It’s Halloween, and if you’re interested in getting seriously spooky this season, Winnipeg is home to an iconic site that has been attracting paranormal aficionados for more than a century.
Hamilton House has been a hotbed of paranormal activity dating back to the days of its namesake, Dr. Thomas Glendenning Hamilton, a respected Winnipeg physician and scientist who devoted much of his life to understanding life after death.
The historic site, which still stands at 185 Henderson Highway, has inspired academic researchers and ghost hunters alike for decades, and an archival collection dedicated to Hamilton’s work, the Undead Archive at the Elizabeth Dafoe Library.
The university’s Heather Bidzinski told Global News that Hamilton’s pursuit of life after death began in earnest after his young son became ill and died.
“Hamilton and his wife Lillian were exploring seance, life after death, the paranormal, telekinesis, ectoplasm, all sorts of things that are really suitable for Halloween,” Bidzinski said.
“Before their son passed away, they had started to dabble a little bit in the paranormal. After their son Arthur died — he was only a toddler, he died of influenza, the Spanish Flu was going on — they really started their investigations with zest at that point.
“They were conducting a number of seance experiments, they had a room set up in their house that was dedicated to the scientific exploration.”
The results of those meticulously documented experiments, known as the Hamilton Family fond, are highly regarded by paranormal investigators worldwide, and have developed into a whole cottage industry of their own.
“The Hamilton Family fond is one of our most well-known archival collections,” Bidzinski said.
“There are books that have been written, films, documentaries, we have a full journal here dedicated to the Hamilton Family fond. … People have written their theses on it.”
Across town, another local post-secondary institution has a Hamilton-related display of its own.
The University of Winnipeg is currently hosting an art exhibit featuring artists from around the world and inspired by the spirit photography taken at Hamilton House seances — eerie visions of ‘ectoplasm’ emerging from the mouths of seance attendees.
“Dr. Hamilton thought that, given the right circumstances and the right conditions and the right photography equipment, you could actually catch the invisible psychic force, and through the psychic force would manifest ectoplasm … and out of ectoplasm a spirit would materialize,” said U of W professor Serena Keshavjee.
“I know it’s very complicated but it actually was science in the 1920s.”
One famous participant in Hamilon’s experiments, Keshavjee said, was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, who visited Winnipeg in the early 1920s. A cabinet dedicated to the author’s stay in the city, part of a 40-city tour in 1923, is part of the exhibit.
“He was the man behind the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, but he was also a spiritualist, and what I mean by that is that he believed under circumstances you could communicate with the dead,” Keshavjee said.
“He gave a talk, and it was packed apparently, about proofs of immorality — what happens after we die. The first day after he arrived, he went to the Hamilton House on Henderson Highway and he participated in a scientific seance.”
Conan Doyle, apparently, was incredibly moved by his Hamilton House experience, claiming that a table flew through the air during the seance. In a letter to Lillian Hamilton, obtained by the U of W just this year, he spoke glowingly of his experience in the Manitoba capital, calling Winnipeg a “psychic centre.”
The art exhibit, which runs at the university until Nov. 10, showcases the unique weirdness of ectoplasm, as interpreted by visual artists.
“There’s something disgusting and compelling about ectoplasm,” she said.
Unsurprisingly, Hamilton House and its legacy continues to attract those who believe they have a connection to the paranormal to this day.
Bernice Bisson, who has worked as a psychic medium astrologer in Manitoba for the past 35 years, told Global Winnipeg she conducts seances at Hamilton House, but it’s only one of the many sites across the area that appeal to ghost hunters.
“Winnipeg has some wonderful ghost hunting sites that are free and open to the public,” Bisson said.
“We have St. Norbert ruins, we have the national historic site at St. Andrew’s Church, we have the (St. Boniface) basilica. … We have some really fabulous places that you can go ghost hunting.”