice where medical students performed experimental autopsies on unfortunate corpses, many of them stolen from local cemeteries. Today, phantom footsteps echo throughout the old building and some students have reported spotting what could be the ghost of an old Anatomy professor.

Haunted Montreal Blog #107 – Update on the Dawson Site

In 2016, workers were doing construction on Peel and Sherbrooke Streets as part of the Promenade Fleuve-Montagne tourist itinerary. Rumour has it that an earth-digger allegedly cut the skeletal remains of a Mohawk chief in half, which put an immediate stop to the work. Realizing that they had discovered more of the Dawson Site, archaeologists proceeded to unearth over 2000 Indigenous artefacts at the intersection between 2016 and 2019.

Haunted Montreal Blog #89 – Place Viger

Despite the new plans to revitalize Place Viger and its environs, there are constant rumors that the building is haunted. There is speculation that the ghostly activity is likely related to a string of tragedies in the hotel’s history. One report of a paranormal encounter at Place Viger dates back to July 31st, 2011. A tourist from Washington DC named Amy "Citizen of the World" C visited

Haunted Montreal Blog #81 – Fort de la Montagne

Lurking behind stone walls on Sherbrooke Street stand two old towers that are reputed to be haunted. As some of the oldest intact structures in the City of Montreal, these fortifications have a deranged history. Designed as the first Residential School in what is now modern-day Canada, the towers actually feature gun-ports. This military architecture was designed to repel anyone – at gunpoint – who might dare to interfere with the “instruction” happening within the fortified “school”.

Haunted Montreal Blog #77 – Esplanade Tranquille

Despite only being open for a few months, there are already allegations of paranormal activity on the esplanade. The most common report is the appearance and disappearance of books, which sometimes vanish from bags only to reappear on benches or the ground. Others have spotted a ghostly image of the bookstore re-appearing on the site. Some superstitious people believe that Henri Tranquille’s old bookstore, Librairie Tranquille, influences the new public square in a paranormal way. Others have sensed his ghost.

Haunted Montreal Blog #74 – Parc des Vétérans

Another local, who lives across Papineau Street from the Parc des Vétérans explained: “Sometimes at night, all of the local dogs start howling or whining at the same time. When I look out my window, I often see a ghost wandering through the park. This I swear upon. He is definitely a male ghost in older clothing and seems to wander aimlessly, as though he is sad or lost. To make matters worse, a hangman’s noose dangles around his neck.

Haunted Montreal Blog #71 – Sir John A. MacDonald Plinth

As Wade prepared the statue and plinth in his workshop, workers began digging up French, Indigenous and Irish corpses from the former Saint Antoine Catholic Cemetery in order to lay the foundation. The fact that authorities were installing a Protestant symbol of British Imperialism and genocide in a Catholic burial ground rankled many citizens. Rumors began to swirl that the cemetery desecration would most certainly result in the ghosts of the displaced corpses returning to haunt the site.

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