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| Discreetly Encountering Your Ghosts |
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Gastown
A section of town, called Gastown, is noted for it's many haunted buildings,
probably due to so many people having been killed there. The five-block area along
Cordova and Water Streets from the old Canadian National Railway station to
Maple Tree Square include some of the most haunted real estate in Canada.
Asking shop owners about their experiences you will note that many similar stories
are told.
Gaoler's Mews
Gaoler's Mews was the site of Vancouver's first jail, and public hangings were held
there during the last quarter of the 19th century. It is reported the first to be
executed was Stakia, a Salish native (whose name translates as "wolf") who killed
a man by splitting his head open with an axe. Stakia was captured, convicted of
murder, and his life was ended by a hangman's noose in Gaoler's Mews.
The Irish Heather
At 217 Carrall Street, is The Irish Heather. Located on the site of Vancouver's first
police station, this pub is described by many as "very haunted." Its washrooms
were once jail cells, and this restaurant's patrons occasionally report hearing
ghostly sounds of slamming doors and clattering chains.
Blood Alley
Blood Alley may have been named because of the many butcher shops once
located there, but it is stated a lot of human blood was also shed on its
cobblestones. Blood Alley was a popular path for shipyard workers, returning to
nearby hotels from the docks, and especially on paydays it was also a handy place
for robbers to lurk with their knives at ready, willing to cut the throats of anyone
who didn't give up their money fast enough.
Wondering just how haunted Blood Alley really is, a noted Canadian clairvoyant
volunteered to investigate into Blood Alley, and immediately ran out again. He
crossed the street and when his mates caught up with him, he said that the psychic
energies in Blood Alley were too powerful. He promptly had to leave!
Bodega Hotel
Ghosts are usually invisible, but a common trait of the ones that have been seen
are reported to have poor sense of fashion. Over and over, people declare seeing
a peculiar man wearing out-of-date clothing, visible one moment and then suddenly
gone. A man wearing a bowler hat was observed in the hallway of the Bodega
Hotel. At first the woman who saw him thought he seemed a bit strange, but when
she watched him pass through a solid wall, she became so upset that she soon
moved out of the building.
Hotel Europe
An incident involved the manager of the card shop in the Hotel Europe, at 43
Powell Street when she was looking into a convex security mirror and she saw an
eccentric looking man wearing strange clothes. She walked over for a closer look,
but he’d vanished into thin air.
Water Street Café
Perhaps an invisible ghost may be the reason why one office has remained vacant
for many years. Located above the Water Street Café, the fourth floor suite may
look empty but workers in offices next door say they often hear the sounds of
furniture being moved and even the rattling of chains.
Dominion Hotel
Nearby, in the Dominion Hotel, a night worker, cleaning up after the pub had
closed, was startled when glasses hanging above the bar suddenly began swaying
and clinking together. He stated that one of the glasses floated up, hung in the air
for an instant, and then crashed to the floor, as if it had been thrown by a
poltergeist.
Canadian National Railway Station
A security guard in the old Canadian National Railway station heard an unusual
noise in a seldom-used store room. Entering to investigate he saw nothing unusual
-- until he turned around to leave. That's when he realized, to his terror, that all the
desks in the room had been moved, blocking his access to the door.
Many ask, "Why does the Gastown attract so many strange happenings?"
According to legend the area was cursed by First Nations spirits angry at having
their land taken away by European settlers. But that theory doesn't seem to
explain the haunting of the Dominion Building at 207 West Hastings Street. When it
was built in 1909, it was the tallest in the British Empire, but today the 13-storey
building is said to be haunted by the ghost of its architect who fell—or possibly
threw himself—down the stairwell to his death during the opening celebrations.
Information, in part, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastown
A section of town, called Gastown, is noted for it's many haunted buildings,
probably due to so many people having been killed there. The five-block area along
Cordova and Water Streets from the old Canadian National Railway station to
Maple Tree Square include some of the most haunted real estate in Canada.
Asking shop owners about their experiences you will note that many similar stories
are told.
Gaoler's Mews
Gaoler's Mews was the site of Vancouver's first jail, and public hangings were held
there during the last quarter of the 19th century. It is reported the first to be
executed was Stakia, a Salish native (whose name translates as "wolf") who killed
a man by splitting his head open with an axe. Stakia was captured, convicted of
murder, and his life was ended by a hangman's noose in Gaoler's Mews.
The Irish Heather
At 217 Carrall Street, is The Irish Heather. Located on the site of Vancouver's first
police station, this pub is described by many as "very haunted." Its washrooms
were once jail cells, and this restaurant's patrons occasionally report hearing
ghostly sounds of slamming doors and clattering chains.
Blood Alley
Blood Alley may have been named because of the many butcher shops once
located there, but it is stated a lot of human blood was also shed on its
cobblestones. Blood Alley was a popular path for shipyard workers, returning to
nearby hotels from the docks, and especially on paydays it was also a handy place
for robbers to lurk with their knives at ready, willing to cut the throats of anyone
who didn't give up their money fast enough.
Wondering just how haunted Blood Alley really is, a noted Canadian clairvoyant
volunteered to investigate into Blood Alley, and immediately ran out again. He
crossed the street and when his mates caught up with him, he said that the psychic
energies in Blood Alley were too powerful. He promptly had to leave!
Bodega Hotel
Ghosts are usually invisible, but a common trait of the ones that have been seen
are reported to have poor sense of fashion. Over and over, people declare seeing
a peculiar man wearing out-of-date clothing, visible one moment and then suddenly
gone. A man wearing a bowler hat was observed in the hallway of the Bodega
Hotel. At first the woman who saw him thought he seemed a bit strange, but when
she watched him pass through a solid wall, she became so upset that she soon
moved out of the building.
Hotel Europe
An incident involved the manager of the card shop in the Hotel Europe, at 43
Powell Street when she was looking into a convex security mirror and she saw an
eccentric looking man wearing strange clothes. She walked over for a closer look,
but he’d vanished into thin air.
Water Street Café
Perhaps an invisible ghost may be the reason why one office has remained vacant
for many years. Located above the Water Street Café, the fourth floor suite may
look empty but workers in offices next door say they often hear the sounds of
furniture being moved and even the rattling of chains.
Dominion Hotel
Nearby, in the Dominion Hotel, a night worker, cleaning up after the pub had
closed, was startled when glasses hanging above the bar suddenly began swaying
and clinking together. He stated that one of the glasses floated up, hung in the air
for an instant, and then crashed to the floor, as if it had been thrown by a
poltergeist.
Canadian National Railway Station
A security guard in the old Canadian National Railway station heard an unusual
noise in a seldom-used store room. Entering to investigate he saw nothing unusual
-- until he turned around to leave. That's when he realized, to his terror, that all the
desks in the room had been moved, blocking his access to the door.
Many ask, "Why does the Gastown attract so many strange happenings?"
According to legend the area was cursed by First Nations spirits angry at having
their land taken away by European settlers. But that theory doesn't seem to
explain the haunting of the Dominion Building at 207 West Hastings Street. When it
was built in 1909, it was the tallest in the British Empire, but today the 13-storey
building is said to be haunted by the ghost of its architect who fell—or possibly
threw himself—down the stairwell to his death during the opening celebrations.
Information, in part, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastown
| Haunted Vancouver, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
