Real Hauntings 4-Book Bundle. Mark Leslie

the building was re-built for George Rousseaux, and in the 1870s it became the Old Union Hotel. It was converted into apartments in the 1950s, and in 1980 it was converted yet again, this time into a restaurant.

      The original owners of the restaurant had experienced a resident ghost, who they described as an old man in his sixties, slouched over as if he was working in a field. Believing him to be a farmer or caretaker who had died in one of the fires that destroyed the original building, the old man’s stance, when seen, made complete sense to them. Wearing a plaid shirt and burlap pants, the ghost is said to have also worn a haggard expression on his face.

      Those first owners of the pub, which was originally known as The Coach and Lantern English Pub (new ownership brought a slight modification to the name, substituting the word English with British), were allegedly frightened to stay in the building alone at any time of the day or night.

Bob Conway, the more recent owner, encountered a different ghost even before he purchased the restaurant he would reopen. When the bar was closed, Conway moved behind the counter in an effort to teach himself the art of pouring a beer from the tap. When he looked up from his task, he saw a man sitting in the bar, wearing a pair of old-fashioned green overalls. The man quickly vanished from sight.[18]

Conway reports that a waitress also saw a man lingering near the end of the bar one evening after the bar had closed. When she spotted him, he turned and headed down the hallway as if toward the washrooms. She followed him, but was shocked to note that he had simply vanished upon entering the hallway. He was nowhere to be found.[19]

Once, Conway said, a woman was feeding her grandson in a room upstairs. They were by themselves, enjoying a quiet moment of child and grandparent bonding, when the distinct voice of a man over her shoulder stated, “What a beautiful baby!” Startled, the woman turned to find that nobody was there.[20]

Local psychic and clairvoyant Michele Stableford reports having seen the same man that Conway did on one of his earliest visits to the pub. She had been sitting with a friend at one of the tables when she spotted a man in green coveralls walking across the room. The man turned, glanced at Stableford, and then continued walking across the room and through the wall. Stableford, who has become used to seeing extraordinary things her entire life, said she also received a distinct impression of the letter J upon seeing the ghost, believing his name might perhaps be John.[21]

      Another time, a waitress spotted a man sitting at a table and turned to retrieve a menu to bring over to him. But when she looked back his way, the man had simply disappeared.

      Bob Conway reported that more than one staff member has quit after an encounter with the supernatural in his pub: one cook was scared off by the constant approaching rush of footsteps in his direction. A dishwasher left after exclaiming that he simply could not take it anymore.

      Conway, a friendly fellow with a cheerful attitude, doesn’t come across as a man haunted by terrible things. He accepts the supernatural occurrences in a somewhat jovial manner and smiles when welcoming in the regular groups of ghost hunters he says like to come out on Friday nights to “have a little fun upstairs.”

      “Before I bought this place, I was very skeptical about ghosts and ghost stories,” Conway said; then, with a shrug, he continued, “I’m a little less sceptical now.”

      The folks from Haunted Hamilton often suggest The Coach and Lantern as a good place to get great food and beer — and to enjoy the friendly staff and atmosphere of the 175-year-old building — before heading out on their historic ghost walk of the nearby Hermitage ruins.

      The pub, which proudly boasts free Wi-Fi and fantastic live entertainment on its web page, makes just a small reference to the legends of ghosts and the fact that there’s often something more in the air than the sounds of a great local band or the unseen signals of a wireless internet connection.

      Conclusion

      One of the great benefits of getting to work on a book like this is the amount of research I had to do. With virtually every single chapter, almost every tale, I felt the need to go back and look further into the history of a person or a place, and my research sessions likely ended up being more than twice of what they truly needed to be. Caught up in the magic of history coming alive on the pages of the book in front of me, or of the archived newspaper clippings I was poring over, I had to keep reminding myself to stop and make notes.

      I find it ever so intriguing that while I was originally drawn by the tales born from the dark shadows, I regularly became pulled into the historic legacy of the city.

      And, of course, just the other night, when I was taking a stroll along the mountain brow in my neighbourhood with my wife and my son, at three separate times, as we passed landmarks, such as a building that used to be part of Buchanan’s Claremont estate, of the location of the Mountain View Hotel and of the Bruce Trail, I would pause to share a delightful and intriguing factoid I had learned that often hadn’t even found its way into this book.

      At one point during our walk, my wife Francine turned to me with a bemused smile on her face and said, “Writing this book has been really good for you.”

      “Indeed,” I said, nodding my agreement.

      And not just because of the interesting facts I had discovered and was now sharing with others, but because of the manner by which my appreciation for our neighbourhood and our city was continuing to grow.

      To liberate a phrase Sir Isaac Newton was known for, if I have been able to appreciate and see great things about this city and its fascinating and rich history, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants: all of the men, women, and children who initially established Hamilton and over the countless decades have helped it grow into the fine city it is today.

      Who You Gonna Call?

      A Look at the People Behind Haunted Hamilton Ghost Walks & Events

      I knew that when I first began writing a book involving ghosts in the Hamilton area, I would be consulting with the folks from Haunted Hamilton Ghost Walks & Events. Founders Daniel Cumerlato and Stephanie Lechniak have been very generous with their time, resources, and the more than ten years of in-depth research they have conducted as part of their business.

      The whole way through my journey of compiling information and collecting tales, they have shared personal accounts, detailed articles, suggestions for people I should talk to, and have welcomed me with open arms and friendly smiles. They have also been generous with their time, responding to my phone calls and emails as well as sitting down with me at length to be interviewed about what they do and some of the legends they have investigated.

      For this reason, I thought it would be important to share a little bit of detail about their group and all that they offer to Hamilton, not just from an intriguing and paranormal viewpoint, but from a historical perspective.

      Dan and Stephanie have been running Haunted Hamilton since 1999.

      It all started when the couple, who were both born and raised in Hamilton, were living in Toronto. They had always been intrigued by supernatural events and, one evening were conducting an Ouija board session in their apartment with a microcassette recorder. They had had done the usual things one does when playing with an Ouija board and asked if there was a spirit presence. Eventually, the pointer on the board moved to YES and occasionally moved around providing non-descript responses to their question, but nothing much really happened.

      It wasn’t until they were done the session, which was held in an apartment lit only by the atmospheric light of candles, that they discovered something eerie had happened and which neither of them had noticed. When they were done and listened to the tape they could hear their voices in the background, somewhat muted and distant because the