Being the main city of a province founded in 1608 and first settled in 1535, Montreal has garnered an understandable reputation for being haunted.
Canada’s second most populated province sits on the shores of the famous Saint Lawrence River and is one of the oldest European settlements in North America.
With such a rich and storied history, hundreds of tales about hauntings have been reported around town.
From Griffintown to the Old Port, here are seven haunted spots you have to check out around Montreal, just in time for Halloween.
Beware when visiting. You have been warned.
The CHOM Building, Westmount
Radio station 97.7 CHOM’s slogan is “The Spirit of Rock,” and said “spirit” certainly comes from somewhere.
In 1972, CHOM moved its original office building from 1310 Greene Avenue across the street to a three-storey house at 1355 Greene. The former owner of the house had apparently committed suicide in the back bedroom.
That bedroom became the radio show’s music library, and strange incidents started happening. Listeners would call into the radio station and ask to turn off the radio’s “humming” sounds, despite CHOM reporting nothing of the sort.
Mont Royal Cemetery, Montreal
The cemetery along the path of Mont Royal was established in 1852 and hosts more than 160,000 graves. The most famous paranormal sighting is of an Algonquin warrior who roams the hills of the cemetery.
The entire area is heavily guarded at nighttime to prevent people from performing black masses and sacrifices that are said to increase paranormal activity.
Guests have reportedly claimed to have their cellphone’s data freeze, and the unmistakable sounds of coffins opening fill the dead air.
L’Auberge Saint-Gabriel
L’Auberge Saint-Gabriel is the oldest inn in North America. It was built in 1688 by a French soldier and was also the first ‘auberge’ on this continent to receive a liquor licence in 1754.
If the lantern-lit walls of the historic inn could talk, they’d tell many tales. The inn is rumoured to be haunted by the ghost of a little girl who died in a fire during the 19th century.
Customers at Saint-Gabriel, currently used as a restaurant, reportedly feel ‘cold chills’ inside the narrow, stone-walled venue, even during the dead of summer.
The Duggan House
Perched atop McTavish Street, the Duggan House is a creepy, old, Gothic mansion. Hidden behind trees on Mont Royal, the shadowy estate is owned by McGill University’s Education Department and is one of the oldest buildings on campus. Built in 1861, using grey, hand-cut limestone that was recycled from Simon McTavish’s old estate, the Duggan House is said to be the home to the ‘ghost of the stairs.’
Students and faculty have repeatedly tripped up the stairs on the same step for decades. On her way to her professor’s office, a student claims to have witnessed a 19th-century girl, wearing a petticoat, cackling loudly on top of the staircase’s bannister.
Griffintown, Montreal
Griffintown is one of the city’s most historic neighbourhoods. Through the years, it’s witnessed dying Irish refugees during the Famine of 1847, but it’s the ghost of Mary Gallagher, the headless prostitute, that haunts the Griffintown borough.
In 1879, Gallagher was murdered and decapitated by the wife of a client, Susie Kennedy. The headless spectre of Gallagher is said to return to Griffintown’s old brewery and iconic green bridge in search of her head.
Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montreal
The site of John and Yoko’s bed-in, the hotel has been revamped throughout the years but hasn’t been able to shake one spirit in particular.
There have been multiple reports of a woman dressed in white that wanders around the corridors, and guests of the hotel have claimed to hear ‘someone’ humming songs late into the night,
Grey Nuns Motherhouse, Montreal
Built in 1871 as the congregation’s motherhouse, this imposing structure on Guy Street once housed more than 1,000 nuns while also serving as a hospital and an orphanage.
Concordia University purchased the building in 2007 and converted it into a student residence. Much of the building was renovated except for the basement crypt, where 232 nuns are buried. For health reasons, since many of them died of highly contagious diseases, their remains must stay there.
So, students who move into the residence are actually sleeping above a cemetery.
A 1918 fire also decimated the top floor of the building, which was then used as an orphanage. According to reports, more than 50 children were trapped inside the building and perished in the blaze.
Students have repeatedly reported hearing trampling, children crying above their heads and the screams from the nuns below.
