Who Haunts the Halls of Canada’s Grand Hotels?
Spooky season.
Fairmont Banff Springs, 1905.
There are a couple of things that could ruin your stay at a hotel. Maybe a pipe bursts in your room. Maybe you realize you’ve left your phone charger at home. Or maybe you are haunted by the ghostly spectre of a French count who has roamed the halls of the hotel that bears his name since his death, when his heart was taken from his body and sent to his fiancée only to be returned in her state of grief, leaving him searching the halls and rooms of the Le Château Frontenac in Quebec City looking for his soulmate.
That last one may be oddly specific, but the Comte de Frontenac is just one of a whole gaggle of ghosts thought to haunt Fairmont hotels across Canada. Originally built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as Canadian Pacific hotels to complement the railway line of the same name, properties like Banff Springs, the Empress in Victoria, and the Hotel Vancouver are some of the most well known and instantly recognizable hotels in the country. They are also, according to some, among the most haunted.
Fairmont Banff Springs, 1930.
The farthest west of Canada’s Fairmont hotels, the Empress in Victoria is built in a grand château-esque style inspired by castles of the French countryside. As such, there are a number of turrets, which have been sealed off since the hotel was completed. Rumours abound of creepy goings-on in this inaccessible corner, with one story of a builder doing some construction work taking a brave peek inside, only to find a pristinely made bed, complete with pillow and blanket.
Across the water on the mainland, we move past strange secret rooms and into the real stuff: ghosts. Hotel Vancouver is home to a number of recurring guests, some alive, and some dead. The Lady in Red, when not too busy appearing in a Chris de Burgh song, appears in the unfinished elevator shafts of the hotel or passing through walls. The source of this spirit is believed to be a young woman struck down in a car accident outside the hotel.
Fairmont Hotel Vancouver
Across the Rockies, Fairmont Banff Springs, a property not too dissimilar from The Shining’s Overlook Hotel, is rife with ghosts of its own. One such spectre is the Ghost Bride, a woman said to have died on her wedding day who now roams the halls of the “Castle in the Rockies.” For those of us who like their ghosts a little more friendly, and let’s be honest, we probably all do, there is Sam the Bellman. Rather than terrorizing patrons or making the lights flicker, Sam the Bellman appears as more of a spirit guide, offering directions and assistance from The Other Side. Banff Springs even offers ghost tours on the days surrounding Halloween for the truly fearless.
Le Château Frontenac, 1910.
And finally, back to Le Château Frontenac, and the Comte de Frontenac who haunts its halls. The count, Louis de Buade, was one of the early governors of New France, and the hotel that bears his name in Quebec City is probably the most French of all of Canada’s grand railway hotels. It sits on the site of the governor’s old residence, and while in life he was said to be a man with a short fuse and a fiery temperament, in death his spirit has most often been seen simply staring out of the window, perhaps still waiting for the arrival of his fiancée.
Safe to say, ghost stories abound at these Fairmont hotels, and as some of the oldest and grandest hotels in Canda, it does not come as much of a surprise. Fear not, though, intrepid travellers: if these haunted tales are putting you off a potential stay, simply hit the bar or visit the spa or step outside, and soon enough the grand buildings and stunning scenery will have the spirits of the dead far from your mind.
