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!

We are pleased to announce that our season of public outdoor ghost tours is now in full swing and tickets are on sale! These include Haunted Old Montreal, Haunted Mountain, Haunted Downtown and Haunted Griffintown. Paranormal Investigations include Old Sainte-Antoine Cemetery and Colonial Old Montreal.

Haunted Montreal is also running our Haunted Pub Crawl every Sunday at 3 pm in English. For tours in French, these happen on the last Sunday of every month at 2 pm.

To learn more, see the schedule at the bottom of our home page and see more details in the Company News section below!

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 $235 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 explore a legend about the most cursed structure in Montreal – McGill University’s MacDonald Physics Building!

Haunted Research

McGill is a research-intensive university credited with many scientific discoveries and other inventions. The university boasts that its professors have discovered everything from DNA as the building blocks of genetics to neuro-scientific breakthroughs and have invented all sorts of wonders. 

These include the world’s first artificial blood cells, gas masks, plexiglass, pre-cooked fish sticks, the Canadian national anthem and even the game of basketball itself.  McGill calls these discoveries “Eureka moments that changed the world”.

However, there are certain research projects that went horribly wrong and the university tends to downplay them. One of the most devastating discoveries ever made occurred in McGill University’s MacDonald Physics Building, which is now said to be cursed.

On the morning of August 6, 1945, an American B-52 bomber dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.

The bomb was called “Little Boy” and when it exploded in a fiery holocaust, an estimated 60,000 to 80,000 people were killed instantly.

The heat from the nuclear explosion was so intense that many people were vaporized and the blast destroyed 10 square kilometers of the city and contaminated the rest with nuclear radiation. The victims included the residents of Hiroshima, Korean prisoners-of-war, and even some American POWs who were imprisoned there. 

The discovery that led to the nuclear bomb happened in the MacDonald Physics Building.  

The building was constructed in 1893 as a “gift” provided by Sir William Christopher MacDonald, the founder, owner and head of the MacDonald Tobacco Company. 

Even though he abhorred smoking himself, he was happy to make millions of dollars by hawking the dangerous product to other people. 

Over half of his workforce was comprised of women and children, who were paid much less than men. They did much of the hard work such as stripping, sorting, and drying the tobacco plants.

The motto for MacDonald’s company was “the tobacco with a heart.” 

MacDonald also fancied himself a man of science so created chairs in Physics, Engineering and Chemistry at McGill University and funded the construction of various buildings.

Architect Sir Andrew Taylor, along with his partners Morley Hogle and Huntley Davis, designed the Macdonald Physics Building with particular care.

They constructed the edifice in the Richardsonian Romanesque style using only wood, masonry, copper, bronze and brass for the nails and fixtures.

No iron or steel was used anywhere in the building to minimize magnetic interferences that could compromise experiments. The interior was made with heavy bricks and laboratories were stocked with state-of-the-art equipment for the era. 

The portico has two columns, one symbolizing “Power” and the other “Knowledge”. Additionally, the entrance hall fireplace hosts a mantelpiece engraved with “Prove All Things”.

In 1898, McGill University recruited Ernest Rutherford, a young New Zealander with penetrating eyes and an awkward manner, as the new MacDonald Chair and Professor of Physics. 

In 1903, Professor Rutherford had his “Eureka moment”, when he theorized that radioactive energy could be emitted from within an atom under the right conditions.

His theories about radioactivity revolutionized scientific understanding of the atom and ushered in the Atomic Age – and the nuclear bomb.

During Rutherford’s nine-year tenure at McGill, he conducted many groundbreaking experiments and remarkably published 69 papers. Described as “the father of nuclear physics”, Rutherford was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908.

Furthermore, his colleague at McGill, Frederick Soddy, received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his research in radioactive decay.

However, despite these accolades that glorified McGill University for its quality research, things were about to take a very dark turn.

On the evening of the Hiroshima bombing, the Montreal Gazette sent a reporter to the MacDonald Physics Building, hoping to get an interview with Dr. John Stuart Foster, the successor of Professor Rutherford. 

Entering the dark and deserted building, the reporter wandered the shadowy corridors until he came upon Dr. Foster, hunched over a table in one of the lecture amphitheatres.

A light shone over his table with the rest of the place darkened. 

Professor Foster was rapping his knuckles on the table nervously and had a wild look in his eyes. He began talking to himself, like a madman. “It all began right here, in this building,” he muttered, “right here in this building!” 

The reporter, sensing it wasn’t a good time to interview the trembling professor, snuck out, leaving Dr. Foster alone to his thoughts in the big, silent amphitheatre. As such, he had difficulty filing his article.

Professor Foster was never the same again after that evening. Rumours spread about his mental health and soon he developed the reputation of a “mad scientist”.

Since that fateful day when McGill research bore its awful fruit, it is rumoured that many other students and teachers have gone crazy working in the McDonald Physics Building.

According to legend, Mother Nature was very upset with the unnatural violation of her sacred work.  As such, She cursed the McDonald Physics Building to fall into ruin. 

Soon thereafter, all sorts of problems began to happen within the edifice. 

Doors jammed and windows cracked. Water dripped through the ceiling when it rained. Rats, mice and insects of all sorts began infesting the building. As a result, important experiments sometimes went awry, despite the meticulous architecture designed to protect them. 

Outside, the masonry began to crumble, tiles fell from the roof and various birds nested in the architectural nooks and crannies. As vines began growing up its walls, the MacDonald Physics Building began to take on a forlorn appearance.

There were also complaints among students, professors and staff working inside the cursed building. These included frequent headaches, nausea, feelings of depression and even the development of dementophobia – or the fear of going crazy. 

Individuals with this phobia experience anxieties related to losing their grip on reality, such as concerns about hallucinations or the display of other psychotic symptoms.

These numerous problems did not lend themselves well to the precise scientific conditions required by the McGill Physics Department. Ironically, the hope for new “Eureka Moments” and Nobel Prizes were being thwarted by the very MacDonald Physics Building itself. 

As the complaints mounted and the building continued to fall into ruin, in 1948, the McGill Physics Department created a new Radiation Lab and Cyclotron under the direction of Dr. Foster. Following his death from a heart attack in 1964, the facility was named in honor. 

However, despite this new laboratory, the old MacDonald Physics Building continued to fall into ruin.

In response, McGill University erected the new Ernest Rutherford Physics Building in 1977. It was meant to provide more modern facilities and laboratories as a complement to the crumbling MacDonald Physics Building. 

Built in the Brutalist style, the five-story structure was made of prefabricated concrete slabs that were individually fastened to a massive steel frame. 

Precautions were made to keep the new building as stable as possible. The sensitive nature of the experiments being carried out inside its laboratories required precise conditions. 

Indeed, this new and remarkable concrete structure would foreshadow the demise of the original building.

In 1982, McGill University admitted that the MacDonald Physics Building was no longer deemed fit for purpose. Officials stated: “It no longer met the needs of the modern Physics department.” 

As such, the cursed, old building was shuttered, fully renovated and then repurposed into the “Macdonald-Stewart Library Building of Physical Sciences and Engineering”. 

McGill University claimed: “Its sturdy structure has been well adapted to house many thousands of volumes and remains regularly filled with physicists doing research.” 

However, despite its refurbishment and conversion into a library, the MacDonald Physics Building continued to slowly disintegrate.

By 2019, the edifice was in dire condition. To try and prevent the building from falling apart, McGill invested $31.8-million to do a “full renovation”, which was completed in 2023.

According to the McGill Reporter:

“The core of the project consisted of repairing and upgrading the building envelope, including the deteriorating façades. Sections of the façades had in fact been covered up for many years to prevent stones from falling.” 

Project Manager Johanne Guertin explained:

“We had to add structural reinforcements to the building to improve its seismic resistance, solidify the building, and secure the façade.” 

However, despite the comprehensive renovations, serious concerns remain. The root problem – Mother Nature’s Curse on the MacDonald Physics Building – was never properly addressed. 

Some claimed that the renovations were a “band-aid solution” to a building that was doomed to eventually collapse into ruin.

Haunted Montreal approached a McGill Philosophy Professor to elaborate on this remarkable and unique dilemma. The Professor agreed to be interviewed, based on the condition of total anonymity.

Firstly, the Professor explained that the idea that Mother Nature had cursed the building to fall into ruin was debatable. “Some people claim that it is a mere Urban Legend and nothing more,” explained the Professor.

However, for the sake of philosophical interrogation, the educator agreed to examine the “Curse” hypothesis as though it were true.

The Professor began with the following quotation:

“People need to be cautious because anything built by man can be destroyed by Mother Nature.” 

He attributed the quote to American Lieutenant-General Russel Honoré, who led rescue efforts during the 2005 Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans.

The Professor explained that Mother Nature is known to strike back against destructive human activity, stating: “It could be in the form of planetary warming, natural disasters, global epidemics and other powerful forces.”

When questioned specifically about the MacDonald Physics Building, the Philosophy Professor said: “If the curse is indeed true, they should just probably just allow it to fall into ruin.” 

“Indeed”, added the Professor, “in doing so, McGill University could achieve another Eureka moment – and learn the valuable lesson to stop interfering with Mother Nature! Plus, crumbling ruins in the middle of the campus could provide compelling pedagogical opportunities for study and reflection. Maybe they could even partner with the Hiroshima Peace Memorial – or Genbaku Dome – in Japan!”

As such, all eyes are on the newly renovated MacDonald Physics Building to see if and when it will begin slowly falling into ruin again.

Company News

Haunted Montreal’s season of public outdoor ghost tours is now in full swing and tickets are on sale! These include Haunted Old Montreal, Haunted Mountain, Haunted Downtown and Haunted Griffintown. Paranormal Investigations include Old Sainte-Antoine Cemetery and Colonial Old Montreal.

We are also running our Haunted Pub Crawl every Sunday at 3 pm in English. For tours in French, these happen on the last Sunday of every month at 2 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 $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

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:  shop.hauntedmontreal.com

Haunted Montreal has temporarily altered its blog experience due to a commitment on a big writing project!  

The book is titled Haunted McGill, and is authored by yours truly, Donovan King! Our publisher is The Stygian Society.

McGill University isn’t just known for its academic prestige – it’s also home to some of Montreal’s most fascinating ghost stories.

Our upcoming publication, Haunted McGill, digs into the campus’s eerie legends and real-life hauntings, taking you to key landmarks like the Arts Building, Faculty Club, Duggan House and the Allan Memorial Institute, all rumored to house lingering spirits.

We’re crowdfunding through The Stygian Society’s Scriptorium, with the first 25 backers receiving an exclusive 1st edition copy, beautiful art prints, and other spooky treasures. Help us reach our goal by July and secure your piece of Montreal’s haunted history. To support the project please click on this link!

Until publication, new stories at the Haunted Montreal Blog will 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 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 every month, please sign up to our mailing list.

Coming Up on July 13: Update on St. Joseph’s Oratory

Montreal’s iconic St. Joseph’s Oratory has been undergoing a major $150-million renovation since 2018. The goal is increase accessibility and create a new welcome centre, museum and observatory in the gigantic dome. However, in August of 2019, workers unearthed four pre-colonial Indigenous skeletons under the Oratory’s parking lot. In the Spring of 2023, three more sets of remains were discovered, leading to many questions and concerns about the disturbance of seven deceased Mohawk ancestors deemed to be over 1000 years old.

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!

Haunted Montreal is pleased to announce that we are offering our regular ghost tours every Saturday evening on rotation up until June, when the season will be expanded:

Haunted Downtown Ghost Walk

Haunted Griffintown Ghost Walk

Haunted Mountain Ghost Walk

Our Haunted Pub Crawl is offered every Sunday at 3 pm in English and on the last Sunday of the month at 4 pm in French.

While public tours are available Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons for the Haunted Pub Crawl, private tours can be booked at any time based on the availability of our actors.

Our Virtual Ghost Tour is also available on demand!

Additionally, our team is releasing videos of ghost stories from the Haunted Montreal Blog every Saturday, in both languages!

Our hosts include Holly Rhiannon (in English) and Dr. Mab (in French).

Want to give the gift of a haunted experience for the 2022 season?

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 now have an online store for those interested in Haunted Montreal merchandise. More details are below in our Company News section!

This month we explore the Fort de la Montagne, the first Residential School in what is now modern-day Canada. Today, only two towers of the old fort remain – and they are reputed to be haunted.

Haunted Research

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”.

Before examining these haunted towers, it is a good idea to look at the history that led to their construction.

When Europeans began colonizing the world in the 1500s, their goal was generally to subjugate Indigenous civilizations in order to steal their lands and resources. This usually involved cultural genocide, or attempts to extinguish Indigenous practices, beliefs, languages and cultures.

When explorer Jacques Cartier arrived from France in 1534, he planted a 30-foot cross in today’s Gaspé region – to claim all of the indigenous territories on behalf of the King of France, François I.

Indigenous leaders, such as Donaconna, objected to Cartier’s gesture and would later tear down the cross.

Regardless, in the early 1600s, the French began establishing colonies in what they called “New France”. Settlements like Port Royale, Tadoussac, Quebec City and Trois-Rivières began to take shape.

Tiohti:áke, the original Mohawk name for Montreal, was seen as a colonial prize worth taking due to its geographic location. With several rivers systems flowing into the archipelago, the island was a major transportation hub and Mohawk trade center.

However, the French were at war with the Mohawk First Nation along with the rest of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. This league of five allied nations also included the Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida and Onondaga. French authorities saw Tiohti:áke as too dangerous for colonization.

Meanwhile, back in France, in La Flèche, a devout Catholic and tax collector named Jérôme Le Royer de la Dauversière claimed that he had been receiving Holy visions for six years. In these episodes, God instructed him to found a religious colony and a hospital on Tiohti:áke.

Along with other Catholics, de la Dauversière founded “The Notre-Dame Society of Montreal for the Conversion of the Savages of New France” (Société de Notre-Dame de Montréal pour la conversion des Sauvages de la Nouvelle-France) in 1639.

The goal of this colonial organization was to create a “New Jerusalem” on the island -and to convert all Indigenous people to Catholicism.

This evangelical project was related to another one that started in 1637 in Sillery, near Quebec City.

Sillery was the first reserve created by Europeans for Indigenous peoples in what is now Canada. It was funded by a French nobleman, Noël Brûlart de Sillery, in response to an advertisement placed by Father Paul Le Jeune in the Jesuit Relations. Le Jeune was looking for a suitable place to attempt to convert Indigenous people to Catholicism.

His aim was to instill an agricultural lifestyle in the semi-nomadic Algonquin and Innu people of the area to evangelize them. French authorities established the land as a seigneury for Indigenous people under Jesuit supervision.

The project was a total disaster. By the 1670s, epidemics such as smallpox had wiped out many of the Indigenous residents. Unhappy with the deadly diseases, strict Catholic doctrine, and un-arable lands, the last Indigenous peoples had left Sillery by the late 1680s.

Returning to “The Notre-Dame Society of Montreal for the Conversion of the Savages of New France”, their leaders hatched a plan to colonize Tiohti:áke. After a fundraising campaign, they recruited French military officer Paul de Chomedey, sieur de Maisonneuve to lead the project.

On May 17, 1642, de Maisonneuve and his colonists arrived at Tiohti:áke and established the colony of Ville-Marie. Needless to say, this sparked an all-out war between the French and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, who attempted to defend this part of the vast Mohawk territory. The brutal war would last, on and off, until a peace treaty was signed in 1701.

In 1652, while visiting France, de Maisonneuve recruited nun Marguerite Bourgeoys to become Ville-Marie’s first teacher. He envisaged her educating French children and evangelizing Indigenous people, young and old. He also brought over another 100 colonists to bolster the colony during the war.

In April 1658, de Maisonneuve provided Bourgeoys with a vacant stone stable to serve as a schoolhouse for her pupils.

She taught the children of the colony about the Catholic faith, as well as counting, reading and writing. The older girls learned household skills to prepare for marriage and motherhood.

Before long, the stable was deemed too small so another school was constructed. Bourgeoys also started to receive some Indigenous children whom she tried to indoctrinate.

In 1675, a new school called the Fort de la Montagne was established at the base of the mountain.

The purpose of this new institution was specifically to evangelize Indigenous people. The pedagogy was designed ensure their adherence to the Catholic religion, which made up a large part of the curriculum.

However, soon Marguerite Bourgeoys and other authorities noticed that many of the Indigenous students at Fort de la Montagne were practicing traditional culture including ceremonies. Alarmed and upset, the Catholic overseers began describing these practices as “witchcraft”.

Furthermore, in the tradition of Jérôme Le Royer de la Dauversière, certain members of the Catholic community began claiming that they too were receiving direct and visionary messages from God. The highest religious authorities in the colony frowned upon this type of talk, as they could not control it.

As things at the Fort de la Montagne got more and more out of control, word reached the head of the Sulpician Order in Paris, France. In response, a hardliner named François Vachon de Belmont was deployed from Paris to the Fort de la Montagne in 1680 to stop the spread of “witchcraft” and visions.

The following year, de Belmont was named as the Superior of the Fort de la Montagne mission, which at that point housed over 200 Indigenous people, mostly Nipissing, Kanienkehà:ka (Mohawk), and Algonquin children, who were living in cabins on the site.

In order to stamp out the “witchcraft”, it is likely that Marguerite Bourgeoys added ghostly Catholic stories to her curriculum. Apparently, one of her favorites was the deranged tale of Jean Saint-Père’s Talking Head.

Ironically, Marguerite Bourgeoys and other Catholics did not consider the decapitated head of a colonist blabbering away after Death to be “witchcraft”. However, they considered traditional Indigenous culture that had been practiced for thousands of years as the Devil’s work.

To further secure the site, in 1685 de Belmont ordered that fortifications be constructed. Colonial workers constructed a 13-meter palisade and four stone towers with ominous gun-ports around the school.

With these new defenses, Indigenous people who tried to rescue their colleagues in the Fort de la Montagne could be shot as they approached the school.

Despite these efforts, Marguerite Bourgeoys and de Belmont were unable to extinguish Indigenous culture within the Fort de la Montagne.

Things exploded in 1689 the day after the Feast of the Dead. On the night of November 3^rd, Marguerite Tardy, sister of the Congrégation de Notre-Dame claimed she had a vision from God as she watched by the fireside.

She told Marguerite Bourgeoys that a sister “dead for more than sixteen months” had appeared to her. The dead nun told Sister Tardy: “I am sent from God. Tell the Superior of the Congregation that she is in a state of mortal sin, because of a Sister whom she named to her”.

Given that Marguerite Bourgeoys had founded the Congrégation de Notre-Dame – and was the Superior – this allegation especially alarmed her.

It got worse the following year, when Sister Tardy and a man named Joseph de la Colombière claimed to have experienced new divine visions and appearances.

On the night of January 3^rd 1690, Sister Tardy told Marguerite Bourgeoys that she had again received a visit from the deceased nun. This time, the message was more threatening: “This Superior has not yet done what she must do. This is the last time I will warn her…”

François Vachon de Belmont felt that he was losing control, so sent letters to his superior in Paris, Louis Tronson, explaining the situation.

Louis Tronson was very surprised to learn the extent of the affair. He reacted quickly to snuff out the so-called “visionaries” before their claims could spiral out of control. He was especially worried that people like Sister Tardy and Joseph de la Colombière could cause scandal all the way to the King’s court.

For Louis Tronson, these supernatural manifestations were only “chimerical visions” and “ridiculous prophecies”. He described the visions as “the production of a hollow head and a heated imagination”. He charged the culprits with having “visible errors” and said they were “deceived by their false views”.

To break the chain of the conspiracy and to destroy its influence, Tronson recalled all malcontents back to France. These included Sister Tardy, Joseph de la Colombière and a priest named William Bailly.

Once the Catholic rebels had been deported, Louis Tronson demanded the absolute submission of the Sulpicians to their Montreal Superior. Anyone who did not comply with Tronson’s orders were threatened to be sent back to France.

In September 1694, a major fire broke out at the Fort de la Montagne.

A young warrior fired a gun into the cabin of an adversary. The occupants had time to flee, but the fire caught and spread quickly due to high winds.

Within three hours, nearly fifty Indigenous cabins, fifteen frame-houses, the Church and much of the palisade surrounding the village had all burned to the ground.

By 1696, the Indigenous inhabitants had been relocated to the other side of the island, to Fort Lorette at Sault-au-Recollet. In 1721, the mission was finally relocated to present-day Kanesetake.

In 1854, during the building of the College of Montreal, all of the remains of the Fort de la Montagne were demolished expect for the two southern towers. They still stand today.

Originally, the west tower had housed the school of Marguerite Bourgeoys. The nuns of the Congregation used the east tower as a chapel. Today, both towers are empty – and for good reason. They are both reputed to be haunted.

Students at the College of Montreal often dare each other to visit the haunted towers at midnight. There have been many reports over the years that visitors to the West Tower sometimes hear the sounds of children weeping emanating from the gun-ports.

One former student reported to Haunted Montreal that she had visited the towers with some fellow students one Friday the 13^th in 2018. She explained:

“We decided to go on a dare. During the daytime, the towers, while creepy-looking, don’t exhibit much paranormal activity. According to the legend, midnight is the best time to go to experience the hauntings. When midnight struck, we decided to start with the West Tower.”

As they crept up to the imposing fortification in the darkness, one of her friends dared her to approach a gun-port and shine her flashlight inside.

Nervously, she approached until she was mere feet away. She claimed:

“Just as I was about to shine my light into the tower’s gun-port to see what was inside, I heard a loud burst of sobbing coming from inside! I was so taken aback that I literally fell over! As I tried to scramble back to my friends, I heard a softer weeping sound, almost like children. My friends had already run away in terror and once I picked myself up, I ran away also. It was one of the most frightening nights of my life!”

The East Tower is also reported to be haunted by a ghostly nun. Her apparition has been spotted standing outside the heavy door of the structure, as though awaiting others to follow her inside.

According to lore, she appears at night and sometimes beckons those exploring the site to join her inside with a hand gesture. She then turns around and walks straight through the thick wooden door, effectively vanishing.

Many speculate that the ghost is that of Sister Marguerite Tardy. Some believe she returned in the afterlife due to her failure to convince authorities of her visions and subsequent deportation to France.

The towers were designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1970 and as provincial historical monuments in 1974.

Today, despite running the first Residential School in modern-day Canada, Marguerite Bourgeoys is celebrated like few others.

Marguerite Bourgeoys became Canada’s first female Saint on Hallowe’en in 1982, when Pope John Paul II canonized her at Vatican City. There is also a French school board named after her, a museum about her life in the Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel, not to mention a stamp in her honour and various other commemorations across the country.

People can also visit her final resting place in the Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel in Old Montreal, which is also said to be haunted.

In conclusion, despite the fact that Marguerite Bourgeoys and the Fort de la Montagne were instrumental in cultural genocide against Indigenous people, they have both been immortalized and glorified by Church and government officials. Perhaps this is one of the reasons the towers are said to be haunted.

In the Age of Truth and Reconciliation, perhaps it is time to re-evaluate the discourse surrounding the first Residential School created by European colonists.

It was, after all, the progenitor of all of the others to come. Instead of celebrating and glorifying these symbols of cultural genocide, it might be best to re-contextualize them historically in a more realistic light.

Visit these haunted towers at your own risk, especially during the witching hour!

Company News

Haunted Montreal is pleased to announce that we are offering our regular ghost tours every Saturday evening on rotation up until June, when the season will be expanded:

Haunted Downtown Ghost Walk

Haunted Griffintown Ghost Walk

Haunted Mountain Ghost Walk

Our Haunted Pub Crawl is offered every Sunday at 3 pm in English and on the last Sunday of the month at 4 pm in French.

While public tours are available Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons for the Haunted Pub Crawl, private tours can be booked at any time based on the availability of our actors.

Our Virtual Ghost Tour is also available on demand!

For private tours, clients can request any date, time, language and operating tour. These tours are based on the availability of our actors and start at $170 for small groups of up to 7 people.

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

Furthermore, our team is releasing videos every Saturday, in both languages, of ghost stories from the Haunted Montreal Blog. Hosted by Holly Rhiannon (in English) and Dr. Mab (in French), this new 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: shop.hauntedmontreal.com

Haunted Montreal would like to thank all of our clients who attended a ghost walk, haunted pub crawl, paranormal investigation or virtual event during the 2021 season!

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^th: The Haunted Cross on the Mountain

Visible from 80 kilometers away, Montreal’s 30-meter high metal cross on the mountain glows at night with special lighting. A symbol of Catholicism, it was based on a wooden cross that French colonists erected in 1643. To prevent any interference, the cross is surrounded by metal fencing and has sensors and video cameras to alert the police to any intruders. Today, rumours are swirling that the site of the cross is haunted because the mountain is peppered with Indigenous graves dating back thousands of years. A group called the Mohawk Mothers is now calling for its removal as a symbol of genocide.

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.

We are also pleased to announce that our public season is now in full swing and private bookings are also available for both Haunted Downtown Montreal and Haunted Mountain. We also have a Tripadvisor page to enable our clients to provide feedback and reviews of Haunted Montreal’s ghost walks.

Villa Maria is a prestigious private school nestled into the western base of Mount Royal. Educating girls since 1854, Villa Maria is one of Montreal’s oldest schools – and also one of its most haunted!

Schoolgirls enrolled at Villa Maria have been whispering about the hauntings for decades, often to the disapproval of religious officials who were once involved in the school’s administration. Despite the school offering a more secular education nowadays, the hallowed halls are still said to be haunted by various ghosts.

Certain locations are said to be extremely haunted, including the main lobby, where as mysterious rope sometimes swings on its own accord, and the fourth floor, where students often experience flickering lights and gusts of cold wind, not to mention phantom footsteps and disembodied weeping sounds. Delving into the site’s history of the site can provide clues as to what may be causing the hauntings.

The story begins in 1795, when Lord James Monk, Chief Justice of Lower Canada, purchased the estate where Villa Maria now resides from the Décarie family. He ordered a Palladian-style villa to be built on the land in 1804, which he affectionately called ‘Monklands’. Following the death of Sir James Monk, his niece, Elizabeth Ann Monk, inherited the property. She leased it to Crown as a residence for the Governors General of Canada, so the building was modified to make it appear more imposing and luxurious.

Three Governors General resided at Monklands, including Sir Charles Metcalfe, Lord Cathcart and finally, Lord Elgin. A decision was made to convert the property into a hotel in 1849, following a dangerous episode on April 25, 1849 that upset Lord Elgin and his pregnant wife.

Lord Elgin had passed the Rebellion Losses Bill in the Canadian Parliament, spurring an angry mob of Conservative party radicals to action. They threatened to burn down Lord Elgin’s home with his pregnant wife inside it. However, within the mob cooler heads prevailed and, after much debate, the rioters chose to burn down the Parliament instead, which was located in what is now Old Montreal.

The dangers faced by Crown politicians in Montreal were real and ever-present, prompting Queen Victoria to relocate the Parliament to Ottawa several years later. Canadian Governor-Generals have been living there ever since.

The residence was converted into the Monklands Hotel, which could perhaps best be described as a country inn. Set on the bucolic slopes of Mount Royal, it catered to those travelling between Montreal and villages to the north, however it operated for only five years before closing. One rumour suggests the hotel had developed a salacious reputation as a place where romantic affairs could unfold in complete discretion and secrecy, which alarmed the Monk family as well as religious authorities in the city.

In 1854, the Congrégation de Notre-Dame brought an end to the Monklands Hotel. The Catholic organization purchased the estate to open a boarding school for girls. They renamed it “Villa Maria” and the school began to imbue a very Christian education that was taught exclusively by nuns and clergy in the beginning.

Courses ranged from academic to spiritual, and included everything from English, French, The Art of Conversation and Arithmetic to Meditation, Examination of the Conscience and Bible Study, which was seen to encourage spiritual discipline. The curriculum also included the arts: drawing, sewing, painting on porcelain, as well as harp and piano lessons. Students also had access to a telescope to study celestial bodies and astronomy.

However, despite this rich and religious curriculum, students also received a lesson in the paranormal if they listened to the persistent rumours or experienced anything uncanny.

Lynda da Silveira, a former Villa Maria student, now works at the school. She has taken a keen interest in the ghosts that haunt the place, and was recently interviewed by the Montreal Gazette about the alleged paranormal activities that unfold at Villa Maria.

She described one prominent story about a rope in the original building that dangles from the second floor above the main hall, with a school bell attached on the end. According to da Silveria, students refer to it as “the hanging rope” and whisper that at 11 p.m. sharp, it sometimes begins swaying on its own accord.

According to legend, a man was having a passionate affair with a married woman and he brought her to the Monklands Hotel for a romantic tryst. The woman, fearing she would be caught, hastily abandoned the man at the hotel one night. Devastated, his mind darkened and he became forlorn.

“That night he hanged himself with the rope,” said da Silveira. “It is said that at the time of his hanging which was 11 p.m., oftentimes, you can see the rope moving. And the chime of the bell will sound like the agonized cry of a dying man…We all refer to it as the hanging rope.”

Da Silveira also has a theory about the paranormal activities that happen on the fourth floor, which include flickering lights, gusts of cold wind, phantom footsteps and disembodied weeping sounds and sometimes even laughter.

“Lots of teachers and staff throughout the years will tell you that weird stuff happens on that floor all the time,” Da Silveira said. “So you’ll be sitting there, and suddenly a gust of cold wind will come from nowhere. The lights will turn off. It sounds like someone is walking across the room, even though you’re the only one left.” According to the Montreal Gazette, some of the teachers have even reported hearing disembodied laughter.

Apparently these strange activities might be related to a student named Lillian Stubbs, who boarded there during the late 1870s. According to the tale, Lillian longed to return home to Texas for the summer holidays, but unfortunately she contracted cholera, a deadly and contagious disease. Due to the risk of infecting others, Lillian was quarantined in the school for the summer and kept under the care and supervision of the nuns.

Despite being cared for by the nuns and Mother Superior, Lillian was unable to ward off the cholera and died in a Spartan bedroom in the school in 1880, far away from her family and home.

She was buried in the school’s crypt on July 25, 1880, below a tombstone carved with an angel. In death, Lillian joined other notable members of the school who had died there, including several student victims of smallpox and even one Mother Superior, who died two days before Christmas in 1875 during an epidemic.

Death continued to stalk the school, and in 1928, two more young girls perished. One student was only 6 years old when she developed pneumonia following a bout of measles, whereas the other girl died of scarlet fever.

Returning to the hauntings, da Silveira stated: “During the school year at night, you can hear footsteps of a girl running up and down the fourth floor, and you can hear a girl laughing and slamming doors…But during the Christmas holiday, the footsteps go silent, and what you hear instead is weeping.”

Perhaps the mysterious Yuletide weeping is related to the tragic death of the Mother Superior. It is unknown whether the other paranormal events are related to Lillian Stubbs or other girls who succumbed to disease, or some other undiscovered spirit that haunts the upper floors of the school.

Whatever the case, Villa Maria was declared an historic monument in 1951 because of its historic importance and notable residents over the years.

More recently, after 161 years of educating girls exclusively, in 2015 school officials decided to switch to a co-ed model. The plan was met with anger by some parents, but officials explained that due to a declining birth rate and language laws surrounding accessibility to education in English in Quebec, the move was necessary. As such, a new generation of schoolboys is set to join the girls in the autumn of 2016 to study in the hallowed halls of Villa Maria School.

One thing is certain, in addition to studying the polished curriculum provided by the school, the new students are also going to learn the old rumours and legends about the ghosts that haunt Villa Maria. Perhaps with the mixing of genders, whole new ghost stories will emerge as the boys explore the nooks and crannies of the historic estate and work their feverish imaginations. Only time will tell!

Haunted Montreal is very proud to have done a fundraiser on Sunday, August 9 to support the Ange-Aimée Woods Bursary with two special performances of Haunted Downtown Montreal (2 pm and 8 pm). We raised $501.50 towards the goal of $15,000.00 to ensure the bursary will exist in perpetuity. We are pleased to announce that we have reached our objective!

Haunted Montreal’s public season is in full swing offers and ghost walks are 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, we have just added new dates based on high demand! Here are the details of all upcoming performances:

Saturday, August 15 @ 8 pm…..Haunted Downtown

Friday, August 21 @ 8 pm………Haunted Mountain

Saturday, August 29 @ 8 pm…..Haunted Downtown

Friday, September 4 @ 8 pm…..Haunted Mountain

Friday, September 11 @ 8 pm…Haunted Downtown Montreal

Friday, September 18 @ 8 pm…Haunted Mountain

Friday, September 25 @ 8 pm…Haunted Downtown Montreal

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   *** New date!***To book a Ghost Walk in the public season, please see 2015 Tours for details.

We may add more even tour dates in case of high demand!

Haunted Montreal is trying to spread the word as much as possible about our Ghost Walks and haunted research. If you attended a Ghost Walk, Haunted Montreal invites you to write a review on our Tripadvisor page! We really appreciate all positive feedback and reviews!

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 up on September 13th: Hauntings in the Old Montreal Gaol Cells. From 1811 to 1836, Montreal’s infamous gaol sat on the north side of the Champ-de-Mars, approximately where the Place Vauquelin exists today and to the west beneath the old courthouse. Montreal Gaol was notorious and housed inmates in primitive conditions. With no heating in winter, a lack of bedding or blankets, a diet of only bread and water and inmates awaiting trial or execution chained to the walls, the Gaol was a place of immense suffering and tragedy. In 1835, after a vagrant named John Collins froze to death in the gaol, a Grand Jury condemned it and it was demolished in 1846. A courthouse was built upon the foundations of the old goal cells in 1850 and a public square opened in 1858 on the eastern portion. The old gaol cells still exist beneath Place Vauquelin and the old courthouse, but they are said to be haunted by the ghosts of criminals long-since executed and other spirits. With a recent announcement from City Hall about a planned archaeological dig in the area, expectations are high that the workers may unearth more than they bargained for!

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).