Ghosts of Kingston’s inns cast a spectral glow on Sydenham Street

As if on cue, rain began to fall on the Haunted Walk patrons as guide Allison shared the story of a weeping child who paid a visit to guests at the Hochelaga Inn in Kingston.

Sydenham Street was quiet as 24 ghost story-hungry hikers listened attentively. The group made its first stop at the Hochelaga, then wound around the Frontenac County Courthouse to Earl Street and finally in front of the Rosemount Inn.

Allison shared the lore of downtown, adding a dramatic flourish that suited the cool Kingston night under the rain clouds above.

She has lived in Kingston for 10 years. Before that, she spent time in a small town outside Ottawa known as Hammond. She has been a guide with Haunted Walk for four years and loves every moment. (She has a full-time job and asked that her full name not be used in this story.)

“There have been former owners of the inns who ask that they not be named,” Allison said after the tour ended. “So we’ve had either versions [of the tour] that cut their story entirely or where we’ll tell the story but we mix them together so no one knows which inn is which.”

Right now, all three inns are included in the Haunted Walk tours. The most recent owner of the Secret Garden has encouraged the stories, according to Allison. She has even stayed at the inn for a past staycation.

“My personal take is if you market yourself as a haunted inn, you’re going to alienate some people and you’re going to attract some people,” she said. “The people you’re going to attract are going to be people who want to see ghosts.”

When those people don’t see ghosts, they can be very vocal about it, according to some of the feedback the Haunted Walk receives.

The street has its own chapter in Ghosts of Kingston by Glen Shackleton, the founder of the Haunted Walk. The book touches on the notoriety of the inns within the Kingston community, set against the more well-known haunt of the Prince George Hotel on Ontario Street.

The Limestone City is rife with tales of the paranormal intersecting with key historical moments.

“Kingston’s past is filled with stories that are bizarre and shocking to us today, including those of professional grave robbers, hidden burial grounds and many tragic or funny incidents,” he wrote in Ghosts of Kingston. “Equally, Kingston has a very rich history of ghost stories.”

The inns are merely the front doors to those stories.

The Hochelaga Inn

According to a 2005 article from the Queen’s Journal, former innkeepers Anne and Ron Boyd of the Hochelaga had kept their distance from the alleged haunts. But one summer in 2005, that changed.

A woman staying at the 1879 Victorian mansion — designed by architects John and Joseph Power for former mayor John McIntyre and his wife Harriet — told Boyd she could sense the spirit of an older woman in black who sits by the front window.

Queen’s Journal reporters Brendan Kennedy and Matthew Tervisan both quoted Boyd as saying he had no personal experiences. But Boyd also had one guest who saw a dark figure at the foot of her bed. Suspecting it was one of her daughters, she told the figure to go back to bed. The next morning, she asked her daughters, and the two teens said they had not gone into their mother’s room.

That same morning, a couple in their 30s told Boyd they had awoken in the middle of the night to the eerie sensation that someone was in the room with them.

The Hochelaga Inn is named for a Bank of Montreal branch called the Hochelaga Foundation, which purchased the house for its employees. In 1985, it was converted into a bed and breakfast.

Tour guides from the Haunted Walk recount these tales and share one about a 9-year-old boy who is heard crying. Even eerier is the voice of a woman soothing the child back to sleep.

For Allison, the most provocative detail about the three inns comes from the Hochelaga, mainly because it involves the spirits of children.

“I notice there’s a reaction from guests on the tour,” she said. “I think that there is always something striking for people, and especially that they are children in distress and we don’t know why.”

Oftentimes, when Allison is leading a tour group past the building, guests will react.

The Rosemount Inn

It is said one of the descendants of the original owners of the Rosemount Inn, built in 1850 for merchant Edward Hardy, walks the halls. It was designed by architect William Coverdale in a style akin to a Tuscan villa. It was used as an apartment complex before it was reopened to guests as a boutique hotel in 1990.

It has had the notoriety of being Kingston’s haunted house since the 1930s, according to Shackleton, but that may have been due to its falling into disrepair and the local kids’ imaginations.

Still, an elderly woman who has been seen walking the halls has been given the name Euphemia by some. Items of clothing have been taken from guests and placed elsewhere. Even those trying to get shut-eye have heard footsteps coming up the stairs, accompanied by the swooshing sound of someone in a long nightgown.

Natasha Verkerk, who is now the owner of the Secret Garden Inn at Sydenham and William streets, worked as the innkeeper for a spell at the Rosemount and lived in its basement suite.

“Every night I had to go up to their common area room where the piano is, and their great room,” she recalled, recounting one particular door that gave her grief. “The door is held open by a strong magnet, but every night I had to go and reef that door off the magnet.

“Every time I did this, I got a feeling — something from the top of my head down to my feet,” Verkerk added. “I’m feeling it right now, as I describe it actually. It’s something that washes over me every single time but never scared me.”

While doing a private booking for a bachelorette party, Allison knew the wedding party had been staying at the Rosemount. She has a friend who makes little protection spells for her and puts them in a small sachet. Typically, if there’s a frightened child on the tour, she’ll let them hold it. But on this particular night, she gave it to the bride-to-be.

“I actually gave it to her and I said, ‘Listen, you’re a bride, I know you see this as friendly, but maybe you should take this,’” she said.

The Secret Garden Inn

Natasha Verkerk sits cozily in the corner of a loveseat in the front parlour of the Secret Garden Inn. She is warm and a living example of hospitality, offering a glass of water to any curious sort caught taking photos of the building.

She and her partner Jason O’Brien purchased the building seven years ago. They’re the fourth set of owners of the inn since it was renovated into a bed and breakfast. They got the keys literally on the day the world shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. O’Brien was originally from Kingston but had been living in Fairfield, Connecticut, and was forced to remain in his hometown during the shutdown.

“The whole inn was refreshed from the ground up,” she said.

It was originally built in 1888 by Scottish-born leather merchant and furrier John Mackay. It was originally called Argyle Place and built in the common Queen Anne Victorian style of the time. It changed from a single-family dwelling into an apartment building during the late 1990s. After that conversion, it was sold again and began its life as a bed and breakfast.

“COVID hitting, [Jason] decided, ‘Okay, make lemonade and gin when life gives you lemons and screw lemonade,’” she said with a laugh. “A guest gave that saying to me years ago, and I’ve used it since.”

They kept true to the original Victorian era, albeit with modern neutral tones. The wainscoting, fabric walls and furniture are in tune with the Mackays. At the top of the stairs is the original stained glass, and it’s also the spot where guests have allegedly heard footsteps stop.

On the rumours of all things ethereal, Verkerk is open.

“I’m open to it,” she said. “Here, whether I’m open to it and whether there is, you know, a spirit, I have heard some creaks and noises.

“Guests have definitely heard noises late in the evening when they’re the only guests in the house, or a few guests in the house,” Verkerk added, stating she’s never felt any negative energy or even felt threatened.

The Haunted Walk shares the story of a tea set rattling, but Verkerk isn’t quite sure about that.

“I’m keen on getting to know about that,” she added.

Now, sharing the stories of haunted locations in Kingston is more than just entertaining the crowd for Allison and other Haunted Walk guides. It’s about connecting with the different people — the dad jokes and history for dads, the family element and photos for moms, and the gory details for the kids.

“I think there’s something very interesting about engaging with our own mortality through entertainment and history,” Allison said. “So you can find something that interests everybody because ghost stories are human stories, and we all have human stories.”