Finding out the truth about the Mt.A ghost stories
On Oct. 28, Hart Hall, the home of Mt.A’s haunted house event, was a home paranormal investigation done on Mt.A campus. Hart Hall has been a hotspot to supernatural stories, from lights in the upper windows at night, to a student reportedly being pushed down the stairs. Many claim the ghost is former Mt.A vocal director, Ethel Peake, but is this the only ghost haunting the halls? Four amateur investigators have agreed to enter the third and fourth floor after hours in the hopes of finding out the truth about Hart Hall. Is it really haunted, and, if so, who haunts those halls?
The team consisted, of myself, Will Gallant, Argosy reporter and group leader; Ella Crowley, a horror researcher, who is currently writing a thesis on 2SLGBTQIA+ monsters; Lexie Chappelle, a seasoned expert, having ghost hunted three times before; and Skylar Côté, BMus student, hoped to draw Peake out from the shadows. Before entering, I explained to the group the tools I downloaded on my phone: the voice memo app, which can theoretically record electronic voice phenomenons (EVPs) , a piano playing app, with the hopes Peake would play, and lastly, Ghost Tube, a ghost hunting app claiming to interpret the words of ghosts.
We started off our investigation on the third floor by turning off the lights. In the darkness, we started our first EVP session, asking who was here with us, why they were still here, and if they were comfortable with our presence. We received no response. We tried to investigate the halls, leaving the piano app open, hoping if we left, someone may play a tune… Again, we received no response. At this point, we asked Côté to sing, to try and get Peake to come out. After a short piece from one of her classes, we heard a faint knock from upstairs.
Without much activity on the third floor, we moved to the fourth, turning off the lights as we went. This is when Chappelle saw, through the reflection of the glass office, a shadow entity,no-one else was in the room. The activity only ramped up from here, as I heard a disembodied breathing, and caught it on camera. With this spike in activity, we decided to use the Ghost Tube app in the left hallway. When Crowley asked if our group heard rhythmic knocking, which we claimed we did not, the ghost told us, through Ghost Tube, to “tell the truth.” After this response, we began to ask more questions, to which the ghost proceeded to answer. It told us it had “no energy,” and the ghost found “it smells,” and asked “come find me”. I told the ghost I was going to use another app, and, just as I touched my phone to close the app, it told me to “come back.”With this spike in activity, we moved to other rooms. In the Crake room, a ghost told us “she hides”, and after I asked if it was Ethel, the ghost immediately said “indeed.”
Without any more activity in the Crake room, we decided to return to the left hallway, which was our hotspot earlier in the hunt. Upon entering, our hotspot was cold, as if a window had been left open. Later, one of the lights began to flicker, making it obvious there was a ghostly presence in the halls. We began searching for the hidden ghost, looking in the textiles room, where a ghost proceeded to tell me it was stressed. Respecting this ghost’s privacy, we left the area alone. As we prepared to end our investigation, I put on my jacket, to which a ghost responded by saying “don’t leave me”, and, as we were walking down the stairs, it said “friend” to us. When we asked if it had any last words, before we left, it told us “i’m not from here”.
With this evidence in mind, our team has come to the conclusion there are ghosts in Hart Hall, but who? While I do believe Peake does reside there, I do not think we spoke to her, and she kept her distance. We have researched, and believe we encountered a ghost from the Men’s Residence fire that happened in 1941. This explains why the ghost had “no energy,” why he said “it smells,”and why he asked us to find him. Perhaps he was reliving the fire, and the feelings of being trapped in the smoke. We have even narrowed the ghost down to either Joey Fraser or Melvin Green, two victims of the fire. Both students were from Nova Scotia, which explains why the ghost told us he “was not from here.” We hope, by uncovering their story, they can find peace, and understand Peake is not the only ghost roaming the halls.