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 winter upon us, our public tours are on pause until March, when the weather warms up. However, our Haunted Pub Crawl is offered every Sunday at 3 pm in English. Tours in French 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 (except Haunted Mountain due to wintry conditions). These tours start at $215 for small groups of up to 7 people. Email info@hauntedmontreal.com to book a private tour!

We also have an online store for those interested in gift certificates and company merchandise. More details are below in our Company News section!

This month we examine the Sûreté du Québec Police Headquarters on Parthenais Street. Built on the site of Montreal’s first Women’s Prison, the building reeks of paranormal activity – and sometimes horrible burnt food!

Haunted Research

The massive Sûreté du Québec Police Headquarters on Parthenais Street is rumored to host all sorts of paranormal activity. Disembodied screams are known to echo throughout the building, officers have spotted a ghostly inmate wearing a straitjacket, and sometimes the nauseous stench of burnt food wafts through the air, disgusting staff members.

Located at 1701 Rue Parthenais in eastern downtown, the expansive modernist headquarters was built in 1965. In 2001, it was named the Wilfrid Derome SQ Building after a Quebec scientist who founded the first forensic science laboratory in North America, in Montreal.

To facilitate construction of the new headquarters, the Fullum Street Women’s Prison, which was located on the site, had to be demolished.

The SQ Headquarters bustles with activity 24 hours a day as the home to Quebec’s largest police force, which includes around 5000 officers. The SQ is responsible for overseeing law enforcement across Quebec, apart from cities that have their own municipal police force.

Founded on February 1, 1870, by the Quebec government, it was initially called the Police provinciale du Québec. In 1930, the force was rebranded as Sûreté provinciale du Québec, which was later shortened to its present name.

The SQ Headquarters also hosts the Laboratoire des Sciences Judiciaires et de Médecine Légale and the Coroner’s Office, meaning there are often cadavers in the building.

The coroner investigates violent or mysterious deaths and is temporarily responsible for the body of the deceased.

The coroner must establish the deceased’s identity and may order an autopsy, toxicological analyses or any other scientific expertise deemed necessary before entrusting the body to the family.

With so much creepy activity and disturbing historical rumours, some people believe the headquarters is haunted. First-person reports indicate that staff sometimes hear disembodied screams echoing down the hallways. This prompts officers to rapidly search for the source, in case someone is injured or having a mental health crisis. There is never any evidence, leaving some to think the deranged screams are of the paranormal variety.

There have also been sightings of a female ghost in an old straitjacket, wandering the area where the holding cells are located or sitting on a bed in an empty cell.

Additionally, other unexplained activity such as the stench of burnt food and endless cockroach infestations can leave staff members on edge.

The history of the site stems from a scathing 1852 report into Montreal jails by Dr. Wolfred Nelson, Inspector of Prisons at the time. Dr. Nelson was the ideal person to make recommendations on improving life in the prisons, having been locked up himself for participating in the Patriote’s Rebellion of 1837.

Once the rebellion was brutally crushed by British redcoats, Dr. Nelson and other rebels were arrested and imprisoned. When the new prison at Au-Pied-du-Courant was filled up beyond capacity, officials realized that they needed more space for incarceration.

As such, the old and decrepit Montreal Jail on Notre-Dame Street was reopened. Dr. Nelson spent seven months in this crumbling prison. In 1838, authorities exiled him to Bermuda.

In 1843, Dr. Nelson took advantage of an amnesty to return to Canada and resumed his medical practice in Montreal. He would eventually enter politics and serve as a Member of Parliament for Richelieu before retiring to become the Prison Inspector. Dr. Nelson would later serve as the Mayor of Montreal.

In his report, Dr. Nelson wrote: “My sojourn for seven months in the Montreal jail gave me such a practical knowledge of prison affairs, the accursed abuses that prevailed there . . . and the uncalled for miseries that were inflicted on the prisoners.”

Dr. Nelson cited Montreal Sheriff John Boston: “It is very common to see incarcerated people who are simply without shelter or means. People advanced in age, the ill, the disabled and the mad are often sent to the jail under a very indefinite charge as being dissolute, shiftless or disturbers of the peace.”

Approximately 20% of the 200 prisoners in the Montreal jail were children and most of them had not been convicted of a crime. They were simply following their incarcerated parents because they had nowhere else to go. The imprisoned children were put to work picking oakum, or unravelling old, tarry rope to be reused as caulking.

Pierre Beaubien, the jail’s medical supervisor, declared: “The gaol of Montreal is most improperly called a gaol. It should be designated by all the different names of different asylums of all human infirmities. It might even be called a lying-in hospital – for the number of pregnant women admitted. … The gaol is not less entitled to the designation of a lunatic asylum, if we may judge from the number of lunatics sent there. … Many unfortunate persons … being homeless are hurried at once to the gaol in order to clear the streets of them.”

Dr. Nelson’s damning report would lead to the construction of Montreal’s first prison for women. Located on Fullum Street, it opened in 1876. Run by the Soeurs de Bon-Pasteur, the jail was also known as the Asile Sainte-Darie.

However, the segregation of men and women did not alleviate the misery encountered in Montreal jails, including the Fullum Street Women’s Prison. Indeed, by all accounts it was a horrible place to be imprisoned.

On February 4, 1950, the Montreal Standard published an article entitled “Ex-Inmate Tells of Ordeal in Jail”. Written by former prisoner Margaret Stone, the article puts in focus the horrors she encountered in the jail.

She explained: “I went into the Protestant section of the Fullum street jail on April 2, 1949. I spent five months and four days there. I had been using drugs. They put a blue cotton dress on me and threw me into a cell. They gave me one phenobarbital pill…They gave me a dirty old slop pail that smelled. I lost consciousness I was very sick and I didn’t remember much for five days. I asked for a glass of water when I first came to and got bawled out for it.” 

Margaret also recalled the disgusting food that was served in the jail: “Supper is at 5 pm. The most horrible soup imaginable, a table spoon of molasses, three pieces of dried bread and that tea. I was hungry the whole time I was there. It was awful…Saturday noon we had turnip soup. We call it “garbage soup.”

Concerning the other inmates, Margaret noted: “They’ve been sending mental patients there for about two years, both Catholics and Protestants. They all go there until they are committed and passed by the doctor. Some are there for so long as two months. They are living on jail food that is rotten. They don’t get any milk. There are no trained people to look after them. They keep the fresh one in straitjackets and there is no treatment for of any kind.”

In one example, Margaret stated: “I remember a girl. She was about 30. She died on a Monday morning after she had been here in five days. Her brother brought her. He said later he never would have done it if he had known about conditions there. They put her in a straitjacket. Her stomach was flat and her ribs stuck out. She hadn’t been eating and she just lay in her cell. She looked very ill to me, so I told a matron she should have a doctor. They didn’t pay any attention.”

The girl died three days later after a guard finally called a doctor who was unable to treat her properly. Recalling the girl’s deathbed, Margaret wrote: “The smell was terrible and the flies were everywhere.”

In 1960, the province took over the Fullum Street Women’s Prison from the Soeurs de Bon-Pasteur as part of a larger secularization plan. The old jail was demolished five years later to make way for the new SQ Headquarters.

However, it wasn’t long before staff members began noticing unexplained – and possibly paranormal – activities. The most common occurrence was the disembodied screams that rattles the nerves of the officers on duty.

One officer exclaimed: “The screaming happens every few months in general. It always starts with a faint wailing or crying sound and then gets louder and louder into full-blown screaming. It usually lasts anywhere from one to five minutes before stopping abruptly. We have searched every inch of the building and have never found any source for these wailing noises.”

Furthermore, on at least three occasions staff have reported what appeared to be a female ghost in an old straitjacket, either in or near the holding cells. The first time it happened, an officer doing the rounds spotted her. Terrified, he ran to his superior’s office to report the situation. When they both returned to the scene of the sighting, she was no longer there.

Unimpressed, the senior officer thought his subordinate might be delusional. However, being diligent, he made a plan nevertheless and instructed his team to detain and interrogate any people spotted wearing straitjackets.

On the two other occasions when she appeared, the police officers did try to interrogate her – only to have her vanish before their eyes before she answered any of their questions.

Lastly, the bizarre stench of burnt food sometimes wafts through the building, in many cases far away from any kitchen facilities. The smell has been described as “disgusting and nausea-inducing”.

Again, after searching the building from top to bottom, no source for the stench has ever been found.

Given these bizarre occurrences, some of the staff speculate that the paranormal activity stems from the former Fullum Street Women’s Prison. It is not uncommon for new buildings constructed on haunted sites to retain some of the hauntings. Such is the case with Duggan House on McTavish Street and the new Hautes Études Commerciales  school built on the site of St. Bridget’s Refuge.

It is also worth noting that the Sûreté du Quebec headquarters also has a cockroach problem.

Police staff have found cockroaches, both dead and alive, on almost every floor. The insects have been discovered near elevator shafts, in hallways, bathrooms and offices.

Since 2017, the SQ has called in exterminators over 50 times to fumigate its headquarters but the roaches keep reappearing. Some officers believe the fact that they cannot rid themselves of the vermin is yet another example of paranormal activity at play.

One officer, who insisted on his anonymity, explained: “Using one of the best local exterminators, we have been unable to get rid of the cockroaches, despite over 50 treatments. This company has a strong reputation for getting the job done and yet at our headquarters the cockroaches keep coming back. How is this possible in a relatively modern building?”

Returning to the history of the Fullum Street Women’s Prison, vermin was a major problem there as well. Indeed, Margaret Stone wrote: “I had caught parasites in the cell and had to have medicine to get rid of them.”

Given the strange disturbances at the SQ Headquarters, many paranormal experts have contacted the top brass to ask if they could investigate.

Unfortunately, due to security reasons, each request was denied.

As such, it is likely the headquarters will continue to endure these mysterious and sometimes alarming occurrences. Even if permission was granted to paranormal experts to get to the bottom of the situation, ghosts cannot be arrested and tried for mischief and disturbing the peace!

Company News

Haunted Montreal is now in the winter season!

Our Haunted Pub Crawl is offered every Sunday at 3 pm in English. Tours in French 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 (except Haunted Mountain due to wintry conditions) 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).

We also have an online store for those interested in Haunted Montreal merchandise for the holidays. 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 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 Google Reviews, something that really helps Haunted Montreal to market its tours. We are a small, specialized tourism company for fans of deranged history, ghost stories and the macabre and appreciate all the support and feedback we can get!

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 February 13: Youville Stables

This charming stone complex in Old Montreal was built on the hospital grounds of the Grey Nuns in 1827 as a warehouse for Jean Bouthillier and his son. Originally used to store potash and later grains, it underwent a major redevelopment in 1967 and was rebranded Youville Stables. Today the site hosts the tony Gibbys Restaurant, one of Montreal’s finest steakhouses. However, there are reports that its courtyard is haunted by an irate ghost who sits on a bench while reading a book. When approached, he tends to look up as though annoyed and proceeds to glare at those intruding his solitude – before disappearing into thin air. 

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.

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 finally here, Haunted Montreal is opening our public season of ghost tours on April 22^nd, with Haunted Downtown!

Our Haunted Pub Crawl is also 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 $190 for small groups of up to 7 people.

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

Our Virtual Ghost Tour is also available on demand!

We’ve just launched our newest haunted experience: Travelling Ghost Storyteller. Find out more in the Company News section.

Want to give the gift of a haunted experience?

You can now order a Haunted Montreal Gift Certificate through our website. They are redeemable via Eventbrite for any of our in-person or virtual experiences. There is no expiration date.

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 examine a deranged story about the Mussen Building and its environs in Old Montreal.

Haunted Research

Located in the heart of Old Montreal, the Mussen Building stands out in an awkward way. Situated on the corner of Notre-Dame Street and St. Laurent Boulevard, the edifice hosts a gaudy fast-food joint in an otherwise historic neighborhood.

The Mussen Building and its environs are reputed to be haunted. A man contacted Haunted Montreal to inform us about his paranormal experience at an Airbnb unit within the building directly to the west of the Mussen Building.

“Professor V.”, as we will call him (he wishes to remain anonymous), is a local History professor. He explained that he needed to move somewhere for a month with his cat due to renovations at his home following a historic flood on September 13, 2022.

On that day, nearly 60 mm of rain had fallen in Downtown Montreal by 7 pm. This abnormally high amount of rain caused many sewers to backflow into basements, mostly below the escarpment at Sherbrooke Street.

When the professor returned home from giving a History lecture to his class, he discovered that filthy sewer water was seeping up from under the floorboards of his basement unit.

His insurer explained that the floors would have to be replaced so Professor V. began searching for an Airbnb that accepted cats.

The professor was delighted when he found a loft in Old Montreal. Given his passion for History, he thought it would be ideal to reside in the city’s oldest neighborhood for a time.

When Professor V. first checked in, he was delighted by the old-world charm that permeated the loft’s atmosphere. Giant windows overlooked Notre-Dame Street, where a heritage building was being restored across the street.

There was also a King-sized Murphy bed, well-equipped kitchen and even an enormous bathtub to soak in.

At first, the professor was beyond satisfied – and so was his cat. Together, they would watch the snow falling outside when not playing games with fluffy cat toys.

However, after sunset each night Professor V. started to notice his cat behaving in abnormal ways.

Once it was dark outside, his cat would become agitated and started hissing at unseen things. The cat would even chase, attack and run away from something that simply was not there.

Professor V. also started to have a recurring nightmare whereby a deranged man with a medieval leather mask would visit him in what seemed to be an old, dungeon-like chamber with stone walls.

While the details remembered were murky, the professor recalled feeling threatened by the man during these unwanted and recurring dreams.

Some nights he would wake up trembling in a cold sweat only to hear his cat hissing, jumping and scurrying around the loft as though fighting something.

Night after night, it was the same routine. Professor V. began losing sleep, which resulted in some cranky behavior before his students during History lectures.

Some days he dozed off at the podium whereas on others he snapped at students for asking stupid questions.

As the days turned into weeks, the professor began desperately researching the building he was staying in. He wanted to determine if there was anything historical that could explain the apparent paranormal activity.

It is worth noting that Professor V. is a “sceptic”. Simply put, he does not believe in the paranormal. However, he had no other logical explanation for the situation he was living. The terrifying nightmares and cat hissing at unseen figures were taking a toll on the professor’s mental health.

Furthermore, speaking publicly about hauntings and the paranormal could easily compromise his reputation as a respected historian and professor. As such, he demanded absolute anonymity for this story.

Professor V. began researching the limestone building he was staying in using online History databases. He quickly learned that it was built in 1859 as a store-warehouse catering to the Port of Montreal.

A common type of architecture for the era, the ground floors were typically used as shops and the upper stories as storage for imports and exports.

The professor decided to research further back in time and learned that the site became vacant in 1856 following a fire that devastated the city’s first Anglican Cathedral.

Built in 1814, Christ Church was the headquarters of Montreal’s Anglican Diocese. Following the blaze, the cathedral relocated to its present location in the downtown core.

Professor V. also learned that some of the cathedral walls that did not collapse were incorporated into the walls of the building where his Airbnb was located. He confirmed this by taking a stroll around the block. He verified that the lower portion of the back wall was composed of hand-chiseled limestone blocks.

The professor wondered if this masonry might have something to do with the bizarre activities in his unit. If the cathedral had been haunted, he theorized that maybe its remains were causing the disturbance.

He contacted Anglican officials who were adamant that their cathedrals, both old and new, were not haunted. They did concede, however, that their Red Roof Church has a ghost.

Puzzled, Professor V. continued his research. One day, he spotted a plaque on the exterior wall of the Mussen Building, which mentioned that a colonist named Jacques Archambault lived on the site in 1651.

The professor decided to research the adjacent Mussen Building. Currently housing a McDonald’s fast food restaurant, Professor V. felt that there was something uncanny about the edifice.

He learned that the Mussen Building was constructed from 1904-1905 according to the plans of the architectural firm MacVicar and Heriot. It was commissioned by the estate of Thomas Mussen.

The building replaced the edifice that for a long time had housed the wholesale business of Thomas Mussen, a merchant of fabrics, haberdashery and dry goods.

The new building included both offices and rooms for carrying out commercial activities. The main original tenants were the American cash register manufacturers National Cash Register and the pharmaceutical and food wholesalers Leeming Miles Co. The president of Leeming Miles Co., Henry Miles, bought the building in 1925 and the company left in the early 1950s.

Professor V. went to the McDonald’s to ask staff if there were any paranormal activities in the restaurant. The employees and manager were tight-lipped, but a regular overheard the professor’s questions and took him aside.

“Sometimes when it is quiet here in the morning,” she said, “I can faintly hear what sounds like heavy chains being dragged.”

The professor continued his research and what he found next was terrifying.

While details were scarce, he learned that the site once hosted the infamous prisons dating from the “New France” era.

Constructed around 1684, the prisons were primitive.

Inmates were served a crust of stale bread and a jug of murky water each day as they awaited interrogation for alleged crimes – or execution.

In the New France colonies, there were four major types of crime:

Crimes against the State: treason, sedition, smuggling, embezzlement, counterfeiting, and resisting a legal officer.

Crimes against Property: theft, arson, concealment of stolen goods, and desertion of servants – or slaves.

Crimes against the Person: murder, manslaughter, abortion, infanticide, defamation, poisoning, rape and suicide.

There were also Crimes against the Church, or moral crimes, that were the most serious of all: adultery, bigamy, prostitution, sorcery, and blasphemy.

Anyone accused of any of these crimes was arrested and brought before a man known as Le Bourreau, the torturer.

He produced a device known as Le Brodequin, the Spanish Boot: two planks of wood attached to either side of the lower leg and tied around tightly with rope. He always began with what was known as la question ordinaire, the ordinary question: four questions designed to get the accused to admit to their guilt.

Armed with four thick wedges, he would insert the first between the boards.

If the prisoner refused to confess to the alleged crime, he would and hammer it in!

Most prisoners confessed after the first or second wedge. Once the boot was removed, marrow often oozed from the crushed bone through the split wounds.

For those who endured all four wedges, they were returned to their prison cell where usually they expired during the night. If they were still alive the next morning, the torturer would ask la question extraordinaire, but instead of using four wedges, he always used eight.

Once a confession was obtained, the criminal was dressed in a long, white robe known as a chemise. A sign was placed dangling around the neck with the word of the crime. The criminal was then tossed onto the back of a horse-drawn garbage cart – and was wheeled throughout the city for all to see the condemned.

The first place they would take the criminal was to the front doors of the church. There they had to get down on their broken knees for their amende honorable – to beg forgiveness from the King of France – and God himself.

The criminal was then placed back onto the garbage cart and was wheeled to the scene of the crime, or by default, the Place du Marché.

It was there that criminals were either hanged by the neck until dead, burnt alive at the stake or broken alive on a torture wheel.

A torture wheel is a horizontal wheel with a pole going into a scaffold in the ground.

The torturer spun the wheel and then used a large hammer to smash in the limbs, one by one, through the gaps in the wheel. This process was repeated several times per limb, and once the criminal’s bones were smashed apart, they were left to die with their “face turned up to the sky”.

For the most serious crimes of all, they always would always draw and quarter the criminal. They lay the criminal in the center of the square and tied ropes to the arms and legs. These ropes were fed to the four corners of the square where they were attached to horses.

When the torturer gave the signal, the horses began pulling the criminal apart. The torturer would then use his sword to slice open their belly, scattering the intestines across the square for the enjoyment of all the colonists.

Professor V. could not determine when the colonial prison was finally demolished, but he suspected it was after the British Conquest of 1760.

Given the deranged history of the Mussen Building site and its environs, the professor connected the dots. He concluded that his nightmares and erratic cat could be the result of paranormal activity connected to the old prisons.

As a test, he decided to spend a night at a nearby hotel that also accepted cats. Much to his relief, he slept like a baby and his cat returned to its normal, gentle behavior.

Professor V. decided to cancel the rest of his stay at the Airbnb and to live at the hotel until his home renovations were completed.

He is now happily back in his newly-renovated abode with his pet cat.

Haunted Montreal asked the professor if he was still a sceptic after his unsettling experience. Professor V. replied: “My thinking has evolved and I am now on the fence concerning the paranormal.”

“However,” he added, “I would never admit this to anyone.”

Company News

With the spring finally here, Haunted Montreal is opening our public season of ghost tours on April 22^nd, with Haunted Downtown!

Our Haunted Pub Crawl is also 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 $190 for small groups of up to 7 people.

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

We’re also launching our newest haunted experience:

You can bring the Haunted Montreal experience to your office Christmas party, house party 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 opened 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 would like to thank all of 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 May 13: St. Bridget’s Refuge Site

An Irish Famine asylum once existed to the south-west of St. Patrick’s Basilica. Opened by Father Dowd to accommodate the victims of the Irish Famine of 1847-48, St. Bridget’s Refuge catered to the destitute, the homeless and for many isolated women. The asylum witnessed countless tragedies over the years, resulting in many ghosts. St. Bridget’s Refuge was demolished in the 1970s and for years the site was used as a parking lot, and later as a greenspace. However, the Université de Montréal is now constructing a new campus on the site for its business department: Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC). With such turbulent history, there is already talk that the shiny new campus will be haunted by Irish Famine spirits.

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.

Lurking below the Jacques Cartier Bridge is the historic Au-Pied-du-Courant Prison, a popular location with ghost hunters and paranormal investigators. The sturdy, Neo-Classical limestone building is a dark reminder of one of the more violent chapters in Montreal’s history.

Au-Pied-du-Courant Prison was originally proposed to replace the decrepit and scandal-plagued Montreal Jail on the Champ-de-Mars during the 1820s. Prisoners had both starved and frozen to death while in custody in the old jail, prompting plans for a new prison. Drafted by architect John Wells in 1825, the blueprints were rumoured to be based on the notorious Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. A change in prison philosophy allowed for more solitary confinement and less fraternizing among the inmates. Designed to house 276 prisoners, Au-Pied-du-Courant Prison opened in 1836 at the foot of St. Mary’s Current, a powerful and dangerous rapid in the Saint Lawrence River.

Barely one year into its existence, the prison was overwhelmed with action when the Patriot’s Rebellion erupted in 1837. This wave of revolutionary furor, despite facing serious setbacks, would go on to shape the very Canada we know today.

In 1837, tensions were simmering over political reform in what was then known as Lower Canada, the territory acquired when the British conquored New France in 1760. In a nutshell, the citizens wanted responsible government and a more effective democracy. At the time, elected officials had almost no power. The movement demanded democratic reforms, such as an elected Legislative Council, as opposed to the system in use whereby members were appointed for life by the British Crown. From the early 1800s, the Parti Patriote, led by James Stuart and Louis-Joseph Papineau, had been agitating for change. Inspired by the American Revolution, the Patriote movement was a liberal, republican and a nationalistic reaction against British domination over what was once a French colony.

After hearing various grievances from the citizens, Papineau wrote “Ninety-two Resolutions” and delivered them to Governor Dalhousie. When the British government rejected his requests, Papineau began to organize protests and assemblies, which sparked passions and stoked calls for a revolution against the colonial government.

After a series of escalating conflicts, the struggle turned bloody. A first armed conflict occurred in 1837. Twenty-six members of the Patriote movement had been charged with illegal activities and chose to resist their arrest. Papineau fled into exile in the United States and rebels began organizing in the countryside surrounding Montreal. On November 23, 1837, the Patriotes scored their first and only victory when, under the leadership of Wolfred Nelson, they defeated British forces at the village of Saint-Denis.

The British government reacted with fury. Commanding Officer John Colborne called thousands of redcoats into action. The British soldiers set their sights on the rebels and defeated them at Saint-Charles on November 25. In Saint-Eustache, on December 14, the British forces were particularly cruel. The Patriotes, led by Jean-Olivier Chénier and Amury Girod, had barricaded themselves in the convent, the Catholic church, the rectory and the manor in the centre of the village. Without mercy, British troops set fire to the buildings and then began shelling the Catholic church with cannon fire.

As the rebels jumped out the windows to escape the blaze, British soldiers picked them off one by one before making a final assault. This disastrous battle lasted at least 4 hours and by the end of it 70 Patriotes had been killed.

The British troops then went on to pillage and ransack the village of Saint-Eustache and terrorize much of the surrounding countryside.

On December 5, the government declared a state of martial law and hundreds of rebels were arrested for high treason. Their destination was the newly opened Au-Pied-du-Courant Prison.

Designed to house less than 300 prisoners, the prison became severely overcrowded when approximately 1300 suspected rebels were packed in following the armed uprising. To punish the political prisoners, in addition to the harsh prison sentences, 58 were deported to Australia and 29 were executed for treason. Twelve rebels were hanged at the gates of Au-Pied-du-Courant Prison, where a scaffold was erected on execution days.

One particularly gruesome execution on February 15, 1839, saw the hanging of a man who some say was falsely accused: notary François-Marie-Thomas Chevalier de Lorimier. One of his co-accused escaped the gallows only by testifying against the father of several children. That day also saw his companions Charles Hindelang, Amable Daunais, François Nicolas and Pierre-Rémi Narbonne drop from the gallows. Some time later a discovery was made in de Lormier’s old cell: on the day of his execution, he had written a heart-wrenching letter to his wife and hid it between some stones. So upsetting was the whole episode, that in 1883 the City of Montreal renamed the street where the prison is located “De Lorimier Street” after a man widely considered to be a martyr.

Other prisoners had to languish in the jail as they served lengthy sentences, including one man named François-Xavier Desjardins, who is connected to a ghost story in the bucolic off-island suburb of Hudson. Desjardins bought a property there in 1824 and converted its main floor into general store. He was a Patriote and began using his store for poltical purposes, including the of stockpiling guns and ammunition in the basement and secret political meetings with other Patriotes.

According to one legend, a young servant girl who was working in the home overheard the plot and felt urged to inform the authorities. However, the Patriotes discovered her plan and, to ensure they were not discovered, murdered her. To cover up the crime, they buried her in the basement of the general store.

Today, the quaint Auberge Willow Place Inn occupies the site and apparently the girl’s mischievous ghost, nicknamed Maude, still haunts the building.

It is said that just after Hallowe’en, during the month of November, her activities become more and more frequent. She is known to sing in the hallways, knock things over, slam doors and stack rocks at the door of Room #8. She also gives off the unmistakable whiff of perfume when passing by. Maude is undoubtedly one of the most infamous ghosts haunting the off-island suburban community of Hudson.

Returning to Au-Pied-du-Courant Prison, following the Rebellion and its violent aftermath, things became quieter. In operation from 1836 to 1912, Au-Pied-du-Courant Prison was eventually replaced by Bordeaux Prison, which is still in use today. Following the move to Bordeaux, Au-Pied-du-Courant Prison was abandoned and sat empty for almost a decade, developing a creepy atmosphere and reputation for being haunted.

In 1921, the old prison was taken over by the Société des Alcools du Québec, which realized its potential as an ideal location to warehouse copious amounts of alcohol in the cool cells under the building. The S.A.Q. later renovated the complex and a 4th floor was added to the building. The original roof was completely replaced and a new wing was also added to the original structure, preparing the way for the head office of the S.A.Q. to move in.

The wall surrounding the prison was partially demolished, with only the east wall and original front gate left intact. The men convicted of war crimes during the Rebellion, today largely seen as martyrs, are now honoured as patriots with a memorial which was built at the site where scaffolds were once erected to execute the rebels.

The work of Alfred Laliberté, the Monument aux Patriotes, was unveiled on June 24, 1926. On each of its three sides, bronze carvings represent patriots Wolfred Nelson, Louis-Joseph Papineau, and Chevalier de Lorimier. The area where the monument is located is now called the Place of the Patriots.

In 1978, Au-Pied-du-Courant Prison was classified as a Historic Monument because of its architecture, history, and connection to the now-revered Patriotes. It was also used as the location for Pierre Falardeau’s film February 15, 1839, which takes place entirely at the prison.

In 2003, a basement museum was opened called La-Prison-des-Patriotes Exhibition Centre. Here visitors can wander the old location of some jail cells and learn all about the failed rebellion through a series of storyboards and exhibitions. Visitors might also possibly experience something otherworldly. According to paranormal investigators, there are several ghosts haunting the old prison and its grounds at the foot of the St. Lawrence River.

According to many sources, the ghosts of the former prisoners and guards still haunt the building and former prison grounds. The apparitions of the executed men and other prisoners who died on the site have been spotted, along with those tasked to guard them. Hidden bodies are also rumoured to be buried on the grounds.

There is said to be a host of paranormal activity in the old prison: shadowy figures, light anomalies, unexplained mists, disembodied voices, weird feelings (unease, not being wanted, not being alone, anger, despair, violent thoughts and physical illness), phantom footsteps, electrical disturbances, objects disappearing and then reappearing, doors and windows opening and closing, lights turning on and off and other unexplained noises.

He elaborated: “This is where a dozen patriots were executed. The basements of the place are still very gloomy. Today it is the headquarters of the SAQ and some employees will never go down in the basement at night.”

He suggested that the ghosts of the Patriotes who give employees the jitters have returned from the dead because they are “always seeking a certain justice.”

There are all sorts of strange manifestations in the museum. According to Page, “Some claim to have heard sounds, voices, and murmurs, doors that open and close and objects that would move themselves. Some also reported seeing men in uniform, old uniforms. The place is not only haunted by the Patriotes but also by former guards.”

Occasionally, the administration of SAQ allows paranormal investigations, which have turned up many examples of electronic voice phenomena thought to be the spirits of the hanged men. Page suggested that the investigators discovered some interesting paranormal phenomena: “They recorded murmurs, they felt all kinds of presences, and captured mysterious steam-like images that would drift.”

In another case, a local psychic recently visited Au-Pied-du-Courant and detected a paranormal sort of feedback loop on the prison grounds. Almost like a cinematic replay, it involved a ghostly figure, dressed in blue, running quickly. She reported:

“This one was actually very strange. It was a figure which kept running the same line over and over again, always at the same place and in the same direction, restarting at the same location (similarly to a movie just being played on tape). It was just outside the prison building (a good length of it, maybe four meters). I couldn’t tell whether or not it was a guard but I could make out that he was dressed in blue; and running very, very quickly. It didn’t phase or change anything whether we crossed his path or watched.”

With the sightings of so many apparitions, people wonder which former prisoners and guards might haunt Au-Pied-du-Courant Prison. François-Marie-Thomas Chevalier de Lorimier, executed despite his probable innocence, is a good candidate. After passionately defending himself in court, the loving father was hanged for “high treason” because he had demanded responsible government with the Patriotes.

Following his death, his wife was unable to pay family debts, obliging her to renounce his estate, which left the family in poverty and ruin. Ironically, the government eventually conceded to the demands of the rebels and implemented responsible government in 1849. In this light, one might argue that the execution of de Lormier was all for nothing, perhaps prompting his ghost to return in search of justice.

Might another spirit be François-Xavier Desjardins, the former owner of the general store in Hudson? If he was indeed involved in the murder of his servant girl, is it possible that he now roams the world of the living as punishment for his evil deed?

Indeed, with over 1300 Patriotes imprisoned at the height of the uprising, there are a lot of possibilities as to who the ghosts might be.

It is also possible the fleeing ghost is one of the two known prisoners who managed to escape from Au-Pied-du-Courant Prison in 1838. The first was a grocer and Patriote named Louis Lussier who was accused of murdering George Weir, lieutenant of the 32nd Regiment. Incarcerated on January 2, 1838, he made his escape on June 22 of the same year after somehow bribing a prison dog to assist him. Another man named Mr. Cook, who was not a Patriote but just a regular prisoner, broke out of jail with the help of his wife, who brought him carpentry tools during visits. Might the running ghost possibly be either of these two colorful characters?

As for the jail guards allegedly haunting the site, who might they be? More research is needed into who these people were, what circumstances they lived and worked under, how they behaved on a day-to-day basis and whether or not any of them experienced anything tragic or unexpected. With so many ghosts haunting the old prison, there is a lot of speculation into the mystery as to who they might be.

A lot of the unpleasant history that would ultimately shape Canada unfolded at Au-Pied-du-Courant Prison. Today, the site’s museum is testimony to the oppression and brutality of the colonial British government that existed in the 1800s. That ghosts are said to haunt the creepy old jail should come as no surprise given the tragic history that unfolded on the site, when Patriotes were unceremoniously hanged for making very reasonable demands. Could it be true that the spirits are seeking justice in a paranormal afterlife, as suggested by some experts?

On a footnote, in 2003 the Quebec government decided to rename the May 24th “Victoria Day”, named after the stodgy British monarch, as “National Patriots’ Day” (Journée nationale des patriotes in French).

Instead of celebrating an oppressive and uptight queen, Quebec chose to venerate the rebels who opposed her in 1837 at the price of their lives. Whether or not this gesture appeased any of the ghosts haunting Au-Pied-du-Courant Prison is a matter of speculation. Only one thing is certain: Au-Pied-du-Courant Prison is widely regarded as one of Montreal’s most haunted sites. Enter at your own risk!

The public season is in full swing and Haunted Montreal now offers Ghost Walks in both English and French! This year both Haunted Griffintown and Haunted Mountain are being offered, alternating on Friday nights. French tours are at 8:00 p.m. and English tours are at 8:30 p.m.

Friday, August 19         Haunted Mountain
Friday, August 26         Haunted Griffintown
Friday, September 2     Haunted Mountain
Friday, September 9     Haunted Griffintown
Friday, September 15   Haunted Mountain
Friday, September 23   Haunted Griffintown
Friday, September 30   Haunted Mountain
Friday, October 7         Haunted Griffintown

* Stay tuned for our Hallowe’en Season, running from October 8 – 31!

Tickets can be booked in the 2016 Tours section.

Haunted Downtown is currently being revised before translation, but is still available for private tours for groups of 10 or more people (in English only, for the moment). Haunted Griffintown and Haunted Mountain are also available for private bookings, in both English or French, subject to availability.

Finally, we invite clients who attended a ghost walk to write a review on our Tripadvisor page, something that is very helpful for Haunted Montreal in promoting its tours.

For those reading the blog who want to receive a new Montreal ghost story on the 13th of every month and stay updated, please sign up to our mailing list.

Coming up on September 13: Poltergeist on Sainte-Famille Street

According to long-held rumours, a house on Sainte-Famille Street has long been haunted by a poltergeist. Situated between Pine Avenue and Prince Arthur Street, the home has experienced some very strange phenomena. Legend has it that in 1929 mysterious knots started to appear in the curtains. Slowly but surely, everything in the house that could be twisted into knots was tied up, such as bed sheets, towels, shower curtains and articles of clothing. While some say that the youngest daughter of the family who owned the house was unconsciously tying knots all over the place, a later tenant claimed that he found knots in his own curtains and bed sheets one night. Is a poltergeist causing these paranormal disturbances, and if so, why?

Donovan King is a historian, teacher 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 Abbot College), BFA (Drama-in-Education, Concordia), B.Ed (History and English Teaching, McGill) and MFA (Theatre Studies, University of Calgary).

Haunted Research

By now Montreal’s population was bursting. The old stone walls from the New France era were demolished and a new field called the Champ-des-Mars was laid out. Named after the Roman God of War, Mars, the field was designed for military drills, leisurely promenading, and large public gatherings. In 1808, to the south of this field, construction began on a new jail. Designed by Joseph Courcelles (dit Chevalier), Montreal Prison opened its doors to inmates in 1811.

Prisoners included vagrants, prostitutes, citizens awaiting trial, convicts serving sentences and condemned criminals contemplating their scheduled executions.

Executions were very popular in Montreal and under British Law, hangings were meant to take place at the site of the jail.  The Champ-de-Mars was seen as the absolute best place in the British Empire to witness a hanging, on account of the large field and sloping geography, and Montreal’s citizens were treated to a total of 44 hangings during the prison’s brief existence. Families would often pack a picnic lunch and bring the children to teach them about the value of obedience.

The executions began in April, 1812, when one D. McDougall was sentenced to be hanged after having been caught stealing in a shop. His body was “given over to anatomy”. As the years passed, others were hanged for crimes such as burglary, shoplifting, horse stealing, forgery, larceny, rape, and murder. Some of the executions raised eyebrows, such as that of a 13 year old boy named B. Clement, who was hanged in 1813 for stealing a cow, or in 1817 when one Monsieur Gendron dropped from the gallows for “sacrilege”.

The final execution at Montreal Prison occurred at around 10 a.m. on Friday, August 30, 1833. The star attraction was Adolphus Dewey, a man who had murdered his young wife, Euphrasine Martineau, in a fit of jealousy. After slashing her wrists and throat with a razor, Adolphus fled to the United States. He was soon arrested and brought back to Montreal, where he was promptly thrown into the dungeon of Montreal Prison. He awaited trial in chains for four months before being found guilty of murder.

In Montreal Prison, Adolphus was also chained up as he awaited his inevitable execution. He spent his final days, shackled in chains, praying and reading his Bible. He accepted a religious visitor, an American evangelist named Nancy Towle, who wanted to assure his salvation. Adolphus explained to her that because he had repented to God, he would be soon reunited with his beautiful wife, Euphrasine, in Heaven. Nancy Towle recorded his words and her thoughts for posterity in a document titled Some of the Writings and Last Sentences of Adolphus Dewey.

For his execution, Adolphus asked to wear a nice black suit and he requested that the constable hold up a copy of his last words. On the scaffold, Adolphus gave a rousing speech where he apologized to the citizens, accepted responsibility for his crimes, told the spectators that he had found God, and implored them to pray for his soul.

As a grim finale, when he dropped from the scaffold, Adolphus’ neck did not snap. Instead, he twisted and contorted in a tight noose, gasping and frothing at the mouth, for a full four minutes before finally expiring. It was the most popular execution in Montreal’s history and witnessed over 10,000 people in attendance.

Despite its popularity with citizens with live executions, Montreal Prison could also be described as a corrupt place. For example, in 1817 a party of affluent fur traders who belonged to the Nor’Westers were arrested and put in the prison. Known as the “Nabobs of the North”, the fur merchants used political connections and vast amounts of wealth to ensure lavish parties were hosted inside the jail until their associates were freed. There were also rumours that bribery could help with escape, and the Jailer and his son were known to take advantage of incarcerated prostitutes for their sexual gratification.

The conditions inside Montreal Prison were especially wretched and dreadful. The overcrowded jail stank and was infested with vermin. In the summer, it was stifling hot, whereas in the winter the prison was barely heated. Freezing winds and drifting snow whistled through broken panes, making the jail extremely cold in the winter. Inmates were forced to sleep in bare cells on the floor, sometimes on a bed of filthy straw, with an inadequate number of blankets. Prisoners awaiting trial or execution were chained to the wall while they slept. Food consisted of only bread and water, with a rare treat of watery broth containing bits of mysterious meat on Sundays and holidays.

Prisoners were also treated inhumanely. According to History of The Montreal Prison by Rev. J. D. Borthwick, disobedient inmates were forced into “the dark cell” for an extended period, a type of solitary confinement in complete blackness. Other prisoners were branded on the hand with a hot iron in the shape of a crown. During this painful torture, criminals had to cry out “Long live the King” three times before the red hot iron was pulled off their blistering skin. If it was a soldier being branded, the end of the iron had letters instead of a crown, with BC standing for “Bad Conduct” and D for “Desertion”.

Other popular forms of punishment were meted in public, directly across Notre Dame Street, at the base of Nelson’s Column. The column was erected in 1809 as an homage to British naval hero Admiral Horatio Nelson. Montreal’s citizens could often enjoy a spectacle, at the southern base of the monument, designed to humiliate criminals who had been found guilty of lesser crimes.

The Common Hangman, who lived in Montreal Prison, was known to whip criminals and rebellious prisoners on this spot with a cat-o-nine-tails, a type of whip with nine strands designed to inflict the maximum amount of pain. Victims were lashed 39 times each, in the name of tradition.

Authorities would also restrain certain prisoners in a pillory and invite citizens to throw garbage at them, including the horse droppings that littered Place Jacques Cartier, then a bustling marketplace. This public retribution was seen as a good way to collectively punish and shame criminals while simultaneously discouraging others from committing the same crime.

By 1835, Montreal Prison was starting to deteriorate. The building began to crumble and with severe overcrowding, conditions on the inside were worsening. It reached a point of crisis in December, when the emaciated, frozen corpse of an almost-naked man was discovered in a cell one morning. The Jailer identified him as one of the prisoners: John Collins, a starving and malnourished vagrant, who had actually frozen to death in Montreal Prison one cold December night.

A Grand Jury was immediately assembled to examine the issue. After investigating, they issued a damning report about the Montreal Prison, noting that the jail was falling into ruins after only 27 years of existence and that the conditions inside were utterly appalling. The report noted that the food was inadequate, the prison was not properly heated in the winter, inmates were crammed into freezing cells at night with no beds, and there were only 54 blankets for 84 prisoners and many of them lacked clothing, wearing nothing but rags. Prisoners awaiting trial or execution were also kept in chains. Not only was the prison miserable and overcrowded, but the report also noted that the Jailer and his sons took sexual advantage of the 37 prostitutes who were locked up at the time.

In 1836, Sainte Marie Prison (later re-named Pied-du-Courant) was erected to the east, near the shoreline at Saint Mary’s Current. The old Montreal Prison was converted into a House of Industry, a place where vagrants could work. However, in 1837 the building was again pressed into service as a jail when a rebellion by Les Patriotes generated excessive amounts of prisoners.

In 1838, Montreal Prison was closed permanently as a jail. For a few years it was used to headquarter Artillery Officers, and in 1846 the prison was finally demolished to make way for the new Palais de Justice. During the demolition, it was decided to preserve the old jail cells to serve as a foundation for the new courthouse and a public square, initially called Place Neptune, on the eastern portion of the old jail.

Today, the old dungeon and its storied cells lurking just below Place Vauquelin are strictly off-limits. It is difficult to obtain any information from city authorities about the forbidden area. While official City of Montreal archivists and guides often claim to have no knowledge of any hauntings, sometimes one of them will relay a rumour they have heard. As such, it is difficult to speculate exactly who or what may be haunting the old dungeon cells of Montreal Prison.

For example, the mysterious cold spots may be related to the starving vagrant, John Collins, who froze to death in the dungeon on one frosty December night in 1835. As for the disembodied murmuring voices, these are extremely difficult to place, but could be connected with the prayers of Adolphus Dewey, who may not have being accepted into Heaven to be reunited with his dear wife, Euphrasine. Indeed, many spectators who witnessed his execution felt that his prolonged and torturous death was evidence of God’s displeasure and that it was a case of poetic justice. Could the ghost of Adoplhus Dewey haunt the old cells, praying for a retribution that will never come? The paranormal activities could also be related to the dozens of other criminals who were hanged at the prison, such as B. Clement, the 13 year old boy found guilty of stealing a cow.

One thing is certain, more research is needed into the exact nature of the hauntings in the cells to gather more details to try and make more specific connections. At the time of this writing, Haunted Montreal is trying to gain access to the old dungeon of Montreal Prison, thusfar with no success.

However, a recent announcement from City Hall suggests things may be about to change. In July, 2015, the City of Montreal put out a call for bidders for archeological services at Place Vauquelin. Plans are afoot for an archaeological dig in the area, to be done in conjunction with repairing the foundations of City Hall.

City spokeswoman Valérie De Gagné explained: “The archeologists will survey the archeological traces that remain, and will sift the soil where they are found…This will allow them to learn more about the activities that took place in this location over time.”

While it is unknown what exactly the archaeologists will discover, with Montreal Prison’s deranged history and rumours of paranormal hauntings in the old cells, expectations are high that the workers may unearth a lot more than they bargained for! Whether or not the old dungeon and its cells will finally be made accessible to the public once the work is complete is still unknown.

Whatever the case, Haunted Montreal will continue to monitor the situation closely and will keep our readers updated as the archaeological dig progresses.

Company News

Haunted Montreal’s public season is in full swing and ghost walks are also available to private groups!

Private tours can be arranged for groups of 10 or more people and are subject to availability. For more information, please contact us at info@hauntedmontreal.com.

For the public season of Ghost Walks, here are the details of all upcoming performances:

Friday, September 18 @ 8 pm…..Haunted Mountain

Friday, September 25 @ 8 pm…..Haunted Downtown Montreal
Sunday, September 27 @ 8 pm….Haunted Downtown Montreal  *** New Date ***

Friday, October 2 @ 8 pm…………Haunted Mountain

Friday, October 9 @ 8 pm…………Haunted Downtown Montreal

Saturday, October 10 @ 8 pm……Haunted Mountain

Sunday, October 11 @ 8 pm……..Haunted Downtown Montreal

To book a Ghost Walk in the public season, please see 2015 Tours for details. If you have attended a ghost walk, please feel free to write a review on Tripadvisor, which helps Haunted Montreal promote its tours.

For the 2015 Hallowe’en Season, Haunted Montreal is pleased to announce a brand new Ghost Walk! Currently top secret and in development, the new Ghost Walk will take place on the following dates:

Friday, October 16 @ 8 pm

Saturday, October 17 @ 8 pm

Sunday, October 18 @ 8 pm

Friday, October 23 @ 8 pm

Saturday, October 24 @ 8 pm

Sunday, October 25 @ 8 pm

Friday, October 30 @ 8 pm

Saturday, October 31 @ 8 pm

Full details will be announced on October 1st, including how to buy tickets, so stay tuned!

Lastly, if you have witnessed anything paranormal in Montreal or if you have a local ghost story to tell, please get in touch by emailing info@hauntedmontreal.com.

Thank you for reading the Haunted Montreal Blog! Don’t forget to sign up to our mailing list if you want to receive the blog on the 13th of every month!

Coming on October 13th: The ghost of the McLennan Library. Persistent rumours at McGill University suggest the 6th floor of the McLennan Library is haunted. The ghostly apparition of an elderly man who wears a strange old coat is known to float quietly above the floor, sometimes towards students who are deep in a book or librarians stacking the shelves. The apparition is known to stop behind a person and stare intently at them until he is noticed. When the startled person reacts, whether verbally or physically, this ghost is known to simply disappear. There is very little information as to who this apparition is or why he is haunting the 6th floor of the library. The concrete Brutalist structure dates to 1969, but it was built on the grounds where an elegant 19th-century mansion once stood. Named “Dilcoosha”, a Hindustani word meaning “The Heart’s Delight”, it was originally the residence of Jesse Joseph, a prominent Montreal financier who died in 1904 at age 86. Could it be him who haunts the library?