To close this chapter, let’s have a look at a situation that Glen Shackleton describes as “certainly one of the most frightening moments” of his life.
At the end of a nighttime staff meeting with his haunted-walk group at the Irish pub D’Arcy McGee’s, Shackleton realized that he had forgotten to set the alarm at the museum, which was a couple of blocks away. Two of the tour guides from his company, Margo and Emily, as well as Emily’s mother, joined him as he set forth in the dark, down the hill toward the museum.
Because they were accompanied by the mother of one of the guides, Shackleton decided to show her some of the more interesting artifacts in the museum, including the death hand of D’Arcy McGee. In the Victorian era, it was common to make plaster casts of the faces of famous people after they had died. But because McGee had been shot in the head (making it impossible for a proper face cast to be made), a cast was created of his hand.
The cast is in a display on the third floor of the museum, so all four of them ascended so that Emily and her mother could check out the display. At that point, Shackleton and Margo wandered back down to the second floor. That was when they both heard footsteps coming up the stairs from the first to the second floor. The sound was so loud and so distinct that Shackleton and Margo shared an “are you hearing what I’m hearing?” look before peering around the corner. Despite the continuing sound of footsteps, there was nobody visible coming up the stairs.
Shackleton, always looking for a natural explanation for eerie phenomenon, wondered if the noise might be the echoes of the movement of Emily and her mother on the floor above. But when he and Margo rushed upstairs to check, they saw the two women standing still at the very back of the room, reading the plaque that details D’Arcy McGee’s assassination and the trial of Patrick Whelan, the man charged with his murder.
The cast of Thomas D’Arcy McGee’s hand. McGee, a politician and Father of Confederation, was assassinated by the Fenians.
Author’s collection.
The four then headed back down to the gift shop on the main floor, and Shackleton began the process of securing and locking the building while his companions waited near the main entrance.
As Shackleton was closing the wooden sliding door that had separated the gift shop from the rest of the building, he jokingly pointed out the security display and said in a loud voice that if anyone dared appear on camera in the room on the other side of that door, he would definitely be out of there in a hurry.
That’s when an odd shaking sensation began. The sliding door started to swing and to shake; first quite slowly, but then, as the seconds passed, more vigorously. It appeared to Shackleton as if somebody on the other side of the door was violently tearing at it in an attempt to get out. Simultaneously, the souvenirs in the nearby gift shop began to shake and rattle.
Frozen in shock and in fear, Shackleton stood looking at the trembling door just inches from his face before turning to his friends to ask if they could see what was happening.
That’s when he spotted them running quickly out the front door.
Margo, however, paused and ducked back into the gift shop. Shackleton abandoned his stance by the sliding door and joined her outside. The four of them stood in the cold night air, shaking their heads, trying to catch their breath, and sharing what they had each seen.
While Shackleton had experienced something pulling at the door, the other three had heard the sound of heavy footsteps walking across the ceiling above them.
All evidence suggested that at least one person, perhaps two, were still inside.
Shackleton finally managed the courage to go back inside, set the alarm, and lock the door.
The group stood outside the building for half an hour, convinced that they had just locked a pair of unseen intruders inside and that the motion detectors and alarms would soon be activated. Once they went off, they planned to phone the police, believing they would teach a lesson to whomever was inside, playing an eerie prank on them. But the motion detectors never went off, and the four finally went home for the night.
Shackleton still talks about how, when he arrived home that night and crawled into bed, he left the bedside light on the whole night.
Bytown’s Haunted House
There have been a number of haunted houses dating back to Ottawa’s early years, when it was known as Bytown. One of the more famous haunted houses from that era was a stately stone home that used to be on the south side of Wellington Street, near Bay.
The building was the home of Dr. Edward Van Cortlandt, a notable and prominent figure known as arguably the best physician in the Bytown area, but also for odd eccentrics, such as keeping a skeleton in his closet that he amused himself with by frightening patients. After the doctor died his house remained vacant, perhaps because of its reputation for being haunted.
Following is the full article from the Ottawa Citizen on April 29, 1933.
Ottawa As It Was In The Year 1893 —
Wellington St. In “The Gay Nineties”
Old Dr. Van Cortlandt House And Its Ghostly Stories
House was Noted in Many Ways And Its Owner Was Remarkable Man — House, Long a Landmark, Has Been Removed. Van Courtlandt Home Was Outstanding Feature on Wellington Street.
In our walk down Wellington street last week we stopped at the southeast corner of Bay street where Philemon Wright, the harness maker, a Bytonian, lived and had his place of business.
A Haunted Walk guide leads a crowd down Sparks Street on a spooky journey through history, sharing eerie tales of the past.
Courtesy of Haunted Walks Inc.
Today we start at the southwest corner where we encounter a pretty two-door stone tenement, fronted by attractive verandahs. These houses were built either in the late forties or early fifties. The present occupants (1893) are W. J. Loucks and John B. Gillesie.
Next (at 394) we come to a large three story and attic stone house which at the present time is occupied by Mrs. I. Aylen’s boarding house. This is the famous old Van Cortlandt house, erected by the late Dr. Edward Van Cortlandt in the early fifties.
Dr. Van Cortlandt was noted as a surgeon but he had a large family practice. He had a great reputation as a geologist and naturalist, and delved into the Indian history of the Ottawa Valley. He was one of the most popular of the lecturers at the Mechanics Institute.
The Skeleton
The doctor was regarded as a bit eccentric, but his cleverness as a medical man, or his value as a citizen was never in question. In a deep cupboard in his office the doctor kept a skeleton dangling. It was so hung that whenever he opened the cupboard to get anything the bones rattled in a manner to frighten nervous people and children. Many old timers will relate how as children they were frightened by the Van Cortlandt skeleton. When the door was open the skeleton was never fully visible, and the fact created a story of mystery which made the skeleton all the more intriguing.
Very Thick Walls
The Van Cortlandt house had very thick walls. The window sills were fully three feet deep. The ceilings of the big house were high and the rooms large.
The house was built on the slant of the high hill which ran upward to Sparks street on a seven or eight per cent grade. This meant that the doctor could have his office on the level of Wellington street, while the kitchen and other culinary rooms were in the rear partly underground.
Access To Garden
The main or parlor floor was approached by steep steps from Wellington street. A narrow covered verandah fronted the house. The rear of the parlor and dining room led