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!

With the Halloween Season in full swing, Haunted Montreal is running a full roster of ghost tours and haunted experiences!

Our ghost tours include Haunted Old Montreal, Griffintown, Downtown and the mountain!

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

We also offer paranormal investigations! In addition to our investigation of the old Sainte-Antoine Cholera Cemetery, Haunted Montreal is proud to announce our latest experience – Paranormal Investigation – Colonial Old Montreal.

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 $215 for small groups of up to 7 people.

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

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

This month we examine McGill University’s storied Arts Building and its various paranormal phenomena. As the oldest structure on campus, it is also one of its most haunted.

Haunted Research

McGill University’s Arts Building is an iconic symbol of the institution. Constructed in 1843, as the oldest structure standing on campus, it is also reputed to be haunted. This may be due to its deranged history as the first edifice where medical students performed experimental autopsies on unfortunate corpses, many of them stolen from local cemeteries.

Today, phantom footsteps echo throughout the old building and some students have reported spotting what could be the ghost of an old Anatomy professor.

McGill University officially opened in 1821, but its only initial building was the crumbling Burnside Hall. Originally the country home of James McGill, the structure was unsuitable for academic studies due to its farm-like layout and deteriorating condition.

Burnside Hall was named as such because it was located next to a babbling brook that ran across James McGill’s property. In Scotland, a “burn” is a commonly used word for a small stream, creek or brook.

James McGill enjoyed spending summers on his bucolic forty-six acre country estate. Named Burnside Place, it was situated well outside of the city during his lifetime. McGill enjoyed his leisure time here with his wife.

Indeed, his every whim was attended to by his various servants and slaves.

James McGill owned at least five slaves, including two Indigenous children and three people of African descent. One Indigenous girl was named Marie and the other’s name is unknown. The Black slaves included a man named Jacques and two women, Marie Louise and another lady referred to variously as Sarah Cavilhe, Charlotte or Marie Charles.

James McGill also traded in slaves. In 1784, he sold two enslaved Black people, named Caesar and Flora. Three years later, he sold four more slaves. He also made enormous profits from products created by enslaved people in other British colonies, such as sugar, molasses, rum and tobacco.

These nefarious transactions helped make James McGill one of the richest men in Montreal with a net worth of approximately £100,000.

In 1811, James McGill, bequeathed his beloved Burnside Place estate to the Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning, based in London, England.

Stretching from what is now Doctor Penfield Avenue to a few streets south of Sherbrooke Street, the size of the land was substantial.

He also donated £10,000 to the Royal Institution, on the condition that they establish a university in his name within ten years following his death. He stipulated that if the university was not founded within ten years after his passing, the property and funds would be given to his heirs.

Ironically, James McGill was a school dropout himself. He may have wanted to redeem his lowly scholastic reputation by creating a university in his name.

When James McGill died suddenly on December 19, 1813, the Royal Institution began plotting the creation of McGill University. The school opened in 1821, just two years shy of the deadline.

However, due to the lack of adequate space for studies, in 1837 the Royal Institution commissioned the McGill College Building (which was later renamed the Arts Building). In 1839, well-known British architect John Ostell was hired to design the building in the Classical Revival style.

By 1843, Ostell’s team had constructed the central and eastern sections of the building. The central block featured classrooms, the college hall, a library, a kitchen, the steward’s residence, and a room for the Governors’ council. The eastern section contained the chapel and vice-principal’s residence.

Unfortunately, funds ran out which prevented construction of the western section and a two-story portico with Doric columns for the central building.

Furthermore, due to unfinished work, the building was uncomfortable to say the least. The roof leaked in various places, the rooms were both cold and dark, there were several broken windows and before long rats had infested the structure.

In order to raise funds to finish the project, the Royal Institution sold valuable land south of Sherbrooke Street.

E.A. Collard’s book “Oldest McGill” devotes an entire chapter called “Early Years in the Arts Building” (pages 30 – 45) where he describes this very difficult situation.

The first faculty at McGill University was the Faculty of Medicine. It emerged from the Montreal Medical Institution and was grafted onto the university in 1829. In 1845, the Medical classes were moved to the Arts Building, joining the new Faculty of Arts, which had started teaching there in 1843. 

Since Montreal had not yet expanded as far west as McGill, the only access to the Arts Building was by way of bumpy, unkempt lanes which became almost impassable in the harsh winter snow drifts. 

Indeed, many of the students felt that the campus was too far from the city and were grateful when a professor could offer a ride on a sleigh, especially during blizzards.

With the long distance, unfinished structure and nasty weather, there was a lot of discontentment with the facilities. Thus, the Faculty of Medicine was not satisfied with their relocation to the Arts Building. They described it as “a lonely building, far removed from other dwellings, imperfectly heated, and lighted by candles – the light being barely sufficient to render the surrounding darkness visible.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, the Faculty of Medicine decided to move out of the Arts Building in 1851. Their timing was very good, as the City of Montreal began constructing the nearby McTavish Reservoir in 1852.

Explosions to hollow out the reservoir inadvertently showered the Arts Building with rock fragments and boulders, making studies very dangerous and further damaging the structure. When cracks began appearing in the walls, the remaining staff and students relocated until the Arts Building could be fully repaired.

It took a full decade until repairs had restored the structure. By 1862, the Arts Building was finally functional and also saw the addition of its western wing. The structure was now complete according to most of Ostell’s original designs and professors and students reoccupied the building.

The final touch occurred on June 23, 1875, when the “James McGill Monument” was installed in front of the Arts Building.

The four-sided stone pedestal is topped with a decorative urn in memory James McGill. His human remains are in a box within the pedestal.

When McGill died in 1813, he was buried in the St. Lawrence Protestant Burying Ground next to his old friend, John Porteous. McGill’s wife, a Catholic, had to be buried elsewhere due to religious regulations that forbade Protestants from being buried in the same cemeteries as Catholics.

Over the years, the cemetery filled up and reached capacity as its tombstones and monuments began to crumble and vandals began destroying the place.

In 1873, the city expropriated the creepy cemetery to make way for a public square. Descendants were asked to remove any corpses they wanted to have re-interred elsewhere.

Upon hearing this, in 1875 McGill University administrators arranged for the transfer of James McGill’s skeleton and monument from Plot #16 to the location where it is today, in front of the Arts Building. They put his skull and bones in a box and placed it within the pedestal they constructed before securing his funerary urn on top. Coincidentally, Burnside Hall was also demolished in 1875.

As the urn eroded and deteriorated over the years due to the seasonal weather, in 1944 the McGill Graduates Society and Canadian Grenadier Guards replaced it with a replica.

Some people believe that the ghost of James McGill haunts the area around his urn, whereas others believe he is burning in Hell for his role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

On October 23, 2011, The Tribune published an article called “Haunted McGill”. Journalist Kyla Mandel wrote:

“Once upon a midnight dreary, McGill’s campus was quite eerie. The orange leaves rustled and the autumn air was crisp; shadows danced in the blustery wind. It was Halloween and the ghosts that lurk McGill were out to play. Where are these phantoms of the night, you ask? They can be found in many places; all it takes is a little faith and courage. The place to start hunting for McGill’s ghosts is in front of the Arts Building, where the remains of James McGill were reinterred in 1875.”

Mandel continued:

“There have been other stories of ghosts haunting the Arts Building itself. After passing the ghost of James McGill, take the steps up into the Arts Building to wander its echoing corridors and the recesses of its basement alcoves. According to Peter McNally, Director of the History of Montreal project, in the 1840s the Arts Building housed the Faculty of Medicine and its cadavers. So beware, the ghosts that prowl these quarters may not be as welcoming as the shape of James McGill. Perhaps the only detection of a ghost you’ll find is that chill that has just passed through you, or the light that appears only on some nights in the cupola atop the Arts Building.”

Additionally, some students have claimed to hearing phantom footsteps in the hallways and the creaking staircases of the Arts Building. Other reports document a horrible and nauseous stench that sometimes overwhelm students. Some of them have described the foul odour as “the smell Death” or “rotting flesh, mixed with formaldehyde.”

The nasty stench typically materializes in classrooms, hallways and staircases before dissipating within a few minutes. It has actually caused both students and professors to run to the toilets to vomit.

One Anatomy student was familiar with the stench. He described it as “effluvium”, an unpleasant or harmful odour, secretion, or discharge associated with autopsy drippings.

There have also been sightings of what could be the ghost of an old Anatomy professor. He is often spotted out of the corner of one’s eye before disappearing.

Described as wearing Victorian attire, including a cap and sporting a bloody full-length apron, his ghost has spooked many a student and professor in the hallways, classrooms and especially on the staircases. The fact that he carries a scalpel does little to ease those who spotted him.

One prominent theory is that the ghost is a Victorian academic who started his career preparing and dissecting corpses for Anatomy Professors. His name was Dr. D. C. MacCallum and his title was the “Prosector to the Professor of Anatomy”. Having suitably arranged the cadavers in the original Arts Building for his superiors, in 1847 he wrote the following words:

“I had to prepare, during the greater part of the session, the dissections of the parts which were to be the subject of the Professor’s lectures the following day. This necessitated my passing several hours, usually from nine to twelve o’clock at night, in the dismal foul-smelling dissecting room, my only company being several partially dissected subjects, and numerous rats which kept up a lively racket, coursing over and below the floor and within the walls of the room…”

Describing the rodents, Dr. MacCallum wrote:

“Their piercing and vicious shrieks as they fought together, the thumping caused by their bodies coming into forcible contact with the floor and walls, and rattling produced by their rush over loose bones, furnished a variety of sounds that would have been highly creditable to any old-fashioned haunted house.”

Some students believe that the infamous ghost haunting the Arts Building is none other than Dr. MacCallum, who went on to become a full Professor of Anatomy.

Indeed, unfounded and scandalous rumors have spread around the campus for many years about this professor.

According to the rumour, Dr. MacCallum was lecturing to his students in the dissecting room of the Arts Building when he suddenly fell ill at his podium and collapsed on the floor. However, instead of trying to help their professor, some of his students began agitating for his immediate autopsy.

Apparently, Dr. MacCallum was a tough professor and had failed almost half of his Anatomy students. Some of them described his behavior as “eccentric”, “unbalanced” and “odd”. With their careers in potential danger, many students saw the strict Anatomy Professor as a risk to their future success.

The unfounded legend suggests that when Dr. MacCallum fell onto the lecture floor from his podium, some of his students at risk of failure began chanting “Autopsy! Autopsy! Autopsy!”

While some level-headed students protested the idea, a mob mentality took over. Within minutes, a horde of students had descended upon the professor and thrust him upon the autopsy slab, scalpels in hand! They set to work on him, despite one student yelling that he was still alive!

Within an hour, the poor professor had been thoroughly dissected. To make matters worse, some of the students kept organs, bones and other body parts as “trophies” and brought them back to their residences.

It is worth noting that this legend is very questionable. While it is true that students were so desperate to acquire fresh corpses for McGill’s Anatomy class that they often resorted to grave-robbing, there is no evidence that they ever performed an autopsy on their own professor.

Indeed, Dr. MacCallum retired as Professor Emeritus in 1883 and passed away in 1904, suggesting that the outlandish legend is simply untrue.

In April 2019, the McCall MacBain Foundation gave a private donation of $200 million to McGill University on condition it could attach its name to the Arts Building.

At the time, it was largest gift to a university in Canadian history and the edifice was renamed the McCall MacBain Arts Building.

It is also worth noting that in March, 2022, the Arts Building and funerary urn were both given clandestine paint jobs. While McGill officials described the incident as “vandalism”, activists described it as “editing”. Indeed, the activists had painted the words “DIVEST” on university buildings and “Fucking Slave Owner” and “Take Him Down” on the urn.

This episode followed the removal of a statue of James McGill the previous year in the Lower Quad of the campus. Created by David Roper-Curzon and installed in 1996, the statue had also been painted red on many occasions due to McGill’s ties to the blood-soaked slave trade.

After much pressure, the university finally removed the offending James McGill statue in July, 2021 and placed it into storage.

Today, the Arts Building still stands as a major symbol of McGill University. Despite its deranged past, the building is bustling with professors and the many students attending their lectures.

However, one never knows what may be lurking in the shadowy hallways, staircases and recesses of this storied edifice.

Only one thing is certain – as the oldest structure on campus, the Arts Building reeks of paranormal activity and ghostly hauntings. Enter at your own risk!

Company News

With the Halloween Season in full swing, Haunted Montreal is running a full roster of ghost tours and haunted experiences! Our ghost tours include Haunted Old Montreal, Griffintown, Downtown and the mountain!

Haunted Montreal is proud to announce our latest haunted experience – Paranormal Investigation – Colonial Old Montreal.

Hosted by professional Ghost-hunter Dominique Desormeaux of Investigations 13, Haunted Montreal’s “Paranormal Investigation – Colonial Old Montreal” takes guests on a dark adventure into the mysterious world of ghost hunting!

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

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

Private tours for any of our experiences (including outdoor tours) can be booked at any time based on the availability of our actors. Clients can request any date, time, language and operating tour. These tours are based on the availability of our actors and start at $215 for small groups of up to 7 people.

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

You can also bring the Haunted Montreal experience to your office party, house, school or event by booking one of our Travelling Ghost Storytellers today. Hear some of the spookiest tales from our tours and our blog told by a professional actor and storyteller. You provide the venue, we provide the stories and storyteller.

Find out more and then contact info@hauntedmontreal.com

Our team also releases videos every second Saturday, in both languages, of ghost stories from the Haunted Montreal Blog. Hosted by Holly Rhiannon (in English) and Dr. Mab (in French), this initiative is sure to please ghost story fans!

Please like, subscribe and hit the bell!

Haunted Montreal is also pleased to announce the publication of the book “Montréal hanté. La mémoire macabre d’une cité victorienne”, written by Pierre-Luc Baril. Directly inspired by the Haunted Montreal Blog, the book tells several ghost stories, including those of Simon McTavish, the mysterious Trafalgar Tower and the murder of Mary Gallagher.

You can purchase a copy by clicking on this link.

You are cordially invited to the official launch of the book, on October 17, 2024, at 6 p.m., at the Le Port de Tête bookstore (222 avenue du Mont-Royal E). See the Facebook event.

In other news, if you want to send someone a haunted experience as a gift, you certainly can!

We are offering Haunted Montreal Gift Certificates through our website and redeemable via Eventbrite for any of our in-person or virtual events (no expiration date).

Finally, we have an online store for those interested in Haunted Montreal merchandise. We are selling t-shirts, magnets, sweatshirts (for those haunted fall and winter nights) and mugs with both the Haunted Montreal logo and our tour imagery.

Purchases can be ordered through our online store.

Haunted Montreal has temporarily altered its blog experience due to a commitment on a big writing project! New stories at the Haunted Montreal Blog will now be offered every two months, whereas every other month will feature an update to an old story. As always, these stories and updates will be released on the 13th of every month!

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

If you enjoyed the experience, we encourage you to write a review on our Tripadvisor page 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 November 13^th: Update on Montreal’s Haunted Pubs and Drinking Establishments

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

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.

HAUNTED RESEARCH

McTavish Street on McGill’s bustling campus is said to be the second most haunted street in Montreal, after Saint Paul Street in Old Montreal. There are said to be no less than three haunted buildings on this street: Duggan House, the McLennan Library, and the McGill University Faculty Club.

The Faculty Club welcomes the school’s elite of professors, deans, provosts, and other academics. The opulent mansion is a private oasis on the bustling campus, a place where academics come to relax, dine, socialize and discuss important matters. However, according to many sources, the Faculty Club is haunted by ghosts of the past. The opulent mansion was designed in 1886 by Baron Alfred von Baumgarten, a wealthy German sugar tycoon for his family.

Baron Alfred Moritz Friedrich Baumgarten, Ph.D., was born in Desden in 1842. After studying chemistry at the University of Berlin and the University of Göttingen, he came to New York City in 1866 intending to do business in the North American chemical industry.

In 1873, Baumgarten moved to Montreal to manage the de Castro Syrup Company, and in 1879 he co-founded the St. Lawrence Sugar Refining Company.

The company imported raw sugar from the British West Indies and Europe before refining it into pure sugar, which could be sold to local and international consumers. At first, the enterprise was relatively small and located on the Lachine Canal. However, with increasing demand, the plant was enlarged several times until the original buildings were destroyed by a fire in 1887. A new factory was built in the City of Maisonneuve, now a Montreal neighbourhood, on a riverfront site that allowed large, sugar-filled steamships to deposit their cargo directly at the facility.

By 1908, the company was valued at five million dollars and exported 300,000 barrels annually. Needless to say, the enterprise made the Baron extremely wealthy.

He spared no expense on his lavish home, located in Montreal’s posh Golden Square Mile, which was replete with detail and decoration in its sumptuous interior. With a taste for the extravagant, the sugar king added one of Montreal’s first indoor pools, the first electrical lighting system in a private residence and a lavish ballroom to better introduce his daughters, Mimi and Elsa, to society. To ensure their chances of finding good husbands, Baumgarten spring-loaded the hardwood floor of his ballroom in order to make dancers, his daughters included, appear lighter and more nimble on their feet.

The house also boasted high ceilings, elaborate carvings and a big fireplace. A Gothic Gallery, which spanned two stories of the house, was made to resemble a German hunting lodge. An immense, amber-coloured stained glass skylight capped the beautiful chamber. Opulent and beautiful, Baumgarten House was seen as an ideal location to entertain the city’s wealthy elite.

By the turn of the century, the Baumgarten house was a center of social activity. Indeed, it was the Governor-General’s favorite place to visit when he came to Montreal. By the 1910s, Baumgarten had established himself as one of the city’s most prominent citizens and he entertained people who held some of the most esteemed positions in the society.

However, trouble started brewing for the Baron as the First World War approached. Anti-German sentiment began to spread through the British Empire and once the war had started, hysteria reached its peak.

The St. Lawrence Sugar Refinery, where many of the main shareholders were of German origin, was accused of being ‘in the hands of the enemy’.

Every shareholder with a German-sounding name, Baumgarten included, was bought out. He was also forced to resign from all positions connected to the firm. After losing his position and much of his standing in the city, many of his former associates began shunning him personally. He began to fear that his daughters would never get married. The downtrodden Baron became very sad during the war, and despite offering his Montreal residence as a convalescent home for disabled soldiers returning from the Front, his reputation sank deeper and deeper.

He died in 1919, shortly after the war’s conclusion, some say a broken man. While his daughter Mimi never did find a husband, Elsa Baumgarten would go on to marry a man named Reginald Leslie Gault.

Following the Baron’s death, his widow continued living in the home with her two daughters until 1926, when McGill University purchased the building for a nominal sum to serve as the principal’s residence.

General Sir Arthur Currie was appointed principal and vice-chancellor of McGill University in 1920. Without the benefit of post-secondary education himself, the war hero was given the job due to his “exceptional powers of organization and administration” and his “capacity for inspiration and leadership”.

Principal Currie governed the university until his death in 1933, triggered by a stroke and then bronchial complications caused by pneumonia. Following an elaborate and well-attended military funeral, a decision was made to repurpose the residence into a club for McGill University’s faculty.

During extensive renovations, the Gothic Gallery was split into two separate floors, the lower one being the main dining room, and the upper floor the billiard room. In 1935, the McGill Faculty Club opened its doors in the old Baumgarten House.

Designed as an oasis for the university’s elite, the Faculty Club has since hosted countless receptions, meetings, dinner parties, and academic gatherings, all within the beautiful confines of the spectacular mansion.

However, professors and their servants have often felt that there is something amiss within the old Baumgarten House. People often feel uneasy inside the building, especially late at night. Over the decades, there have also been reports of all sorts of strange and paranormal activity unfolding within the Faculty Club.

One example is a piano in the basement that sometimes begins to play on its own accord.

On one occasion, a professor complained that the noise was disturbing an important meeting, so the staff tried closing the piano lid to stop it. When that didn’t work, they covered the piano with a thick blanket and wrapped chains around it. However, the piano continued playing, albeit with a more muffled sound. Then, as though the instrument was angry, it began to play more loudly with notes that were jangled and increasingly off key. The unearthly music got faster and faster and louder and louder before culminating in a loud crescendo. With one last clang, the piano finally stopped.

The McGill Faculty Club is the sort of place where things literally go bump in the night. Doors on the upper floors often slam on their own accord. The staff also reports that the elevator sometimes moves between floors, inexplicably, without any human passengers. In the billiard room, the balls are known to roll on their own, as though a game is being played by invisible spirits. Some servants are unnerved by the numerous portraits hanging on the walls, which they claim often follow them with their eyes. In 2010, Tony Austin, the Club’s longstanding maître d’hôtel, told the McGill Reporter: “I’ve never seen a ghost myself, but when you’re all alone in this house at the end of the night it can be a little creepy with all those portraits staring back at you.”

On other occasions the Faculty Club’s phone has called the Human Resources Department late at night, when no one is there. When office staff arrive at HR the next morning, they inevitably call back the Faculty Club to inquire why someone had phoned them so late at night. The servants are at a loss to explain.

One night a security guard was doing the rounds and he climbed the spiralling stairs to the second floor. He began to hear loud, banging noises on the second and third floors.

He felt a dangerous presence that seemed to be getting closer and closer to him. A wave of panic set in and he froze, paralyzed with fear. The banging noises got louder and more violent and he felt as though the presence was nearly upon him.  He snapped out it and bolted back down the stairs, before dashing out of the building into the cool night air.  He later told his colleagues that he had soiled his pants on the way down, so terrified was he by his experience.

While nobody knows exactly how many spirits are haunting the building, there is some speculation that the ghost of Baron von Baumgarten haunts the place, seeking to restore his reputation through ghostly parties in a paranormal afterlife. This could account for the ghostly billiard matches and the paranormal piano music. There is also one persistent rumour of a maid who was murdered on the 3^rd floor, in what is now the Montreal Room, a private dining chamber that can be booked by faculty members.

If the story is true, the murder would have taken place after the home was renovated, because in the original Baumgarten home the 2^nd floor was designed to look like a massive hunting lodge with a soaring ceiling. The 3^rd floor was only added after it was renovated into the Faculty Club. Whether this alleged murder is the result of overactive imaginations or was somehow covered up remains to be seen.

In 2014, Montreal Gazette journalist Mark Abley decided to research the city’s ghosts, including those at the McGill Faculty Club. He wrote an article called “Let me tell you some haunting tales about Montreal”, where he elaborated:

“Those who have cleaned and patrolled the building in recent years have been known to curse the baron’s decisions. The fireplace has long been blocked off, yet it’s said that sometimes at night you can still smell the ashes. Looking into one of the many tall mirrors, people have seen a spectral woman dancing in the ballroom. One maintenance employee — a former UFC fighter — refused to go into the ballroom after the day he heard music coming from it. The space was empty at the time. On tables in the huge billiards room, balls have been seen rolling toward a pocket for no reason.”

Abley went on to speculate:

“There have certainly been deaths in the building — even, it’s said, a murder about a century ago. (The McGill website is unaccountably silent on the topic.) And whether it be the psychic energy left behind by the deceased, or merely the nervousness felt by the living in the knowledge that a particular site has been the scene of pain or crime, ghostly experiences are most common in places that have hosted death.”

Others believe demonic felines infest the building, as evidenced by paw prints embedded in the northern brick wall of the Faculty Club. Geologists dismiss this theory however, explaining that cats in the past would often walk over hot bricks as they were drying in the sun.

On January 28, 2013, another strange event occurred, which some students blamed on faulty engineering and others on paranormal activity. A water main broke near the McTavish Reservoir above the campus, sending torrents of water gushing down McTavish Street, right past the Faculty Club. It was almost as though some unknown force wanted to cleanse the campus of its human element. One girl, while attempting to cross the McTavish Street, fell into the raging waters and was sent cascading down the hill, right past the Faculty Club. Was this episode caused by poor engineering or something more sinister?

While nobody is certain just who or what is haunting the McGill Faculty Club, only one thing is certain: those who work and play in the old Baumgarten House must share the beautiful mansion with ghosts from the building’s storied past.

COMPANY NEWS

The Haunted Montreal public season of ghost tours is now open, with Haunted Griffintown and Haunted Mountain being offered in both English and French. From August to October 7, Haunted Griffintown is being offered on Friday nights and Haunted Mountain is on Saturday nights.

There are also many extra tours that have been added on Mount Royal in French due to high demand.

For the Hallowe’en Season, running Friday October 13th to Hallowe’en and beyond, Haunted Montreal is pleased to announce, in addition to offering our regular tours, Haunted Downtown has been revised and translated and will be offered on several evenings in both English and French:

Fridays (October 13, 20, 27 & November 3): Haunted Griffintown

Saturdays (October 14, 21, 28 & November 4): Haunted Mountain

Sundays: (October 15, 22, 29 & November 5): Haunted Downtown

Monday, October 30: Haunted Downtown

Tuesday, October 31: Haunted Downtown

Our website will be updated soon with the new information.

We have also been busy helping establish a new company called Secret Montreal! The new enterprise has taken over the Haunted Red Light District Ghost Walk and also offers a brand new Montreal Burlesque Walking Tour that is being led by real burlesque queens!

From June 23 to September 4, the Haunted Red Light District Ghost Walk will be offered in English on Sunday nights, in French on Monday nights and in both languages on Friday nights. For the Hallowe’en Season, tours will be offered in both languages every night from Thursday, October 26 to Thursday, October 31.

Secret Montreal plans to develop other tours in the future that delve into the city’s fascinating past with a focus on hidden history.

For details on Secret Montreal and its walking tours, please visit the Secret Montreal website.

Lastly, a big thank you to all of our clients who attended a Haunted Montreal ghost walk! If you enjoyed the experience, we encourage you to write a review on our Tripadvisor page, something that helps Haunted Montreal to market its tours. Furthermore, 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 September 13th: Nightclub at 1234 De La Montagne Street

It is rumoured that guests at the trendy Club Le Cinq, located at 1234 De La Montagne, can “enjoy some spirits with a spirit.” Once the site of the Joseph C. Wray & Bros. Funeral Home, the building was used for decades by coroners and funeral directors until being sold and vacated in 1970 and converted into a nightclub. Today, all three floors of the club are reputed to be haunted. Women are warned never to go to the ladies washroom alone lest they encounter the terrifying ghost of lady with a jagged scar running the length of her torso, as though she had received an autopsy. Other frightening paranormal encounters over the years have solidified Club Le Cinq’s reputation as one of the most haunted buildings in downtown Montreal.

Donovan King is a 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 Abbot 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).

For the 2015 Hallowe’en Season, all of Haunted Montreal’s ghost walks can be booked for private groups and are scheduled in the public season!

Company News

Haunted Montreal is pleased to announce Haunted Griffintown, a brand new ghost walk for the 2015 Hallowe’en Season! Griffintown is one of Montreal’s most historic neighborhoods – and one of its most haunted. The area has witnessed everything from dying Irish refugees during the Famine of 1847 to the Industrial Revolution to Montreal’s worst air disaster. Today, condominium towers are sprouting up in the Griff, but new residents are learning that the area was once a rowdy shantytown – and it’s also ghost-ridden!

The Haunted Griffintown Ghost Walk visits mysterious ruins, abandoned tunnels, a polluted canal, former burial grounds and creepy old buildings that are said to be haunted. A vacant, decrepit brewery hosts psychics in search of a murdered girl, a condominium reminds locals of its past as a chocolate factory, and the ghostly ruins of St. Ann’s Church sometimes produce paranormal activity.Guests will learn about Black ’47, when the area witnessed one of Canada’s worst tragedies, as tens of thousands of typhus-stricken Irish immigrants disembarked from “coffin ships” after crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Despite heroic efforts by nuns and Mayor John Mills to care for the sick in fever sheds, the disease killed over six thousand people, including the Mayor himself. Most of the dead were buried in nearby mass graves, only to be disturbed again and again by industrial activity.

There is also the tragic mystery of the Peel Basin, the site of many drownings over the years, including one recent case that may be connected to a will-o’-the-wisp – or a serial killer. Conspiracy theories also surround Montreal’s worst air disaster, when a Liberator Bomber slammed into the neighborhood, killing 15 people during WW II.Finally, the Griff is the setting for the tale of Mary Gallagher, the headless prostitute. Montreal’s most infamous ghost story, she was murdered and decapitated by her best friend Susie Kennedy in 1879. The headless ghost of Mary Gallagher is said to return to the Griff every seven years, still searching for her head!

For the 2015 Hallowe’en Season, Haunted Montreal is pleased to offer Haunted Griffintown on the following dates:

Friday, October 16 at 8 PM

Saturday, October 17 at 8PM

Friday, October 23 at 8 PM

Saturday, October 24 at 8PM

Friday, October 30 at 8 PM

Saturday, October 31 at 8 PM

The Ghost Walk begins at 8 pm at the Griffintown Café (1378 rue Notre Dame Ouest, a few blocks south of Lucien L’Allier Metro). Guests should arrive at least 10 minutes before the tour starts to check in. For those wishing to dine or have drinks and tapas before the ghost walk, Haunted Montreal recommends making reservations at the Griffintown Café, an artistic bistro-pub with an exceptional menu. Click here for more information and to book tickets.

For the 2015 Hallowe’en Season, Haunted Montreal is also offering final visits for both Haunted Downtown (Sunday, October 18 at 8 PM) and Haunted Mountain (Sunday, October 25 at 8 PM).

We invite our clients who attended a ghost walk to write a review on our Tripadvisor page, something that helps Haunted Montreal promote its tours.

Haunted Research

In addition to the extensive research being carried out into Griffintown, Haunted Montreal has also been studying the mysterious spirit who haunts McGill University’s imposing McLennan Library.

The words “In the quiet still air of delightful studies” are inscribed in the wall beside an outdoor staircase at the McLennan Library. However, according to rumours, the still air on the 6th floor is sometimes compromised by a spirit who is also known to disrupt the quietude and delightful studies that McGill is renowned for – by startling and terrifying unsuspecting students!

Allegedly the 6th floor of the McLennan Library is haunted by the ghostly apparition of an elderly man who wears a strange old coat. He is known to float quietly above the floor, sometimes towards students who are deep in a book or librarians stacking the shelves. Once he selects his target, the apparition is known to glide up behind a person, then lurk, almost perfectly still. He stares intently at his victim until he is noticed. When the startled person reacts, usually by screaming and jumping up from their chair, this ghost is known to vanish into thin air, leaving the victim embarrassed for having disturbed the quietude that makes the McLennan Library famous.

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 housing the library dates to 1969, but it was built on the grounds where an elegant 19th-century mansion once stood. The beautiful home was named “Dilcoosha”, a Hindustani word often given by Indian princes and nobles to their garden palaces, meaning “The Heart’s Delight”. This exquisite home was originally the residence of Jesse Joseph, a prominent Montreal financier.

Dilcoosha was one of many elaborate mansions in Montreal’s Golden Square Mile. Designed in an exotic style known as Egyptian Renaissance, Dilcoosha featured high ceilings, a lavish interior, opulent furnishings, a curved central stairway and a charming circular upper hall with alcoves for statuary. Outside, a handsome garden burst with fragrant blooms. Jesse Joseph loved gardening and meticulously planned the grounds of Dilcoohsa to ensure a profusion of colourful flowers from spring to autumn.

In life, Jesse Joseph was an energetic, life-long bachelor who enjoyed living in the aristocratic tradition, which included hosting and entertaining the city’s elite with lavish and elaborate parties in his resplendent mansion.

In the summer, outsiders paused to admire Dilcoosha’s gardens and even in the winter people gathered there. The Snowshowing Club assembled there, at the foot of McTavish Street. After lighting up fiery torches, they would ascended Mount Royal in a column. Clambering away on their snowshoes, they would often holler at the tomb of fur baron Simon McTavish on the way up to the summit, allegedly to “rouse his spirit”. On these dark and frosty nights, from the city below it appeared as though a fiery snake was slinking its way up the mountain through the barren forest.

As the owner of Dilcoosha, Jesse Joseph enjoyed the attention he received. As a Jewish businessman with many interests, he served as president of both the Montreal Gas Company and the City Passenger Railway. He also operated the Theatre Royale, the Montreal’s finest theatre, promoted trade between Canada and Belgium (earning him the title of “Belgian consul in Montreal”), held vast real-estate holdings in the city and was a member of the executive for the SPCA. Ever the proud gardener, Jesse Joseph also spent countless hours in the winter planning his meticulous garden, which was said to be one of the most beautiful in the Golden Square Mile. Overall, Jesse Joseph enjoyed his reputation as a man of extremely refined taste. He died in 1904 at the age of 86.

Business interests purchased Dilcoosha with the hope of demolishing it to erect a luxurious Ritz-Carleton hotel on the site. However, a McGill benefactor named Sir William MacDonald objected, suggesting that Dicoosha should be incorporated into the campus instead. With his powerful business connections, in 1909 MacDonald was able to shelve plans for the hotel and buy the property, which he promptly gifted to McGill University.

During World War I, Dilcoosha served as a headquarters for the McGill chapter of the COTC, or Canadian Officer Training Corps. McGill University was active in recruiting and training soldiers from among its student body. Officers in training used the long upstairs hall at Dilcoosha as a target practice range, something Jesse Joseph would not have approved of.

After the War, in 1919, Dilcoosha was transformed into the first McCord Museum. McGill inherited the extensive collections of David McCord, an eccentric municipal lawyer who had spent much of his life collecting rare objects associated with Canadian history. Dilcoosha, despite being bullet-ridden, was seen as an ideal place to house and display McGill University’s new Canadian artifact collection.

In 1955, university officials detected structural problems in one of the walls at Dilcoosha. By now the lavish home was starting to appear faded and worn, so a decision was made to demolish it. The McCord artifacts were relocated to the Hodgeson House on Drummond and Dr. Penfield Streets, and Dilcoosha was unceremoniously torn down. The once beautiful garden and exotic mansion were replaced with a weed-choked, vacant lot. There was some speculation at the time that, due to Dilcoosha’s demolition, Jesse Joseph was rolling over in his grave.

After sitting empty for 12 years, the lot on the north-east corner of Sherbrooke and McTavish Streets was finally re-developed. Between 1967 and 1969, the McLennan Library, was constructed in the Brutalist style. It was named in honour of Isabella McLennan, a benefactor who had given McGill University a small fortune to purchase books. The firm Dobush, Stewart, and Bourke built the towering, seven-storey structure using reinforced concrete. The chosen style was Brutalist.

Brutalism is a movement in architecture that flourished from the 1950s to the mid-1970s. Part of the modernist movement, Brutalist buildings were usually designed using banal, angular shapes and constructed with reinforced concrete. The focus was on utility and not style.

In many ways, the Brutalist architecture of McLennan Library is the exact opposite of Dilcoosha’s Egyptian Renaissance style. While Dilcoosha succeeded in being exotic, magnificent and exceptional, much like its owner Jesse Joseph, the McLennan Library is probably best described as soulless, banal and non-descript.

While there is no evidence identifying the ghost haunting the 6th floor, there is strong speculation that the floating spirit is none other than Jesse Joseph himself. The most common description about this ghost is his “strange, old coat”, and old photographs of Jesse Joseph depict him wearing just that.

Many ghost stories involve people who, having died, return as spirits to sites of special significance. Did the ghost of Jesse Joseph remain at Dilcoosha after his death in 1904? The idea is perhaps not so far-fetched, especially given his love for his exotic mansion, beautiful garden, and his reputation as a man of the very best epicurean taste.

If so, Jesse Joseph’s spirit would have witnessed his once-magnificent home fade into disuse before being hawked on the market, used for target practice by rambunctious students, and being jammed full of Canadian artifacts before its unceremonious demolition. The unique and beautiful Dilcoosha, once his pride and joy, was no more. Instead, the ugly, concrete, Brutalist McLennan Library went up on the site.

While it is perfectly feasible that the specter haunting stacks of the library may indeed be Jesse Joseph, there is no explanation as to why he only haunts the 6th floor. One thing is certain – as a spirit known to float through the air, he would certainly have no difficulty getting all the way to the top of the McLennan Library.

Coming up on November 13: Haunted Wellington Tunnel. Hidden away in Griffintown, just off Wellington Street near the Lachine Canal bridge, lies a series of decrepit, abandoned tunnels. Covered in graffiti and protected by prison-like iron bars, the creepy Wellington Tunnel and surrounding area is rumoured to be haunted by the phantom of a boy wearing a suit. Constructed during the Great Depression in 1931, the various tunnels served cars, pedestrians and tramways, allowing ships on the canal to move more quickly. Previously, a swing bridge was located on the site. The tunnel developed a reputation as a filthy, fume-clogged, and dangerous place and was abandoned in 1995. Who is the young, well-dressed phantom haunting the vicinity?

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 

Perched at the very top of McTavish Street is Duggan House, a creepy, Gothic mansion. Nestled into Mount Royal, the shadowy estate is currently owned by McGill University. It is one of the oldest buildings on campus. Built in 1861, using grey, hand-cut limestone that was recycled from Simon McTavish’s haunted castle, Duggan House brings a whole new meaning to the expression “school spirit”.

The building is currently used by the Department of Education. At some point during the 1990s, a female Graduate student had a terrifying encounter in Duggan House. She was scheduled to have an important academic meeting her professor in the large foyer of the building. When she entered, she found him in a plush chair, awaiting her. The student sat down opposite him, put her purse on the ground to the right of her, and flipped open her notebook. She was in the process of explaining some new avenues of research, when suddenly she froze and stopped speaking. Her mouth agape, she stared at the shadowy, spiral staircase to the left behind the professor. The student appeared to be in a state of panic and started pointing at the staircase and screaming.

She witnessed the ghostly specter of a woman, clad in a 19th Century petticoat, who materialized on top the spiral staircase and then begin descending into the foyer. The girl was now shrieking hysterically, causing the professor to panic. He immediately spun his chair around to see the imminent danger that was terrorizing his student. There was nothing there.

All of a sudden, they both heard a rattling noise at the window, as though someone had thrown something at the Venetian blinds. The blinds shifted about violently, causing both student and professor to jump up from their chairs. At that moment the student realized that her purse was missing; she began to hyperventilate. As the blinds slowly stopped swinging, the noises stopped. As the professor tried to calm down his distraught student, he looked up towards the window. Her purse was dangling in the Venetian blinds, all tangled up in knots. Other strange phenomena also occur in the Duggan House, such as the sounds mysterious footsteps or the fact that objects are often displaced or go missing.

While nobody is certain exactly who or what is haunting Duggan House, there is a lot of speculation. Some journalists have suggested that perhaps the building is haunted by the infamous ghost of Simon McTavish. Others believe that a worker, who fell three stories to his death while demolishing the castle in 1861, haunts the site. Duggan House was also built from the recycled stones of McTavish’s haunted castle, on the same cursed land, lending credence to a theory that Duggan House is haunted because of its location and building materials.

Built originally for Orrin S. Wood of the Montreal Telegraphy Company, Duggan House was based on blueprints drafted by architect Andrew B. Taft. The Gothic mansion was originally named Braehead, and it passed through the hands of many prominent families. Orrin S. Wood, Charles D. Proctor, Matthew Hamilton Gault, and George Herrick Duggan all raised families in the house. It was also used as a home for convalescing soldiers from 1911 to 1929. In 1944, George Herrick Duggan gifted the property to McGill University on condition that he could stay until his death, which occurred inside the mansion in 1946.

Another theory relates to a mysterious tunnel connecting Duggan House and Purvis Hall to the West. During the 1940s, McGill’s Faculty of Commerce was using both buildings for classes and wanted to ensure ease of movement so they constructed the tunnel in 1946. The problem is that Purvis Hall is also rumoured to be haunted, in this case by aviator Arthur B. Purvis, who died tragically in a plane crash in 1941. Some students whisper about ghosts using the tunnel, traversing between the mysterious estates, for reasons unknown.

Indeed, apparently the Faculty of Commerce moved out in 1977 partly because the business students were unhappy with the haunted facilities. Duggan House was passed to the Faculty of Education, who have occupied the creepy mansion ever since.

While many of the theories suggest the place is haunted by the ghost of a man, none of them explain why a ghostly woman might appear on the spiral staircase.

Perhaps a more feasible explanation might be centered around Elizabeth Joanna Bourne, the wife of politician Matthew Hamilton Gault. She raised 16 children in the home, starting in 1868. Mothering so many children during the era was a very difficult task, even with the help of servants. Five of the Gault children died in infancy, no doubt traumatizing their mother. The first four were all male and they all perished as infants. However, the last child to die was a little 8 year old girl named Beatrice Frederika Baldwin Gault. When Beatrice died in 1880, her mother, Elizabeth, was said to have become unhinged, unable to deal with the tragedy. Could the ghost who appears on the stairs be the spectre of Elizabeth Joanna Bourne, who died in 1908, still tending to her lost children in a paranormal afterlife?

Nowadays, it is not future business leaders being terrified by ghosts, but rather aspiring teachers. McGill Education students are usually known for their enthusiasm, however those studying in Duggan House quickly learn an opposite meaning for the term “school spirit” – one that doesn’t bring about a sense of warmth and solidarity, but rather feelings of fear and panic.

Company News 

Firstly, Haunted Montreal is very pleased to announce that we now have a Tripadvisor page! As a company that strives for excellence, we welcome positive feedback from our clients and invite them to write a review of one of our ghost tours!

Secondly, Haunted Montreal’s public season is in full swing offers and ghost tours are available to private groups!

Private tours can be arranged for groups of 15 or more people and are subject to availability. For more information, please contact us at info@hauntedmontreal.com.

The public season is listed here:

Haunted Mountain Saturday, June 20 at 8 pm (Montreal Infringement Festival)

Haunted Downtown Friday, June 26 at 8 pm

Haunted Mountain Friday, July 3 at 8 pm

Haunted Downtown Saturday, July 11 at 8 pm

Haunted Mountain Friday, July 17 at 8 pm

Haunted Downtown Friday, July 24 at 8 pm

Haunted Mountain Friday, August 7 at 8 pm

Haunted Downtown Saturday, August 15 at 8 pm

Haunted Mountain Friday, August 21 at 8 pm

Haunted Downtown Saturday, August 29 at 8 pm

We may add more tour dates in case of high demand.

Please note that the Haunted Mountain ghost tour on Saturday, June 20 is included as part of the 12th annual Montreal Infringement Festival. This festival celebrates a do-it-yourself culture in the arts and opposes corporate manipulation. The festival was created after the trademarking of the word “Fringe” by business interests and subsequently re-naming the once grassroots festival after corporate sponsors. The bilingual festival features dozens of artists. Details here: www.infringemontreal.com

Haunted Montreal supports authenticity in the arts and rejects corporate models that exploit artists and audiences. As such, Haunted Montreal is proud to be a part of the Infringement Festival and we encourage our readers to check out some of the other performances during the fest, running June 17 – 21 in Montreal!

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 July 13th: Hauntings in the Point Saint Charles Legion. This inconspicuous branch of the Canadian Royal Legion, located at 543 rue Sainte-Madeleine, is known by employees and locals to be haunted. Groups such as “Ghosts and Stories of Point St Charles” (Facebook) discuss the hauntings feverishly and Legion employees, such as the bartender, sometimes regale visitors with tales of their paranormal experiences.

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).