a few neighbourhoods downtown.
It was a late summer evening, but there was a brisk chill in the air. Our group, wearing sweaters and thin fall jackets, huddled around the tour guide — dressed in a dark, flowing robe and carrying a lantern — as we slowly moved on a short pilgrimage through time. During the walk, we learned a great deal about the history of the many buildings, of the construction of the canal, and, of course, of the accompanying ghost stories.
Learning about the history, and how it affected the ghostly tales and legends associated with various locations, was just the kick-start my imagination needed to absorb and appreciate Canada’s past. My previous aversion to historic tales was shed, and I listened with bated breath to the tour guide as the stories of the history and local legends of ghosts rolled off her tongue.
During the tour, I felt shivers crawling up and down my spine, but I also marvelled at the tales of people who had walked the very same ground decades or even hundreds of years before me — people whose spirits seemed to be present with us on our historic walk.
That evening, history came alive for me: it leapt off of the pages of history books and became a real, live, waking thing. My mind finally put together the connection between then and now, and for the first time, I fully appreciated how others could find historical accounts of people, places, and times so absolutely captivating.
Since then, I have been fascinated with ghost walks and with historic walking tours and was thrilled to learn that Hamilton has just such a group. Daniel and Stephanie, founders of Haunted Hamilton Ghost Walks & Events, have been offering their special blend of investigative paranormal research and historical preservation for over ten years. Their company offers several local ghost walks and historic tours, a ghostly Victorian parlour theatre, and many other themed special events in Hamilton, Niagara-on-the-Lake, and farther outlying destinations.
Over the years, I have not only enjoyed the offerings that Daniel, Stephanie, and their magnificent team bring to the Hamilton region, but I have also worked with them, creating a Haunted McMaster evening in late October, which ran in 2008 and 2009. The night featured short custom ghost walks of the McMaster campus, beginning and ending at the bookstore, which hosted horror writers doing readings and signing their books until midnight.
When I started writing this book, it almost went without saying that I would spend time learning as much as I could from Daniel, Stephanie, and their team. Many of the tales that follow are thanks to their generous sharing of time and information.
Some of the marvellous side effects of working on this book were the time I spent talking with people like Daniel and Stephanie, the many books and articles I read, and the time I spent with folks from the Hamilton Public Library, who helped me dig into various archives and historic scrapbooks to find more information about places and people from Hamilton’s past.
With almost every item I uncovered, I was tempted to keep exploring, keep digging for more. I found myself having to pull back on several occasions and withdraw from the rich historic detail I was poring through. For that reason, I have included a long list of suggested readings at the end of this book. These represent a selection of the many talented, passionate writers who have pooled their resources together to share what makes Hamilton a dynamic and significant city, both historically and in modern terms.
Upon digging through documents, listening to first-person accounts, and looking at pictures, I found the need to stand in the very spots I was writing about and experience the subtle ripples of history crossing my psyche.
Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that through the course of writing this book — in both the research as well as the visits to haunted landmarks — I scared myself silly. One might expect that from a man who readily admits he is still cautious about the monster under the bed, but even in the re-writing and editing of the very stories you’re about to see, I experienced that wonderfully creepy spine-tingling sensation.
And that’s why I am delighted with the opportunity to put together a book that combines two things I am quite passionate about. Hopefully, I can share a little bit of the “thrill-seeker” in me who enjoys a chilling true ghost story, as well as my newly discovered appreciation of a fascinating and rich history.
So, if you’re ready, turn the lights down, get comfortable, and join me on an enriching journey of historic fact merged with local legend and lore. And if you think you hear something, or detect a subtle shift in the shadows, don’t worry: it’s just your imagination putting in a little overtime.
Or is it?
Chapter One
The Custom House
The most famous Hamilton ghost, and one who is thought to inhabit the Custom House, is likely the Dark Lady, or “The Black Lady,” from an 1873 poem by Alexander Hamilton Wingfield:
A “Peeler,” who met her, turned blue with affright,
And in terror he clung to a post;
His hair (once a carroty red) has turned white,
Since the moment he looked on the ghost.[1]
A Designated National Historic Site, the Hamilton Custom House was built from 1858 to 1860 in a design by Frederick J. Rastrick and F.P. Rubridge. The building is a fine example of Italianate architecture, which was popular in commercial buildings between the 1840s and 1870s in Canada. The rusticated base and smooth upper storey drew inspiration from Renaissance-style palaces in Florence and Rome.[2]
One of the oldest remaining formerly federal buildings in Canada, the Custom House is regularly cited as one of Hamilton’s foremost architectural landmarks. The history of the building is varied, but it began as a location where officials handled the paperwork for all goods leaving and entering the city. The many different uses, owners, and businesses of the building add to the richness of its history — as well as the speculation that more than one spirit haunts the century-and-a-half old building. Apart from the Dark Lady, definitely the most reported ghost of the Custom House, it is rumoured that as many as twenty-five spectres roam the halls of this building.
The Hamilton Custom House is an excellent example of Italianate architecture in Canada.
Courtesy of Peter Rainford.
In 1855 construction of the Custom House was authorized, to handle the trade flowing through the new Great Western Railway and the Port of Hamilton. Upon the building’s completion in 1860, a group of seventeen men worked there as Customs Department staff, dealing with railwaymen, teamsters, and sailors. The caretaker of the Custom House and his family lived on the premises.[3]
In 1887 the Customs Department moved to what was the old post office building — a bigger office — at the corner of King and John Streets in downtown Hamilton. That same year, the Hamilton Board of Education rented the Custom House, setting up classes and a playground. At this time, the janitor of the Murray Street School, located behind the Custom House, was given a place to live in the building. He and his family remained residents there for two decades.[4]
In 1893 the Hamilton YWCA rented the building, offering women classes in sewing, cooking, and housekeeping; this lasted for approximately one year before it relocated to the former Hamilton
