Haunted Montreal Blog #105 – Update on the Old Pointe Claire Hotel

Welcome to the one hundred and fifth installment of the Haunted Montreal Blog!

With over 500 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!

With the spring here, Haunted Montreal is open for business with a whole new season of ghost tours and haunted experiences! Our ghost tours include Haunted Old Montreal, Griffintown, Downtown and the mountain! To learn more, see the schedule at the bottom of our home page!

Our Haunted Pub Crawl is offered every Sunday at 3 pm in English. For tours in French, these happen on the last Sunday of every month at 4 pm.

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 $215 for small groups of up to 7 people.

Email info@hauntedmontreal.com to book a private tour!

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 into the now-demolished old Pointe Claire Hotel, which we covered in an earlier blog and shared its ghost stories. Since its demolition, a new condominium has sprouted up on the site.

Haunted Research

A historical and haunted landmark in Pointe-Claire Village has been unceremoniously demolished and replaced with condominiums. Haunted Montreal Blog #8 – Hauntings at the Old Pointe Claire Hotel – was written in December, 2015. The article featured the history of the old Pointe Claire Hotel, its surroundings and the paranormal activity witnessed there.

More recently known to host bars such as The Pioneer, Clyde’s Bar and Grill and Le Pionnier, the heritage building has since been demolished. High-end condominiums were built on its footprint and a neighboring parking lot, and some wonder if the site is still haunted.

Trouble started brewing in May, 2018 when owner Diane Marois announced her plans to sell Le Pionnier to developers. Over 4000 Pointe Claire residents signed a petition to try and save the historic building. However, given that other former heritage sites in the municipality were destroyed, like the Edgewater Hotel and Maples Inn, there was a feeling of hopelessness. Marois shuttered the building after one final last call on July 21, 2018.

Demolition of the old Pointe Claire Hotel began in November, 2020. Once it was gone, condo developer Greg Koegl of Koebra Development began constructing “Le Charlebois”. Named after a former incarnation of the old Pointe Claire Hotel, the three-storey brick building is comprised of 13 large condominium residences and four commercial retail units.

The price of a two-bedroom unit (1,260 square feet) in the luxury development started at $785,500. Once opened, it offered amenities to new buyers such as 24/7 concierge service, a gym, a communal wine cellar and even a dog spa on the ground level.

While the condominiums are no doubt luxurious, the question remains about the former hotel’s paranormal history. When a haunted site is demolished, what happens to its ghosts? Do they disappear forever – or will they manifest themselves again one day? In the case of the now demolished old Pointe Claire Hotel and the new condominiums built on its footprint, only time will tell.

Company News

With the spring here, Haunted Montreal is open for business with a whole new season of ghost tours and haunted experiences! Our ghost tours include Haunted Old Montreal, Griffintown, Downtown and the mountain!

To learn more, see the schedule at the bottom of our home page!

In the meantime, our Haunted Pub Crawl is offered every Sunday at 3 pm in English. For tours in French, these happen on the last Sunday of every month at 4 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 $215 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.

Haunted Montreal has temporarily altered its blog experience due to a commitment on a big writing project! New stories at the Haunted Montreal Blog will now 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, 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: Montreal’s Haunted Metro System

Montreal’s sprawling Metro system is well known for its architecture, public art works and ability to move people quickly around the city. However, lesser known are the hauntings and paranormal activity that plague the network. With a long history of deaths from construction accidents, fires, violent acts, electrocution and suicides, the Montreal Metro hosts lingering spirits and other deranged mysteries.

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.