Fort George

Fort George is an historic military structure at Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario in Canada.  The fort was built by the British Army between 1796 and 1799 following the Jay Treaty.  Designed by Alexander Hamilton and supported by President George Washington the Jay Treaty was negotiated by American statesman and Diplomat, John Jay.  Brokered between the United States and Great Britain, the Jay Treaty was created to avoid war and resolve issues that remained following the Treaty of Paris in 1783 which ended the American Revolutionary War.  As part of the Jay Treaty the British Troops withdrew from Fort Niagara which stands opposite in New York and is visible from the Fort George ramparts.  The newly constructed Fort George became the western most of British fortified posts and served as the regional headquarters for both the British Army and the Canadian Militia.  

Fort George was built using earthworks and palisades or stakewalls, a wall made of wooden or iron stakes.  The fort internal structures including an Officer’s quarters and a stone powder magazine where ammunition and other explosives could be stored.  Also within the fort a blockhouse was constructed to house the ranks and also accomodate their families.  

During the War of 1812 to 1815, a conflict between the United States and the British Army plus their respective allies, several battles were fought in the area of Fort George.  In 1813, just after dawn on May 27th clearing fog revealed an American vessel off the shore.  Military Commander, Scott Winfield was tasked with leading the first landing party for the American assault.  Starting west of the mouth of the Niagara River Scott landed on the British territory while American Naval Commander Oliver Hazard Perry and his men directed a schooner to silence nearby squadrons that were supporting Fort George.  The American landing parties were charged by bayonet wielding men from the Glengarry Light Infantry as they waded ashore.  The Glengarry men were outnumbered and after loosing half their men retreated.  The schooners in Lake Niagara, using grapeshot, a non-solid projectile made up of an arrangement of round shot  packed into a canvas bag, attacked a company of The Royal Newfoundland resulting in them sustaining heavy casualties.  

After landing, Military Commander Scott advanced up the beach only to meet with British Troops.  Between Scott’s landing party and further fire from Commander Perry’s schooner the British Army sustained heavy losses.  The commanding officer of the Niagara Peninsula in Upper Canada, General John Vincent, realised that his troops were out-numbered and ordered an immediate retreat to Queenston.  Before their retreat General Vincent ordered the Fort guns of Fort George to be spiked and the magazines blown up.  Despite this Commander Scott was able to secure Fort George with little damage.  After inflicting heavy casualties on the British Army the Americans were able to secure several heavily fortified positions, including Fort George.  

The Americans remained in a small military enclave around and within Fort George.  In June 1813 an American column marched from Fort George to attempt to surprise a British outpost at Beaver Dams.  The American troops stopped in the town of Queenston overnight.  A resident of Queenston, Laura Secord walked 32kms (20 miles) through American occupied territory to warn the British Troops that the Americans were coming.  When the Americans resumed their march they were ambushed by Native warriors and surrendered.  About 500 Americans including their commander were taken prisoner.  The Americans abandoned Fort George following this defeat as it was on the British side of the river.  Fort George was then left to fall into ruin.  In the 1930s the site was reconstructed.  

During the First and Second World War Fort George was used as a military training base under the name of Camp Niagara.  In 1966 the military left the fort.   Fort George was then staffed by costumed characters and maintained by Parks Canada as a living museum with re-enactments.  It has hosted such events as the 1955 World Scout Jamboree.  

Fort George is considered one of the most haunted places in Niagara.  One commonly sighted apparition is refered to as the “Woman in the Mirror”.  She is a young curly haired woman that haunts the officer’s quarters and is dressed in a white dress.  Two men dressed in red uniforms are also seen in the officers quarters.  On occasion soldiers dressed in white are seen laying in the bunks in the officers quarters.  Staff have also reported an apparition in an area of the fort closed to the public.  The ghost is fondly referred to as Irving and he haunts the upper level of the barracks.  

One area of the fort that is considered extremely haunted was only actually built in the 1960s.  A tunnel built of stone and wood stretches seventy feet from inside the walls of the fort to the blockhouse.  Despite it being built well after the battles Fort George endured, both during the day and night, the tunnel been the scene of paranormal phenomena both visual and auditory.  

One of the most well known ghosts in Fort George is a seven year old girl known as Sarah Ann. She is believed to have been the daughter of one of the soldiers and to have died of a disease. The apparition has been seen and heard by staff and visitors to the fort.  The apparition of Sarah Ann has been known to tap people on the shoulder.  

Like all haunting there is much controversy about the phenomena at Fort George.  While staying in Niagara-On-The-Lake I would often walk to the fort. Fort George has a somber feel especially in the snow.

Château Ramezay

In 1705 Claude de Ramezay, the then Governer of Montreal acquired a large estate to build a home. An important figure in New France, de Ramezay commissioned architect and mason, Pierre Couturier to design and build his new home.  

The Chateau was built of field stone with three storeys, including a vaulted cellar and attic. Built on a large piece of land the Chateau was surrounded by a garden divided into three equal parts. The garden had an orchard, an ornamental garden and a kitchen garden.  The entire garden was surrounded by aromatic and medicinal herbs. A fountain was the centrepiece of the garden.  

Following the death of Claude de Ramezay in 1724 his widow leased the property to the government.  The house remained in the de Ramezay family until 1745 when it was purchased by Compagnie des Indes Occidentales, a French trading company.  Major expansions of the building were undertaken by the Compaigne des Indes Occidentales.

In 1775 the Chateau Ramezay was used by the Continental Army as its headquarters when it seized Montreal.  The Continental Army had been created to coordinate the military efforts of the thirteen colonies who were in a revolt against Great Britain.  While trying to raise troops to fight with the Americans in the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin stayed at the Chateau in 1776. 

Following the British conquest of New France the Chateau Ramezay was again used as the Governor’s residence, this time for the British Governer.  In 1878 the building was used to house the Universite de Montreals first Faculty of Medicine.

By 1893 the Quebec Government no longer required the building and it was abandoned.  The Chateau Ramezay was rescued from demolition by The Antiquarian and Numismatic Society of Montreal.  By 1894 the Society had converted the Chateau into an historical museum and portrait gallery.  The Museum and gallery officially opened on May 1st 1895.  In 1895 Sir Andrew Taylor, architect and councillor, was commissioned to design alterations to the Chateau.  In 1902 to 1904 decorative turrets were added to the building.  

The Chateau Ramezay underwent further renovations inside and outside the building between 1997 and 2002, including restorations of the Governor’s Garden.  Today the Chateau houses over 30000 objects donated by private citizens of Montreal.  The collection includes manuscripts, printed materials, numismatic items, ethnological items, artworks, furniture and prints.  

Apart from also housing the first public library in Montreal, the Chateau was the first building to be classified as an historic monument in Montreal in 1929.  In 1949 the Chateau Ramezay was recognised as a National Historic Site of Canada and in 2003 it earned the National Award of Excellence from the Landscape Architects of Canada.  

The Château Ramezay has been the site of much paranormal phenomenon.  Visitors and staff at the Chateau have reported hearing whispers and unexplained footsteps.  Staff have found exhibits changed, books knocked from shelves and have smelt sulphur.  Some believe that the Château Ramezay is haunted by Anna O’Dowd, a live-in caretaker who died in the Château in 1985.

The Chateau Ramezay is a charming building and represents a portal to Montreal’s past. 

Fulford Place, Brockville Ontario

Fulford Place is an Edwardian building situated in Brockville, Ontario on the shore of the St Lawrence River.  Formerly known as Elizabethtown, Brockville is a city in Eastern Ontario. It was first settled by English speakers in 1785 when refugees from the American Revolution fled north.  William Buell Sr was the first loyalist to settle in the area, resulting in locals calling it Buell’s Bay.  As the area grew the town was renamed Elizabethtown by officials from Upper Canada.  In 1812 leading residents of the town suggested naming the town Brockville in honor of Major General Isaac Brock, widely recognised as the saviour of Upper Canada during the war with America.  

By the nineteenth century Brockville had developed into a local centre of industry with a foundry, shipbuilding, a tinsmith, tanneries and a brewery.  In 1854 Brockville and Morristown NY, situated across the Lawrence River, became centres for the patent medicine industry.  Such medicinal products as ‘Dr Morse’s Indian Root Pills’ And ‘Dr McKenzie’s Worm Tablets’ were made.  It was the patent and creation of ‘Dr William’s Pink Pills for Pale People’ that resulted in Fulford Place being built.  

George Taylor Fulford was the proprietor of a drug store and also famous for owning the patent for ‘Dr William’s Pink Pills for Pale People’.  The Pills claimed to cure cholera, nervous headaches, palpitations, sallow complexions and partial paralysis.  The medicine contained iron oxide and magnesium sulfate. G.T Fulford & Company aquired the exclusive patent and the product came to be advertised in over 80 countries around the world.  

With his growing wealth Fulford commissioned NY architect Albert W. Fuller to design and build a summer home in Brockville.  The mansion was decorated in Beaux Arts style, characterised by French and Italian Baroque and Rococo formulas.  The building of the Edwardian mansion was begun in 1899 and finished in 1901 and the mansion was famous for its lavish design and decor.  The mansion has 35 rooms including a grand hall, huge verandah, a moorish smoking room and billiard room as well as a rococo style drawing room. The gardens, originally part of the ten acres of land on which Fulford Place was constructed, were designed by the Olmstead Brother.  The Olmstead Brother’s Company were an influential landscape architectural firm from the United States, established by brothers, John Charles Olmstead and Frederick Law Olmstead Jnr.  

At the age of 53 Fulford was the first person in Canada to die in an automobile accident. On October 8th 1905, Fulford was riding in a chauffeur driven open roadster in Newton, Massachusetts.  The car slammed into a streetcar, resulting in the death of the chauffeur and Fulford who died seven days after the accident.  Following his untimely death his socialite wife Mary Wilder White became fascinated with spiritualism and started to hold regular seances at the mansion.  Mary was close friends with the Prime Minister of Canada, William Lyon MacKenzie King, also an enthusiast of the occult.  In the 1930’s King met medium Henrietta Wreidt and it is reported that they attended a seance at the Fulford house and experienced Direct Voice Mediumship.  King was said to have participated in many seances held in Fulford Place.  He is even reported to have continued spending time in the house following Mary’s death.  While he was Prime Minister, King’s interests in the occult were kept secret.

Fulford Place is now a Museum, with the house and gardens preserved by the Ontario Heritage Foundation.  Mary White is said to haunt the mansion.  She was terribly afraid of thunderstorms and it is said that anytime there is a thunderstorm, loud and unexplained knocking occurs at the door as though someone is trying desperately to come in from the storm. 

When I went to photograph Fulford Place the Museum was closed.  The house has a strange feel about it and while I walked around alone taking pictures it was hard not to feel as though someone was watching from the empty house.  The garden also has some interesting statues.  This beautiful mansion is well worth a visit.  

McBurney Park, Kingston Ontario

Situated midway between Montreal and Toronto, Kingston Ontario is one of Canada's oldest towns.  Built on Lake Ontario and at the mouth of the St Lawrence River, Kingston began as a French trading post and fort called Cataraqui.  After the British conquered the French the town was renamed Kingston and became the first capital of the Province of Canada on 10th Feb 1841.  

McBurney Park, also known as Skeleton Park is situated in Kingston.  The park, which is surrounded by houses, has a wading pool, play equipment and a basketball court.  Also visible in some parts of the park are protruding parts of headstones that are indicative of the history of the land below the neighbourhood park. Around about 1813, the area that is now McBurney Park became established as a graveyard for the growing city of Kingston.  Formal burials began in 1816 with the graveyard becoming known as the Common or Upper Burial Grounds in 1825.  Primarily the graveyard accommodated the influx of Scottish and Irish immigrants who fell victim to several epidemics that struck the area.  The cemetery filled quickly, especially after an epidemic of typhus in the 1840s.  Due to the belief that diseases such as typhus were airborn, victims were buried quickly and evidence has come to light that many bodies were placed into mass graves that were not very deep.  

The graveyard was also a favourite haunt of the Ressurection Men.  In 1841, under a Royal Charter from Queen Victoria, Queens University was founded in Kingston.  The School of Medicine required students to obtain their own cadavers for research.  Students paid Ressurection Men or dug up bodies themselves.  The shallow burials and number of bodies made the graveyard a simple place to obtain cadavers.  Empty coffins and graves discovered in recent times further serve as evidence of such nefarious activities. 

In 1864 the graveyard was deemed full and was closed.  Over the next thirty years there were many complaints about foul odours, graves stones being knocked over, graves being desecrated and skeletal remains surfacing.  In 1893 the City of Kingston decided to make the graveyard into a park.  Relatives were informed they would have to pay to relocate the remains of loved ones.  When the American Consul heard that the City of Kingston were going to dig up the bodies of epidemic victims they threatened to close the port.  Only one hundred of over ten thousand bodies were relocated.  Headstones were bulldozed and the area was covered with grass to create a neighbourhood park.  Only one obelisk was left standing, that of the First Presbyterian Minister of Kingston.

In the 1950s McBurney Park became known as Skeleton Park, with children digging up human remains and playing with them, some even attaching them to their bikes as macabre trophies.  There has been many reports of paranormal phenomena associated with McBurney Park and the surrounding houses.  Several people have reported seeing a strange mist envelope the park and graves materialising before their eyes.  Strange dreams haunt the nights of some of the residents near the park. Two women actually reported having the same dream of an Irish man materialising in their home and strangling them, telling them to leave.  Disembodied voices and full apparitions have been reported at and near the park.  

I visited the park on a sunny autumn day and it seemed like a lovely place for people to enjoy however when you know what's just beneath your feet it's hard not to feel a chill. 

Flynn House

During the nineteenth century the Irish were the largest group of immigrants to arrive in Canada.  The Great Famine of 1845-1851 and in particular Black 47, the worst year of the potato famine in Ireland, saw 38560 Irish refugees arrive in Toronto. At the time the population of Toronto was only 20000.  Although many of the Irish refugees travelled on to America some stayed and became an instrumental source of labour during the economic boom in the 1850s and 60s in Toronto.  

Daniel Flynn, a master shoemaker, and his wife Sidney moved to Canada from Ireland during the Potato Famine. Flynn worked as an itinerant shoemaker and cobbler for almost a decade.  It was common for a shoemaker, or cobbler, who primarily repaired shoes, to visit a home and mend or make new shoes for a family.  

After a decade Flynn purchased two lots of land in what is now North York, Toronto, formerly known as Newtonbrook, from a Joseph Beckett.  The two lots of land were located on what is now Yonge Street and Drury Road in Toronto.  Flynn built a house with a boots and shoe shop attached in 1858.  The Flynn family, now consisting of Flynn, his wife Sidney and their two daughters designed the house in Ontario Classic Style.  The building consisted of four downstairs rooms, all with wooden floors, two bedrooms and a combined living room and kitchen.  The front room was initially used by Flynn as his workshop.  Eventually as his business grew Flynn constructed a seperate boots and shoe store on the land beside the house, the vacated workshop in the house becoming the kitchen.

The Flynn house was relocated to the Black Creek Pioneer Village in 1959. It is a unique building in the village as it directly reflects how a tradesman lived in the nineteenth century in Ontario.  Daniel Flynn's boot and shoe shop was also relocated to the village.  

The Flynn house is said to be haunted by Sidney, Daniel Flynn's wife. She has been seen in the garden of the house in a long yellow dress.  A security guard saw the apparition of Mrs Flynn at 4am one morning  and reached out to touch her believing her to be an intruding in the Pioneer Village and she vanished.  He was so shaken by the experience he quit his job.  Mrs Flynn, in her yellow dress, was also seen by a group of guests at the village. She was said to be walking down the street and then simply vanished. The reconstructed Flynn house has paintings of saints on the walls, as was typical of Irish families of the time.  The pictures of the saints are said to move and sometimes be swapped according to staff at the Pioneer Village. Staff at the village would sometimes cook on the stove in the Flynn house.  One day a kettle was heard boiling and whistling in the house but when staff arrived the kettle and stove were cold.  Cookies and cakes baked in the Flynn house by the staff would be moved or taken. Mrs Flynn sometimes is said to bolt the door when men try to enter the house.  It's not uncommon for staff to find the bed on the right side of the parlour looking as though someone has slept in it. 

Although I didn't get to see inside the Flynn House when I visited the Pioneer Village as it was having work done, I did see it from the outside.  I did see the Flynn Boots and Shoe Store.  It is a wonderful representation of life in the ninteenth century for a couple who had come from a distant shore and made Canada their home. 

 

 

  

Burwick House

Burwick House was originally built on Pine Street in Burwick which later became Woodbridge in 1844. The house was built by Rowland Burr, who was born in Philadelphia but moved to Canada with his family when he was still a young boy.  Burr was a contractor, Justice of the Peace and landowner.  He is best known for his staunch views against alcohol and his support of building a canal linking Toronto and Georgian Bay via the Humber and Holland Rivers and Lake Simcoe and the Severn and Nottawasaga Rivers.  

Burr bought land on the Humber River, subdividing it and creating the village of Burwick.  It was here that Burr constructed Burwick House.  The house was built with an imposing facade indicative of the rural Georgian style of architecture.  Traditional Georgian architecture was a set of styles current between 1714 and 1830 based on the classical architecture of  Rome and Greece.  The style was revived in the colonies and Burwick House is a good example of the style.  

Burwick House is two storeys and was constructed with mortise and tenon joint framing and covered in clapboard.  Mortise and tenon joinery has been used for thousands of years by woodworkers all around the world to join wood mainly at an angle of 90'.  The interior of the house was finished with lath, compromising of thin strips of wood forming a foundation for the plaster.  Burwick House has a kitchen at the rear and was constructed with an adjoining coach house.  In 1958 Burwick House was one of the first structure relocated to the Black Creek Pioneer Village, a recreation of 19th Century life in rural Canada on Black Creek, a tributary of the Humber River.  The front part of the building was moved first.  The kitchen wing was faithfully reconstructed as authentically as possible.  The barn was acquired and recreated separately.  

Burwick House is a very active building with many seperate accounts of paranormal phenomena being reported by visitors to the Black Creek Pioneer Village and by the staff.  Knocking sounds, cold spots, unexplained footsteps and objects moving of their own volition have all been reported.  A grandfather clock that is situated in the house is believed to be enchanted and chimes unexpectedly even though the clock no longer works.  A staff member responsible for closing the curtains on the top storey of the house often reported coming out of the building and locking it for the night only to find one or all the curtain open again when she reached the street and looked up.  A rocking horse in the house rocks by itself like someone is riding on it.  A full female spirit has been seen standing at the fireplace or by the rocking horse.  

The Black Creek Pioneer Village is a beautiful place to visit and is filled with relocated historical buildings that seem to have bought their former occupants with them. 

Half Way House Inn

The Half Way House Inn is a Georgian, two storey building that was constructed between 1847 and 1849 by Alexander Thompson and his wife Mary McClure.  The Inn was built on land that had originally belonged to Mary's great grandmother Sarah Ashbridge. The Ashbridge family were Quakers from Chester County in Pennsylvania.  Following the American Revolutionary War they left America and as United Empire Loyalists they were granted 600 acres (240 ha ) of land on Lake Ontario east of the Don River.  Sarah Ashbridge arrived in Canada with her two sons, three of her daughters and their families, following the death of her husband, Jonathan, in 1782. 

After their marriage, Alexander Thompson and his wife built the Half Way House Inn between four farms owned by Mary's siblings and one that belonged to her uncle.  The actual building was situated on a piece of land from William Hale's farm and a sliver of a farm belonging to Isaac Ashbridge.  It was constructed to serve as a resting place that would accomodate passengers travelling by stage coach between Dunbarton, Pickering and Toronto. Many of the travellers were taking their produce and goods to the St Lawrence Markets in Toronto.  Prior to the unification of the British Colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, these pre-confederation resting stops for travellers were popular places for liquor and entertainment.  They were cheaper to visit then the finer town hotels built after the mid century.  The Half Way House Inn offered relaxation and kegs of Mr O'Keefe's Brew or Gooderham's Whiskey.  

By 1865 a small village had risen around the Half Way House Inn.  The village, called Mortlake, had a post office that was located in the Half Way House Inn.  Following Alexander's death in 1867 Mary continued to get the tavern licence until the building was sold to Ignatius Galloway.  The new owner added a dining room and a kitchen to the building.  Galloway remodelled the second floor, using the Inn Keepers quarters and meeting rooms to create a ballroom.  As time passed the rooms in the building were used as classrooms, a church and for community meetings.  Eventually the main floor was leased out for retail purposes.  The Bluff Smoke Shop and the Midland Bargain Centre were long time tenants in the 1950s.  Albert Christensen TV, Radio and Appliance Repairs and a paint store also had tenancy within the building.  

In 1962 it was decided that the building would be carefully dismantled and reconstructed in Black Creek Pioneer Village.  The building was renovated, with the kitchen of the house being faithfully returned to its former glory using archival documents.  A more modern restaurant facility was added to the building.  

The Half Way House Inn is said to be haunted by a lady in blue.  The apparition has been sighted in the ballroom, on the balcony and standing on the stairs.  Knocking has been heard on the restaurant walls and the radio inexplicably turns off and on.  A wardrobe in the hallway has the door opened from time to time.  Some people believe that the woman in blue is Mary McClure, Thomas Alexander's wife.  There are those that feel she haunts the building because she was angered by the fact that Thomas had been married to a relative of hers, who had died young, prior to their marriage. This however seems strange as its believed Mary was well aware of Thomas' first marriage.  Perhaps she just loved the Inn and has decided to stay. 

I enjoyed visiting the Black Creek Pioneer Village and it's quite amazing to visit the Half Way House Inn and walk through it imagining the many people who must have at one time or another enjoyed its hospitality.  

Fairmont Royal York

The Fairmont Royal York Hotel is located in downtown Toronto.  The original site of the hotel consisted of four brick houses built by Captain Thomas Dick.  Born in Scotland, Thomas Dick went to sea at the age of fourteen and by the age of twenty three he was first mate and had travelled the world.  After getting married, he and his wife Christiana Bell, traveled to New York and on to the new city of Toronto. For a few year Thomas Dick worked in Niagara on the Lake with fellow Scots who pretty much controlled the ship building industry in the area.  Within five years he was part owner of a wooden paddle ship called the City of Toronto.  The ship primarily transported passengers between Kingston and Ontario.  Thomas Dick commissioned architect John Howard, Canada's official surveyor and civil engineer, to design and build a humble row of Georgian style houses. The four houses were built in 1838.

The row project was first occupied by Knox Theological College. The group arrived in Toronto from Kingston where after a Theological disagreement they had separated from Queen's College. The College remained until 1856 when refurbishments were made and the row were converted into Sword's Hotel.   Named after the hotel owner, Patrick Sword, the hotel was intended to cater for the surrounding parliament buildings.  When Sword moved to Quebec in 1859 he sold the hotel to B.J.B Riley who renamed the property Revere House.

In 1862 Captain Dick bought the property back and after some refurbishment opened the Queen's Hotel. With 210 rooms, a restaurant, a private garden and 17 private parlours, the Queen's Hotel offered a new level of luxury in the quickly growing city of Toronto. Growing in popularity the hotel was even said to be the site of Sir John A MacDonald's meeting with American Civil War sympathisers who were plotting retaliation.

Following the death of Captain Dick at the Queen's Hotel in November 1874 the hotel was sold to Thomas McGaw and Henry Winnett, hoteliers from Upper Canada who already owned Queen's Royal Hotel in Niagara on the Lake. Following McGaw's death, Winnett took over the hotel and after his death the hotel was sold to the Canadian Pacific Railway.

After purchasing the Queen's Hotel in 1927 The Canadian Pacific Railway announced they intended to demolition the beloved Toronto Hotel and build the biggest hotel in the British Commonwealth. The last guest to check out of the Queen's Hotel was long term guest Charles Bland.  The closing of the hotel was marked by an extravagant dinner with an orchestra playing Auld Lang Syne as the hotel doors closed for the last time.

Despite the shocked response of Toronto residents to the plans for the Queen's Hotel, the hotel was demolished and the Canadian Pacific Railway began construction on a new hotel situated conveniently across from Union Station.  On June 11th 1929 the hotel was officially opened as The Royal York. It was the tallest building in the British Commonwealth and set a new standard in luxurious hospitality.

There were 28 floors in the new Royal York, each beautifully designed and decorated in opulence.  The 1048 rooms each had a private shower, bath tub and a radio.  The hotel boasted a 12000 book library, a 12 bed hospital, and ten ornate passenger elavators.  Also spanning across the 1.5 acres of public rooms was a concert hall with a stage and elaborate pipe organ, a glass enclosed roof garden and a bakery that was able to bake 15000 French rolls a day.  For the further convenience of guests the hotel had its own band and a 66 ft long manned switchboard with 35 telephone operators.

It was decided that the hotel would also provide a golf course for guests that wanted to play some relaxing golf.  The golf club was established by Robert Home Smith, a friend of Edward Wentworth Beatty, the man leading the construction of the hotel.  Famed golf course designer, Stanley Thompson was asked to design the course.  The course opened in 1929 and under the name the Royal York hosted the Canadian Open in 1933. In 1946 the name of the course changed from The Royal York Golf Club to St George and Country Club.  It remains one of the most exclusive golf clubs in the world.

In 1956/57 the addition of rooms bought the hotels room count to 1600. From 1988 to 1993 a 100 million dollar renovation of the hotel took place. The rooms were refurbished, a skylit pool was added as well as a health club. The hotel created the first ever American Express Travel Service Centre. Three bee hives, with 350000 bees, were installed on the fourteenth floor roof in 2008. A rooftop garden provides the hotel with fresh vegetables, herbs and flowers.

The hotel is opulent and luxurious, with elevator 9 still carrying illustrious guests such as the Queen to their beautiful rooms.

The Fairmont Royal York has had many reports of paranormal activity. Children are heard running the hallways when there is no one visible while the noises from an unending ball, including music and laughter, can be heard coming from the empty ballroom. Cold spots and flickering lights are often reported. Guests and staff have heard screaming and loud footsteps in empty parts of the hotel. A full bodied apparition of a man has been seen on the eighth floor. He is said to be wearing a maroon jacket and slacks. He seems to float along the hallway. A former porter reportedly hung himself from a stairwell railing on the nineteenth floor. His ghost is said to make loud banging noises and is associated with equipment being used in the hotel failing.

I personally spoke to a porter at the hotel on my last visit who said that he had worked at the hotel since he was seventeen and he had personally experienced many unexplainable occurrences. One that he mentioned that baffled and frightened him happened in the basement and involved a large trolley, heavenly laden with laundry, moving inexplicably on its own.

The Fairmont Royal York Hotel is a beautiful place to stay. It's not hard to imagine that a ball goes on continuously in the opulent ballroom or that a ghost may wander along the beautiful hallways. Several times in the lift I personally heard a loud unexplainable knocking. It's a quirky, gorgeous place that is populated by an interesting and attentive staff, where you literally feel as though you have gone back in time.

 

 

 

Chateau Frontenac

One of the most photographed hotels in the world, the Chateau Frontenac looms at an elevation of 54m (177ft) above Quebec City with commanding views of the Saint Lawrence River.  The hotel is situated on the site that was originally the Chateau Haldimand, the official residence of the British Colonial Governors of Lower Canada and Quebec.  In 1784, Frederick Haldimand ordered the construction of a castle.  The then Governor of Quebec, Haldimand established the castle as the seat of Colonial Government from 1786 to 1791.  By 1860, the Chateau Haldimand had become the headquarters for the Legislative Assembly of Canada.  It served this purpose until 1866.  Part of the castle was then used by the University of Laval until 1892, when it was demolished to make room for the construction of the Chateau Frontenac. 

William Van Horne, the General Manager of the Canadian Pacific Railway, commissioned American architect Bruce Price to design and construct a series of train stations and hotels along the railway line for customers to enjoy.  Price, an architect and innovator, designed the Chateau Frontenac in the Chateauesque style.  It was a revival style based on French Renaissance Architecture.  The Chateau Frontenac opened in 1893. 

The Chateau was named after Louis de Baude, Count of Frontenac.  Louis de Baude was a French soldier and courtier before becoming the Governor General of New France.  He served in this role from 1672 to 1682, and then again from 1689 to 1698.  During his governorship of the colony of New France, Buade established a number of forts and fought battles against the English and the Iriquois.  He died on November 28th 1698 after a brief illness. 

The Chateau Frontenac was built near the Citadelle, the construction of which was begun by Frontenac at the end of the 17th century.  The Citadelle remains an active military instalment and the official residence of the Canadian Monarchy and the Governor General of Canada. 

On the outside wall of the entry to the now 600-room hotel is the Frontenac Coat of Arms.  Within the vaulted lobby there is a 300-year-old feature stone bearing the Cross of Malta.  The rich polychromatic surfaces and the picturesque eclecticism of the build were a direct reflection of the taste in Victorian architecture at the time.  The five brick-and-stone wings and central tower of Chateau Frontenac were built over seven stages between 1892 and 1993.  Up until 1993, many expansion projects were carried out on the original Chateau.  The Citadelle construction occurred in 1899, the Mont Carmel construction in 1908 and, in 1920 and 1924, Saint Louis and Tour Centrale work was conducted.  In 1926, a central tower was added to the Chateau, designed and constructed by architects Edward and William Maxwell.  In June of 1993, the inauguration of the Claude-Pratte Wing took place. 

There are two distinct apparitions that have been sighted at the Chateau Frontenac.  The first is said to be the ghost of Louis de Buade.  Although de Buade died at a chateau close by, he is said to have been seen sitting, in period clothes, on window sills.  He has also been sighted wandering the halls of the Chateau as well as the ballroom.  Several guests have reportedly woken up to find the ghostly apparition of de Baude apparently watching them sleep.  There are many conflicting stories about the de Buade ghost, some even saying he paces the halls of the Chateau Frontenac waiting for the arrival of his fiancé.  This story conflicts with actual history, as Frontenac had a wife who remained in France while he went to the colonies.  The female apparition said to haunt Chateau Frontenac has long hair and reportedly watches people sleep, and sometimes climbs into bed with hotel guests.

The hotel is a beautiful landmark in the even more beautiful Quebec City, which I love.