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 Street Railway offices.[5]
In 1908 the Associated Charities of Hamilton took over the building, providing accommodations for the homeless and recent immigrants. It wasn’t uncommon for hobos who were riding the rails to spend the night in the basement of the Custom House.[6]
By 1912 the Custom House stood empty, barren, and derelict, with broken windows, torn-out pipes, and a leaking roof. Owners of a nearby vinegar factory temporarily moved their operations into the building when a fire destroyed their own. In 1915 the Woodhouse Invigorator Company and the American Computing Company rented spaces in the building for manufacturing of their products. In 1917 the Ontario Yarn Company (later known as the Empire Wool Stock Company) moved in.[7]
A devastating fire broke out in 1920, destroying the second floor and roof. The ruined upper configuration of the building was rebuilt, and the second floor, which had originally boasted extremely high ceilings, was reconfigured into two floors and an attic.[8]
The Empire Wool Stock Company, which took residence for longer than any of the previous occupants, beginning at a time when Hamilton’s nickname might have easily been “Textile Town” rather than “Steel City,” closed down in the 1950s. This was a period of transition, and many Hamilton textile mills and knitwear plants also closed as the city became increasingly dependent on steel and related industries.[9]
The Naples Macaroni Company, producing macaroni and olives, opened in the building in 1956 and holds the record as the second-longest occupant. It also rented space on the first floor to a manufacturer of doughnuts. It was during this era that bugs and rats began to invade the building, and the owners heavily sprayed it with pesticides. In their haste to rid the building of its uninvited guests, they inadvertently contaminated the food, which eventually resulted in the Health Department closing them down in 1979.[10]
The