Hunting for ghouls and ghosts with Guelph Urbex

JAIDYN MCCRAE

Lined with aging century homes and quirky shoppes, Guelph’s downtown core is nothing if not charming. Founded in 1827, our city has stood for almost two hundred years, making it an incredibly valuable spot for some interesting history.

If you pay close enough attention, you can see this history everywhere you look. Many of the established and enduring buildings dotting downtown Guelph’s roadways are designated heritage sites. This means that the city not only understands their historical worth, but also fights to preserve it. These relics stand as a testament to a past filled with incredible stories and questionable local legends just waiting to be explored.

While digging through archives and conducting interviews doesn’t quite sound like my version of a great Friday night, the same cannot be said for Greg Taylor, founder of the Ghost Walk of Guelph and resident spooky historian. According to Taylor, his tours began as a way to discover more about our city’s history. Since 2013, Taylor has led intrigued groups of locals and tourists in search of a spooky evening around Guelph’s downtown core.

Ghost walks are a fairly common attraction for those interested in spooky tales of a time long since passed. This is especially true in the fall, where paranormal-enthusiasts and intrigued locals alike gather to hear more about the stories of their own neighbourhoods.

You might’ve actually seen a ghost tour yourself; usually clad in black cloaks and wielding a lantern, ghost tour guides aren’t hard to miss. At the time, Taylor notes that Guelph didn’t have any other guided tours with a focus on spooky history. After clearing the idea with local law enforcement, Taylor set out to our libraries in search of useful information for his tours.

He was greeted with a stack of archival records, much of it detailing personal accounts from Guelph residents of ghostly activity. Taylor noted that a lot of people were happy and eager to share their stories of what they had experienced and in a remark of appreciation for librarian’s, Taylor said that these firsthand accounts would otherwise be “lost in history”.

From there, Taylor took to the streets determined to curate a collection of these stories for his tour’s narrative. This is exactly what I experienced when I joined one of Taylor’s nightly ghost walks; a hauntingly beautiful collection of local accounts and fascinating historical tales.

We began at Guelph Central Station. Built in 1911, the train station has since served as a trademark feature of downtown. At 8 o’clock sharp, I climbed the small hill to its front steps to find Taylor and the rest of our troop, eagerly anticipating the eerie night ahead. Dusk had just begun to fall and I started to feel the strange and uncanny sensation of knowing something spooky was afoot.

Armed with his trusty golden lantern and never ending supply of local lore, Taylor led our small group to Guelph sites that I had always seen in passing but never thought too much about. From the Armoury, to the Albion Hotel, to the Norfolk Manor, Greg unveiled story after story of paranormal sightings. To say I was intrigued was an understatement. I couldn’t believe so many of Guelph’s properties had a hidden history I knew nothing about. I started thinking about all the other buildings I’ve passed that probably had thousands of untold stories.

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When our tour came to an end, Taylor took the time to answer all of our questions. I asked him if there were any other stories he hadn’t told us that he thought we might enjoy, and he answered with a definitive, yes. What was usually an hour-long walk turned into two as we travelled to a few other stops we hadn’t visited yet.

We ended our walk standing on an overlook above the river. The moon shone brightly overhead as Taylor concluded his tale of a 1950’s era ghost that is often spotted on the road just up ahead. I looked over to the friend I urged to tag along to see her eagerly questioning where we could find the spot and how we could see the phantom. It seems the Halloween bug had caught her too.

Do I believe in ghosts? The answer to that question lies somewhere between yes and no, not quite sure, and why not? I asked Taylor the same question and he explained that he too wasn’t sure where he fell on the spectrum. However, he notes that there are just too many stories worldwide for there to be nothing to them.

Whether or not you believe in ghosts, there’s always fun to be had hearing a good spooky story or two. This Halloween, I encourage you to hear some of these local legends for yourself and join one of the Ghost Walk of Guelph’s nightly tours. You might even spot a ghost yourself!