For a short time the house served as an apartment house and then as a youth centre. Subsequent to that it sat vacant and fell into disrepair. What could be the cause of the decline of such a fine home? Did it, in fact, have other “occupants” who made newcomers and potential owners nervous?
In the 1930s the estate was purchased by a Toronto family who opened a hotel business called The Rainbow Valley Inn. Unfortunately, health problems prevented the owners from having a successful venture. It reopened in 1943 as the Holiday House when Ernie and Marion (nee Timmy) Allchin and Mrs. Wise bought the house and made some additional renovations to accommodate 35 guests. Travellers from all over the world visited the Holiday House in Bracebridge. Notations in the guest book of the stately old mansion included such comments as “My home away from home” and “A wonderful time spent here, hope to return”.
To the people of Bracebridge, the Holiday House was much more than a fine hotel and a place for out-of-towners to hang their hats for a couple of days. It had become a cherished landmark.
In the early morning hours of October 20, 1955, fire broke out in the top floor of the hotel. Despite the efforts of local firemen the flames spread through the upper part of the building. Some furniture from the lower rooms was saved but the loss was estimated at approximately $40,000.
Rebuilding started immediately. The stone walls were retained but the rest of the main building was replaced by a more modern structure. Architect Ken Cameron, then in his 70s, designed and supervised the reconstruction of the front portion. The flavour of the old structure was maintained by including features like the Egg and Dart design over the 160-year-old fireplace, the wooden banisters leading upstairs and the three-foot-thick foundation.
Gerard Simmons, a former employee of a business that operated there, was quoted in the local newspaper in 1976, remembering the decaying mansion from his boyhood. “We use to call it a haunted house. Of course, I don’t believe it was ever haunted, although Mrs. Allchin, who, with her husband, later bought the house and converted it into a hotel, often said she could hear ‘bumps in the night.’”
Mr. Simmons also remembered Mrs. Mahaffy. “It was rumoured that an entire room in the house was devoted to the storage of her hats only. My mother was a milliner at a shop downtown, and she served Mrs. Mahaffy often. She recalled her as a very hard woman to please, who really loved hats.”
In 1962 the Wise Room was constructed to create an English pub in the Muskokas. Formerly the furnace room, renovations necessitated the lowering of the floor. The room, supported by thick beams, was created within the original structure. The basement may have been a summer kitchen at one time and later, for the most part, had been abandoned. When the renovations occurred, the old area was again disturbed. This seems to be significant in the development of “activity” in the buildings.
In 1975 Holiday House changed hands yet again, from the Allchins to the Nivens. Jim and Jackie Niven and Jim’s grandmother owned and operated the establishment. Jackie passed away in the house after suffering from cancer. Apparently Grandmother Niven was noted to say, “This place has a mind of its own. If the place does not like you, your stay will not be long.” In 1983 it was taken over by Arthur and Sylvia Richardson with the following philosophy “To provide old-fashioned hospitality from arrival to departure.”
Grandmother Niven’s words rang true for the Richardsons. For three long years they experienced constant activity. Cathy Morrow, who worked for the Richardsons said, “Ashtrays would fly off the table and things always went missing. Clothes would fly out of the closet and often disappear, never to be seen again.”
Cathy was the office manager and had worked at the inn since 1983. She experienced more spiritual activity than anyone else. She could immediately sense a presence the moment she opened the front door of the house. She revealed that generally there would be a period of increased activity, always early morning and late night, followed by a period of no activity — and then the cycle would be repeated.
Early one morning during her first year at the inn, Cathy was downstairs in the pub. To get to the pub one had to walk down a set of stairs, past the main desk, turn left, and walk down a long, limestone corridor to the pub entrance. There was a small room for guests situated at the end of the bar. The pub washrooms were located in the lounge by way of a small corridor at one end of the room.
Cathy said, “I had just reached the corridor when a woman suddenly appeared in the doorway. She was so vivid. I could describe everything she was wearing. She had on blue jeans and a red and white striped T-shirt. She was a small woman with shoulder-length dark brown hair. She would have been in her 40s. I just looked at her and within seconds she vanished into thin air.”
Cathy told her story to the housekeeper when she arrived for work. “You have just described Jackie Niven,” said the housekeeper. It seemed that Jackie, who had died in the house, had never left. There was no other explanation and there may never be one.
In Cathy’s experience, the hauntings occurred primarily in the early morning or late at night. Her day would start at 5:30 a.m. She came through the front entrance and passed the formal dining room on her right and the parlour, complete with a fireplace, on her left. She continued down the hallway past the main central staircase until she reached the front desk located at the end of a short corridor.
The beautiful Inn at the Falls in the summer.
One morning Cathy arrived during a loud thunderstorm. There was an eerie feeling of foreboding as she approached the front door. She sensed a presence as she entered the inn. This sensing would start as a feeling and then become a knowing that something was about to happen. The “feeling” came this time, from the dining room. As she entered the darkened room a sweet, faint voice said “hello”. There was nothing to be seen but later that day another staff member said it had been the spirit named Sarah.
There have been several sightings of a young woman with long, dark brown hair in the inn. “Sarah” is sometimes only visible from the shoulders up and usually appears in white. She is seen in the main hallway and in the lower level stone corridor leading to the pub.
In 1988 the inn, now 17 rooms, was purchased by Peter and Jan Rickard. A new name, Inn at the Falls, reflected the unique location overlooking the falls. Their long experience in the hotel industry, combined with their keen desire for a family business made the inn the perfect venture for Jan and Peter. In 1989 they began to expand the inn to include other houses on their cozy village street, including the former Salvation Army Citadel.
Each year their business grew to make it one of the most successful in Bracebridge. The inn featured 37 rooms and suites, some with whirlpools and fireplaces and most with balconies that afforded views of the surrounding gardens and Bracebridge Bay.
The Rickards openly admitted that the inn was haunted. They even printed a light-hearted warning on their menu: “Our three resident ghosts, Bob, Charlie and Sarah, are friendly spirits and tend to keep mostly to themselves. Bob inhabits the kitchen area, Charlie the upstairs corridors, and Sarah can be heard rustling through ‘Victoria’s’ (dining room) on occasion.”
In 1995 Geraldine Page, a well-known American psychic (not the famous actress with the same name), arrived at the inn for lunch. On entering the premises she was immediately drawn upstairs. There she sensed the presence of a spirit and, before lunch was served, made arrangements to come back and “make contact”!
She arrived on Saturday and was ready at 10:00 a.m. in room 105, where the woman can be seen in the window. Peter Rickard recalls the early moments, “Just as she began, the lights dimmed on their own. Geraldine was lying on the bed and slowly drifted into a trance-like state. After a very short time she awakened, overwhelmed by the number of spirits that approached her. She said the spirits were there to be healed!” How many spirits did she see? What did she mean that they were there to be healed?
Ms. Page saw the woman sitting in a chair