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 a new tour as part of our upcoming Hidden Histories series!

The Colonial Secrets of Old Montreal Walking Tour is in its final testing phase and free tickets are available this upcoming Friday and Saturday at 1 pm! The test phase is in English and tours in French will follow soon.

After testing is finished, this tour and others such as the Irish Famine in Montreal Walking Tour will be offered on various afternoons for only $20! Stay tuned to this website or our Facebook page for upcoming tours!

These tours will all be under the umbrella of Hidden Montreal, our soon-to-be-born sister company.

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. Tours in French 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 8 people.

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

This month we examine Place Royale, one of the most deranged and haunted public squares in Old Montreal and its ghosts.

Haunted Research

Place Royale is an unassuming and overlooked historic square in Old Montreal that hides many dark, colonial secrets. Known as the Place du Marché during the French regime, the marketplace was essentially the town square for well over a century. Hosting markets on Tuesdays and Fridays, it was also known as a site of horrific public torture, punishment and execution.

While today the site looks banal and excludes its own history in public commemoration, Place Royale is considered one of the most haunted sites in Old Montreal.

The most common ghost sighting on the square is that of a miserable drummer boy who appears to be tearing up or crying. A look at the history of the Place Royale may help reveal the identity of this forlorn apparition.

For thousands of years before the French began colonizing the island in 1642, the site where Place Royale exists today was a well-frequented area because it was at the mouth of a creek. With the canoe as the main form of transportation, creeks provided access to the inner parts of the island and could be used to avoid dangerous rapids in the river.

Before colonial expansion, the island had a vast network of inland streams, marshes and lakes.

These waterways were used by various First Nations as internal transportation routes. Coupled with portages and other trails, it was possible to move efficiently around the island.

The mouths of these waterways were also popular areas to encamp, conduct trade, and meet others. These creeks were all very well-known landmarks.

When French explorer Jacques Cartier claimed all indigenous territories in 1534 by planting a cross into the ground in modern-day Gaspé, the King considered all the lands to be his. French authorities began making plans to colonize what they considered to be “New France”.

Interest in the modern-day Place Royale began in 1611, when French colonist Samuel de Champlain visited Montreal Island to create a colonization plan. He selected the site because it was located before the impassible rapids to the west and had a good harbour. It also featured a large meadow which could be strategically fortified in a triangular section which was contained within natural defenses of the river, creek and marshlands.

Champlain named the spot the Place Royale and settled there from May 28 to June 13, 1611. He ordered some trees be cut down and planted two gardens. He was was pleased when the seeds thrived in the fertile soil. He also had an earthen wall built, intending to see how it would last through the winter. He saw the area as an ideal place for a trading post and future French colony.

The French would not return to the meadow until May 17, 1642, when three colonial ships arrived under the command of Paul de Chomedey, the Sieur de Maisonneuve. Sponsored by “The Notre-Dame Society of Montreal for the Conversion of the Savage Peoples of New France”, de Maisonneuve chose the site for his Ville-Marie colony. His mission was to build a fort and a hospital. Allegedly, God had demanded this to the brainchild of the operation, Jérôme le Royer de la Dauversière. 

After claiming the island as their own and holding a Catholic Mass, the colonists began constructing Fort Ville-Marie on the site of today’s Pointe-à-Callière Archaeology Museum. Across the creek, which the colonists named the St. Pierre River, the Hotel-Dieu Hospital would be constructed.

Today’s Place Royale was initially part of the Ville-Marie commune, a strip of land granted to residents for grazing animals.

In 1676, a marketplace was established on the eastern bank of the creek. The French called it the Place d’Armes and began using it for military drills and hosting public markets every Tuesday and Friday from dawn to 11 a.m.

Here colonists could buy and sell foodstuffs and wares of various types.

There were also occasional slave auctions on the site, where French colonists could sell or purchase Black and Indigenous peoples forced into slavery.

Additionally, the marketplace was a centre of communications between colonial authorities and settlers. A royal drummer would draw a crowd by hammering on their drum before making important public announcements and sharing official news. Those in attendance could then spread the information to other colonists.

News might include royal edicts and religious proclamations, colonial developments, information about warfare and the schedule for public humiliation, torture and executions.

In “New France”, crime was seen as a dangerous threat to the existence of the colonial project. Public punishment and live executions were used as a deterrence to warn others to obey the law. Under the French Regime, there were four major types of crime:

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

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

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

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

Anyone accused of any of these crimes was arrested and brought to the jail before a man known as Le Bourreau, the torturer. His job was to obtain confessions.

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

Armed with four thick wedges, he would insert the first between the boards. If the prisoner refused to confess to the alleged crime, he would hammer it in!

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

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

Once a confession was obtained, a punishment was established by the judge. This could include everything from fines, public flogging and branding with a red-hot fleur-de-lis symbol to banishment, being sent to row the King’s galleys and public execution.

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

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

The criminal was then placed back onto the garbage cart and was wheeled away to face punishment. For those being executed, they were taken to the scene of the crime, or by default, the Place d’Armes (later renamed the Place du Marché).

It was there that criminals were either hanged by the neck until dead, burnt alive at the stake or broken alive on a torture wheel. A torture wheel is a horizontal wheel with a pole going into a scaffold in the ground.

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

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

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

On June 19, 1721, during a military drill on the Place d’Armes, soldiers fired a volley into the air to celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi. A misfired bullet hit the Hotel-Dieu Hospital and triggered a devastating fire. The inferno destroyed half of Ville-Marie. The Place d’Armes, hospital and 171 homes were all reduced to ashes.

Shortly thereafter, an ordinance was issued that all new houses were to be built exclusively with stone instead of wood.

The military drills were also relocated to the square north of the parish church, which was baptized the new Place d’Armes. The original square established in 1676 was rebuilt and given the name Place du Marché.

In 1701, the square was instrumental as a major gathering of dozens of First Nations who came to negotiate a peace treaty with the French colonists. Known as The Great Peace of Montreal, the treaty ended hostilities and opened up the market to large-scale fur trading.

In 1760, the city capitulated to the British after being surrounded by thousands of redcoats under the command of General Jeffery Amherst, effectively putting and end to the “New France” colonial project.

In 1786, the British justices of the peace decided that the market would be laid out as a double row of 38 stalls in a U-shape. That same year, the Place du Marché became the first area to be paved after Montreal residents raised funds through a public subscription.

As the British expanded the city and port, it soon became evident that the market square was too small for the increase in commerce.

In 1808, the New Market (Place Jacques-Cartier) was established further to the east. The “Old Market” (Place du Vieux Marché) was reorganized and reduced to a single row of 14 stalls.

In 1836, the government of Lower Canada expropriated the old market square and built the Customs House in the center. The southern part of the square was redesigned with trees, wrought iron fences, and a fountain. The British renamed it “Customs Square” (square de la Douane).

While no longer a marketplace, the square was still busy with merchants paying various tariffs and fees to the British government’s customs officers.

In 1892, the square was renamed yet again for the 250th anniversary of the founding of Montreal. “Customs Square” was rebranded as “Place Royale” (even though the original Place Royale was located across the street where the Archaeology Museum now exists).

In 1940, municipal authorities removed the fountain and moved a tall granite obelisk to Place Royale which commemorates the first French colonists to settle Ville-Marie. Known as The Pioneer’s Obelisk, it was originally unveiled on the Place d’Youville in 1893 after being commissioned for the 250^th anniversary the year earlier.

The obelisk was returned to its original location in 1982 to facilitate a major archaeological dig under the Place Royale and surrounding areas.

The purpose of the dig, which ended in 1991, was to preserve archaeological remains from the original colony and to highlight them underneath Montreal’s new Pointe-à-Callière Archaeology Museum.

As part of the construction of the museum, Place Royale was rebuilt as an “archaeological crypt”. The ground-level of the square was raised by several feet and encased in granite with a series of steps leading to the platform.

This was done to allow tourists below to navigate the ruins below. Small models of the original Place du Marché over the years were installed within the crypt for visitors to enjoy.

The Pointe-à-Callière Archaeology Museum opened in 1992 for the 350^th anniversary of the city, with Place Royale and its crypt included in its complex.

Since then, there has been a lot of criticism about the banal look and feel of the redeveloped Place Royale. For example, in 2010 Jessa Alston-O’Connor wrote “What Lies Beneath: Erasure and Oppression at Place Royale, Montreal”. The author states:

“The museum presents this square as a site of collective history and pride. However, research into the site reveals accounts of torture, public executions, and a history of slavery in Montreal and New France all relating to Place Royale. These events occurred at the square during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries but have been erased from the visual and historical narratives of this site.”

O’Connor goes on to argue that the museum “has rendered controversial histories largely invisible,” thus creating a whitewashed narrative for the “tourist gaze.”

Discussed in John Urry’s 1990 book The Tourist Gaze, the idea is that those who design touristic spaces can choose which narratives to focus on and which ones to erase.

This concept applies to the architecture, commemorations, museum displays and performative elements.

For example, the museum hosts the “Pointe-à-Callière’s 18th Century Public Market” every August. Their website claims:

“The Museum brings back to life Montréal’s very first marketplace under the French Regime. One of Pointe-à-Callière’s main events, put on every year in August in the area around the Museum, the Public Market is a magnificent historical re-enactment. There are stalls, musicians, artisans and historical figures reproducing period scenes with stunning authenticity: There’s no doubt you’ll feel like you’ve been instantly transported back to the days of our ancestors.”

However, tourists visiting the 18^th Century market re-creation will never see any signs of slavery, torture, execution or other erased history. Instead, they will be treated to colonial military drills, merchants dressed in period costume and other similar re-enactments. In short, all colonial horrors have been rendered invisible on the Place Royale.

When a contested space has been so compromised by the “tourist gaze”, often the only way people can learn the truth of a site is through its ghost stories. As a place of colonial atrocities, Place Royale has been associated with dozens of ghost stories over the centuries. Many of these tales are related to the execution of innocents, deranged soldiers and tortured slaves. 

For example, an episode of Creepy Canada mentions the ghosts of a man named Vallière who was wrongfully imprisoned and tortured. He committed suicide with the chains that bound him to the prison wall.

His spirit has been seen wandering St. Paul Street and the Place Royale on many occasions.

The most common sighting is the spirit of a desolate drummer boy dressed in a French colonial unform. The encounter usually begins with the sound of a rolling drum, which is usually out of rhythm.

Then, the ghost of the drummer boy materializes. He appears to be very upset and has been described as teary-eyed and sometimes weeping. He usually stops playing his drum before falling to his knees in despair. When approached, he always vanishes into thin air.

He is not to be mistaken for the actors dressed in make up and spooky costumes who carry out ghost tours on the site most evenings in the warmer seasons.

While most people have no idea who this ghostly apparition might be, Haunted Montreal has done some deep research and found a probable answer.

Just six years into the colony’s existence, in 1648 Ville-Marie’s military drummer and public announcer was arrested after being accused of “crimes of the worst kind,” namely a homosexual relationship.

This was first recorded mention of homosexuality among Europeans.

According to the Journal of the Jesuit Fathers of September 1648:

“About this time, there was brought from Montreal a drummer, Convictus crimine pessimo (convicted of a crime of the worst kind), whose death our Fathers who were at Montreal opposed, sed occute; he was then sent hither and put in the prison. It was proposed to him, so that he might at least escape the galleys, to accept the office of executioner of Justice; he accepted it, but his trial was first disposed of, and then his sentence was commuted.”

In other words, Jesuit authorities reduced his sentence from execution to being enslaved to rowing on the King’s galleys. He was then offered the role of public executioner to avoid enslavement, which he accepted, probably reluctantly.

While historians debate about the name of the unfortunate drummer boy and his male lover, details are sketchy. The lover may have escaped because he was never arrested. While some historians say the drummer boy’s name has been lost to history, others such as Pierre Hurteau and Patrice Corriveau called him “René Huguet dit Tambour.”  

While little is known about him, historians do know that his first execution was of a girl of 15 or 16 who was convicted of theft.

After that, the paper trail runs cold.

It is also known that in 1653, the colony was looking for a new executioner. The fate of the drummer boy is unknown, although there is speculation he may have committed suicide or escaped the colony.

The psychological torture endured by the drummer boy may have very well resulted in his suicide. Due to his forbidden sexuality, he was transformed from a well-respected military drummer and public announcer into a torturer and executioner, the most despised position in the colony.

After having to torture and execute a teenaged girl for an alleged theft, he may have suffered from suicidal thoughts.

Whether he escaped the colony or died by suicide, only one thing is known: his miserable ghost returns to haunt the Place Royale. His ghostly appearance sheds a glimmer of the horrific colonial history that unfolded in an otherwise whitewashed public square.

Company News

We are pleased to announce a new tour as part of our upcoming Hidden Histories series!  The Colonial Secrets of Old Montreal Walking Tour is in its final testing phase and free tickets are available this upcoming Friday and Saturday at 1 pm!

After testing is finished, this tour and others such as the Irish Famine in Montreal Walking Tour will be offered on various afternoons for only $20! Stay tuned to this website or our Facebook page for upcoming tours!

These tours will all be under the umbrella of Hidden Montreal, our soon-to-be-born sister company.

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.

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).

Lastly, we have decided to close our online shop due to low sales and high maintenance costs. It will only be open from October to December in the near future.

Haunted Montreal also 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.

Until publication in 2026, 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 September 13: Update on Montreal’s Mysterious River Monsters

In May, 2020, Haunted Montreal published a blog about Montreal’s Mysterious River Monsters. Since then, the waters surrounding the city have witnessed more bizarre sightings and situations involving unknown and dangerous marine creatures. The most notable case occurred in June 2024, when an eight-year-old boy was attacked by something predatory in the enclosed waters of Jean Doré Beach. He sustained several deep gashes in his leg that required stitches. While some scientists think the predator was a muskie (a large fish with sharp teeth), others believe it was it was a river monster who had somehow entered the waters of the enclosed beach in search of its next meal.

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!

As we enter into spring, Haunted Montreal is preparing for a whole new season of ghost tours and haunted experiences!

Our first outdoor tour is the special Irish Famine in Montreal Walk on Saturday, March 16 at 1 pm (in English)! Offered only twice per year, this tour delves into the history and ghosts of the Irish Famine in Montreal!

On this walk, we will also experiment with augmented reality to resurrect desecrated haunted sites, including St. Ann’s Church and the Black Rock Famine cemetery!

We also offer our Haunted Pub Crawl every Sunday at 3 pm in English. Tours in French happen on the last Sunday of every month at 4 pm.

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

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

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

This month we examine the Auberge Saint-Gabriel, a favorite haunt in Old Montreal that is also reputed to reek of the paranormal. While rumours swirl that a little girl and her grandfather died in a controversial fire, Haunted Montreal delves into the real history behind this legend.

Haunted Research

The Auberge Saint-Gabriel is a quaint stone building in the heart of Old Montreal. Reeking of old world charm, it is a popular attraction for tourists and locals alike.

The building was constructed in 1688 by retired French soldier Étienne Truteau as his residence. The following century, Richard Dulong opened the Auberge Saint-Gabriel on the site and it would go on to become the city’s most legendary inn.

Today, the building hosts a fancy restaurant, several dining rooms and even a speakeasy. However, the auberge is also reported to be haunted. From ghostly piano music to the spirit of a little girl who allegedly burned alive during a fire, the Auberge Saint-Gabriel is said to be a hotbed of paranormal activity. The ghostly girl, wearing a Royal Blue dress, has allegedly been spotted and heard laughing on many occasions.

Another claim to fame, according to its website, is that the Auberge Saint-Gabriel was the first inn that opened in North America. The website justifies this because the auberge received “the first liquor license in the country, on March 4, 1754.”

This statement is widely-circulated online and even the Bonjour Québec tourism website boasts: “The oldest inn in North America and the first to be granted a liquor licence under British rule, the Auberge Saint-Gabriel in Old Montréal offers fine dining wrapped in elegance, charm and 300 years of history.”

Such historical claims are undoubtedly good for business.

However, given that European colonization of Turtle Island (today’s North America) mostly began in the 1500s, one might question if no inns existed before 1754.

Historical research reveals that there were indeed inns all over the place dating back to the early days of colonization. For example, on September 19, 1648, the Council of New France granted Jacques Boisdon permission to operate an inn at the address 20, Côte de la Fabrique in Quebec City. Today, a historical plaque marks the site, labelling Boisdon as “Quebec’s first inn-keeper, 1648.”

Furthermore, there were many other inns elsewhere across the continent. For example, in Massachusetts, Concord’s Colonial Inn opened in 1716.

Another important point is the fact that the British did not rule Montreal until it capitulated in 1760, thus could not have granted a liquor license in 1754.

If the Auberge Saint-Gabriel’s publicity about being the oldest inn in North America is false, it is possible that the various claims that a little girl haunts it are equally baseless.

There can be no denying that the Auberge Saint-Gabriel has a very haunted reputation. It has been covered by dozens of media reports and websites, most of which claim that the ghost of a little girl haunts the establishment.

In an article for Exemplore titled “13 Most Haunted Restaurants in the World”, author Cristina Vanthulupdated exclaimed that Auberge Saint-Gabriel comes in as number seven on the list. She wrote: “Auberge Saint-Gabriel has had many ghost stories circulate within its walls. The enduring legend says that a child was burned in a fire, and she still roams the restaurant. She can be heard playing the piano from time to time.”

In 2017, Global News covered the haunting. Reporter Matt Grillo statied: “Some insiders tell us there is a ghost of a little girl that was basically burned out in a fire and she can be heard playing piano from time to time.”

Canadian Rail Vacations also recommends dining at the Auberge Saint-Gabriel as part of a spooky train trip across Canada that visits some of the country’s most haunted locations. This scary train vacation also invites clients to partake in the best Canadian ghostly experiences (including our Haunted Pub Crawl!)

Concerning the Auberge Saint-Gabriel, author Brianne Byiers states: “A little girl, who is said to have died in a fire in the nineteenth century, is the most famous of its ghosts, and has been seen on the top floor.”

However, the most detailed version of the tale comes from student journalist Alex Hutchins. He wrote an article called “A glimpse of our haunted history” for The Concordian on October 30, 2018 where he identified influential fur trader Joseph Frobisher as being responsible for the fire.

Hutchins wrote:

“The most notable tale is that of Joseph Frobisher, an affluent fur-trading businessman, who acquired the establishment in 1809. Frobisher needed his business to survive the winter until, come springtime, European tourists would come and buy his fur. Frobisher nefariously ordered the neighbourhood arsonist to burn down his competitor’s establishment, and while he specified that the arsonist should be sure no one was in the building, 12 workers burned to death.”

Hutchins continued:

“The arsonist begged Frobisher for money to flee town, and though he agreed, when Frobisher reached into his drawer to retrieve money, he instead took out a knife and stabbed the arsonist to death. During their altercation, the arsonist’s satchel carrying explosives fell into the fire, and soon the entire establishment went up in flames.”

He added:

“Standing on the streets, Frobisher wept in horror as his establishment was engulfed in flames, however it was not for fear of losing his business. His six-year-old daughter was still trapped on the second floor, in the middle of a piano lesson with her grandfather. A small shred of hope emerged when Frobisher saw his father trying to hoist his daughter up to a window to get her out of the house. However, when the window was opened, the oxygen intake fueled the fire and Frobisher watched his daughter and father be incinerated alive. A year later, Frobisher died from nostalgia, a term then used to describe cases where people speculatively died from either grief, fear or suicide.”

Finally, Hutchins concluded:

“On top of the countless inexplicable fires that have since occurred at the Auberge St-Gabriel, present-day staff have reported hearing a piano being played and the occasional laughter of a child.”

Given the murky backgrounds of various legends and ghost stories, it is often worth investigating them thoroughly. Were the authors of these tales taking poetic license – or was the haunted story based on fact?

In the case of the Auberge St-Gabriel, a deep dive into its history is required. Were there actually any fires? Which years did Joseph Frobisher live on the site? Is there any historical evidence that he was responsible for arson?

Firstly, Joseph Frobisher acquired the property in 1777. Their home represented only part of a real estate complex, including offices, stores and warehouses for the fur trade.

In 1779, when he was 38 years old, Frobisher married a sixteen-year-old girl named Charlotte Jobert. She was the daughter of a prominent surgeon who consented to the marriage. Twelve children were born from this union, but only three survived into adulthood.

Given, according to Hutchins, “Frobisher died from nostalgia” a year after his daughter’s fiery death, the fire should have happened in 1809. It is worth noting that Joseph Frobisher died in 1810 – of natural causes.

Records show that the only fire on the site occurred in 1768, when a man named Sabrevois de Bleury was living there. This suggests that the lifespan of the 1754 inn was very short.

After the blaze, he hired mason Jean-Baptiste Coquillard to do repairs and install a firewall between two of the buildings.

If the only fire in the building occurred in 1768, it was eleven years before Frobisher even moved in. Indeed, he hadn’t have gotten married or had children at this point. These facts suggest that the tale is likely bogus.

Furthermore, Joseph Frobisher was among the city’s top elite.

Had he have been an arsonist, why wasn’t he convicted? Why are there no historical records of these claims? Where does this story originate from?

Joseph Frobisher was born in England at Halifax, Yorkshire in 1748. He arrived in Montreal around 1763 with his brother Benjamin. They began working in the fur trade and associating with other wealthy merchants such as James McGill and Simon McTavish.

Like their peers, the Frobisher brothers married into prominent French-speaking families to solidify their grip on the fur trade. Before British colonization, this lucrative business was run with great profit during the “New France” colonial period.

In 1775, the Frobisher brothers participated in the founding of the North West Company, a rival to the Hudson Bay Company in the lucrative fur trade. Members of this elite company tended to become wealthy through their various business transactions.

In 1785, Joseph Frobisher purchased several plots of land in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine where he built his luxurious country residence “Beaver Hall”.

That year, the Frobisher brothers, James McGill and sixteen other founders of the North West Company established the Beaver Club. Membership requirements included having spent at least one winter working in the fur trade outside of Montreal. The club would meet occasionally to hold wild and raucous parties at Beaver Hall and other locations throughout the city. At these gatherings, the men sang voyageur songs, reenacted dangerous canoeing adventures, and engaged in rowdy behavior like breaking bottles and glasses.

The rules and social values of the club reveal the racist underpinnings of the group – its members were exclusively white and male. It is also worth noting that many of them were either slave owners or supported the slave trade.

In 1798, Joseph Frobisher retired from the North West Company and, two years later, he sold his rights to fur baron Simon McTavish. He spent the next twelve years making investments and entertaining the city’s elite in his homes, Beaver Hall and today’s Auberge Saint Gabriel. Frobisher also became involved in politics as a Member of Parliament for Montreal East from 1792 to 1796, in Lower Canada.

In 1800, Frobisher held the rank of captain in the British Militia of Montreal and was promoted to major in the 1st Battalion. He also obtained numerous commissionerships, including responsibility for the demolition of the old fortifications of Montreal in 1802.

Joseph Frobisher died on September 12, 1810. He perished at Beaver Hall at age 62 due to natural causes. His corpse was interred at the Christ Church Cathedral on Notre-Dame Street, which has since been demolished. Incidentally, his beloved Beaver Hall burned to the ground in 1847.

Returning to the claims that Joseph Frobisher hired an arsonist to destroy a competitor’s warehouse in 1809, there is simply no evidence that this is true. Firstly, he had retired from the fur business in 1798. Furthermore, the grandfathers of Frobisher’s daughter who allegedly burned to death were not alive in 1809. Joseph Frobisher Sr. died in 1763 and surgeon Jean-Baptiste Joubert in 1798. As such, neither of them could have been giving her a piano lesson on the day of the alleged fire in 1809.

In conclusion, while the Auberge Saint Gabriel certainly looks and feels haunted, there is no historical evidence to back up the legend of a girl and her grandfather burning alive. Like its claim to being the oldest inn in North America, the ghost story is likely also fictitious.

That being said, the Auberge Saint Gabriel is still well worth visiting! This fine establishment guarantees spooky vibes, an excellent menu and professional hospitality!

Furthermore, other paranormal activities that exist at the Auberge are beyond the scope of this blog. Look forward to a Part II that will explore these phenomena!

Company News

Haunted Montreal is preparing for a whole new season of ghost tours and haunted experiences for the 2024 Season!

Our first outdoor tour is the special Irish Famine in Montreal Walk on Saturday, March 16 at 1 pm (in English)! Offered only twice per year, this tour delves into the ghosts of the Irish Famine in Montreal! We are also experimenting with Augmented Reality and guests will be invited to download an iPhone app or see the demolished sites through a tablet!

Desecrated Irish Famine sites include Saint Ann’s Church and the Black Rock Famine cemetery! We want audience feedback to see which other historical sites should be resurrected in Augmented Reality!

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

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

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

You can also bring the Haunted Montreal experience to your office party, house, school or event by booking one of our Travelling Ghost Storytellers today.

Hear some of the spookiest tales from our tours and our blog told by a professional actor and storyteller. You provide the venue, we provide the stories and storyteller. Find out more and then contact info@hauntedmontreal.com

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

Please like, subscribe and hit the bell!

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

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

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

Purchases can be ordered through our online store.

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

If you enjoyed the experience, we encourage you to write a review on our Tripadvisor page and/or Google Reviews, something that really helps Haunted Montreal to market its tours. We are a small, specialized tourism company for fans of deranged history, ghost stories and the macabre and appreciate all the support and feedback we can get!

Lastly, if you would like to receive the Haunted Montreal Blog on the 13th of every month, please sign up to our mailing list.

Coming up on April 13: Montreal’s Gargoyles and Grotesques

High above the streetscape, Montreal is home to hundreds of gargoyles and grotesques carved into the architecture of various older buildings and churches. Sculptors allegedly created gargoyles to drain water and ward off evil spirits, a tradition dating back to mediaeval Europe. Grotesques are similar stone creatures but do not feature any plumbing. Some legends say that gargoyles can communicate with others when the rain passes through their mouths. Other myths claim that gargoyles and grotesques sometimes come to life at night. Montreal’s gargoyles are shrouded in mystery and a local legend from the late 19th Century highlights one of their deranged antics after sunset.  

Author:

Donovan King is a postcolonial historian, teacher, tour guide and professional actor. As the founder of Haunted Montreal, he combines his skills to create the best possible Montreal ghost stories, in both writing and theatrical performance. King holds a DEC (Professional Theatre Acting, John Abbott College), BFA (Drama-in-Education, Concordia), B.Ed (History and English Teaching, McGill), MFA (Theatre Studies, University of Calgary) and ACS (Montreal Tourist Guide, Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec). He is also a certified Montreal Destination Specialist.

Translator (into French):

Claude Chevalot holds a master’s degree in applied linguistics from McGill University. She is a writer, editor and translator. For more than 15 years, she has devoted herself almost exclusively to literary translation and to the translation of texts on current and contemporary art.

With over 500 documented ghost stories, Montreal is easily the most haunted city in Canada, if not all of North America. Haunted Montreal dedicates itself to researching these paranormal tales, and the Haunted Montreal Blog unveils a newly researched Montreal ghost story on the 13th of every month!

This service is free and you can sign up to our mailing list (top, right-hand corner for desktops and at the bottom for mobile devices) if you wish to receive it every month on the 13th! The blog is published in both English and French!

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

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

Private tours for all of our experiences (including outdoor tours) can be booked at any time based on the availability of our actors. Clients can request any date, time, language and operating tour. These tours start at $190 for small groups of up to 7 people.

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

Our Virtual Ghost Tour is also available on demand!

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

Want to give the gift of a haunted experience?

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

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

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

Haunted Research

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Constructed around 1684, the prisons were primitive.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Company News

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

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

Private tours for any of our experiences (including outdoor tours) can be booked at any time based on the availability of our actors. Clients can request any date, time, language and operating tour. These tours are based on the availability of our actors and start at $190 for small groups of up to 7 people.

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

We’re also launching our newest haunted experience:

You can bring the Haunted Montreal experience to your office Christmas party, house party school or event by booking one of our Travelling Ghost Storytellers today. Hear some of the spookiest tales from our tours and our blog told by a professional actor and storyteller. You provide the venue, we provide the stories and storyteller. Find out more and then contact info@hauntedmontreal.com

Our team also releases videos every second Saturday, in both languages, of ghost stories from the Haunted Montreal Blog.

Hosted by Holly Rhiannon (in English) and Dr. Mab (in French), this initiative is sure to please ghost story fans!

Please like, subscribe and hit the bell!

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

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

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

Purchases can be ordered through our online store.

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

If you enjoyed the experience, we encourage you to write a review on our Tripadvisor page, something that really helps Haunted Montreal to market its tours.

Lastly, if you would like to receive the Haunted Montreal Blog on the 13th of every month, please sign up to our mailing list.

Coming up on May 13: St. Bridget’s Refuge Site

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

Author:

Donovan King is a postcolonial historian, teacher, tour guide and professional actor. As the founder of Haunted Montreal, he combines his skills to create the best possible Montreal ghost stories, in both writing and theatrical performance. King holds a DEC (Professional Theatre Acting, John Abbott College), BFA (Drama-in-Education, Concordia), B.Ed (History and English Teaching, McGill), MFA (Theatre Studies, University of Calgary) and ACS (Montreal Tourist Guide, Institut de tourisme et d’hôtellerie du Québec). He is also a certified Montreal Destination Specialist.

Translator (into French):

Claude Chevalot holds a master’s degree in applied linguistics from McGill University. She is a writer, editor and translator. For more than 15 years, she has devoted herself almost exclusively to literary translation and to the translation of texts on current and contemporary art.