It’s spooky season so let’s dive into the eerie and mysterious side of Kitchener-Waterloo. As the leaves turn and the nights grow longer, there’s no better time to explore the spine-chilling tales and haunted histories lurking within our community.
From century-old landmarks whispering with voices of the past to grand Victorian mansions with shadowy secrets, Waterloo Region is rich with ghostly legends that are sure to send shivers down your spine. Whether you’re a brave homebuyer with a taste for the supernatural or simply a curious reader, join us as we uncover the spookiest listings and the stories behind them.
Continue reading as we tour some of the most infamous haunted houses in Kitchener-Waterloo, sharing the chilling tales that make these properties unique. We’ll also look at the local legends that have become part of our region’s folklore, adding an extra layer of intrigue to these already fascinating properties.
Waterloo County Jail
The Waterloo County Jail sits at 73 Queen St North and was in use from its construction in 1852 until 1978. Today the building houses a courthouse as well as office space, but in 1940 it was the site of Reginald White’s execution. White had been convicted of “a most cowardly crime” – the murder of his employer, an elderly farmer named John Milroy, as well as Milroy’s sister Annie. In a dispute over money, White had taken an axe to both the Milroys.
After his execution, and with no-one to claim his body, White was supposedly buried in the jail yard. A 1986 archaeological survey turned up the other bodies known to be buried there, but mysteriously, White’s was never found. The location of his body remains unknown to this day…
– Kitchener Public Library
Joseph Schneider House
Now a popular museum, the Joseph Schneider House is the oldest, still-standing building in Kitchener, built in 1840. Apart from the restored artifacts that are arranged in the multiple buildings, the house has quite an interesting resident. The phantom seamstress can be seen working away in the upstairs bedroom and also in the attic of the house.
Nestled just on the outskirts of downtown Kitchener, stepping foot on the property takes you back to the earlier days of the city and although there were other areas of the house that seemed eerie, I couldn’t take my eyes away from the small attic windows. Despite not being able to have a run-in with the seamstress, the feeling of being watched never stopped for a second. Maybe it was her, or maybe it was a neighbourhood watch.
– The Cord
300 Traynor Avenue, Kitchener
Located in the Vanier neighbourhood of Kitchener, 300 Traynor Avenue is a complex of 44 townhouses. In the 1980s, one of the townhouse residents was somewhat otherworldly. Strange occurrences were reported by a number of tenants, especially in Units 18 and 25.
The “bath taps suddenly turning on full blast, tea towels flying out from the rack when all the windows are closed, footsteps on the stairway, and the sounds of cats lapping milk when there are no cats” as well as “feelings of sudden fear, of being held… by arms that don’t exist, and the appearance of apparitions.” (KW Record 15-09-1981) led some residents to move out early. One resident reported “something was holding her and she couldn’t move” until a neighbour grabbed her. (There was nothing to be seen holding her, of course.) (KW Record, 11-09-1981). Another resident reported he had “seen shadows of a man cross his room when he was the only one home.”
Despite these disturbing reports, other tenants took a brighter view of their ghostly visitor, describing the presence – whatever it may be – as a “good neighbour.”
– Kitchener Public Library
Castle Killbride, Baden
One legend alleges the ghost of a young Livingston boy cousin haunts the premises. He was said to have been playing in the cupola when he accidentally fell down the stairs and met his demise.
Since then, some visitors have claimed to hear the sounds of steps going up the same staircase, giggling, and a small voice saying it wants to play.
– BlogTO
Disappearing Hitchhiker
A story of a recurring disappearing hitchhiker in Waterloo Region was published in 1933 in the Niagara Falls Evening Review.
Aged Optimist Does Magic Disappearance Trick Again
Western Ontario motorists amazed when hitch-hiker vanishes
FROM BACK SEAT
KITCHENER, Ont, June 19– (CP)
Here’s another story of the mysterious old man who, when picked up on the road, converses for a while and then diappears mysteriously from the back seat as the car pelts along at 50 to 55 miles an hour.
A Waterloo motorist swore it happened. Another at Galt became angry when friends doubted the story. A Kitchener lawyer, now tells the tale.
He was driving along when he met the old man with the patriarchal beard. The car stopped. The old man got in the back seat.
“Well,’ the driver said, “times are pretty tough on you, eh?”
“They are,” the old man replied. “But the depression’s over, mark my words. It ended on June 7.”
The driver cruckled. “You seem to know”
No answer from the rear seat.
“I say,” repeated the driver in a louder tone. “You seem to know.”
Still no reply. The driver looked around. The rear seat was empty.
– Kitchener Public Library
Anna Mitchell-Hedges
The story of Anna Mitchell-Hedges and the crystal skull is one of the more recent legends in Waterloo Region.
Anna’s father, Frederick, was an archeologist in Belize. Accompanying her father to a dig in Belize, Mitchell-Hedges found and kept a crystal skull she discovered. Once she returned to Kitchener, she started showing it to family and friends and soon discovered the skull had healing powers.
The skull was on display at Frederick Street Mall in the 1990s, drawing big crowds before Mitchell-Hedges moved to England.
“There’s a lot of folklore around the skull,” said Rickert-Hall.
“The mall was packed and people came out to see it. It was really something to behold. To me personally, it just looked like a glass skull,” said Rickert-Hall. “Even in folklore, stories take on a life of their own. The reputation of this skull was so powerful that so many people came out to see it.”
– Waterloo Chronicle
Thomas Lacey Seances
Thomas Lacey immigrated to Canada in 1923, and worked as an engineer. From the 1920s-1960s Lacey acted as a medium – a channel for spirits to communicate with the living during a séance. Some of Lacey’s séances, undertaken in the home of Otto Smith at 362 Frederick St in Kitchener, were recorded and are now held in the University of Waterloo archive. These séances at various times involved philosophical discussions, visits by spirits of friends and family, and occasions when spirits were helped to “cross the veil.” Those at the seances reported experiences of apports, automatic writing, and materializations. Lacey was also well-known for his use of a spirit trumpet in his seances.
You can hear more about Thomas Lacey, including audio clips from the seances, in the Ghost of Thomas Lacey podcast.
– Kitchener Public Library
Homer Watson
Another famous Kitchener spiritualist is artist Homer Watson, who tried many different means, including seances, to contact his wife Roxanne after her death. He held many of these seances in his home – now the Homer Watson House & Gallery.
This is not the only otherworldly connection for this house, however. Homer’s sister Phoebe Watson (an accomplished artist in her own right) – has been sighted many times as an apparition at the gallery. She has been seen carrying art down a stairway, observing an art class, or even sometimes speaking to gallery visitors (Waterloo Region Record 29-10-2011).
– Kitchener Public Library
Homer Watson Park
This legend dates back many years and is referenced in John Robert Colombo’s book, Mysteries of Ontario. Legend has it, there is a spring where the “tragic deaths of an Attiwandron maiden and a Tionontati warrior” occurred. They met at the Oromoncto Spring and were ill-fatedly slain by the Haudenosaunee.
Steep drops and the ground being littered with slippery, wet leaves did not make it easy finding the ruins and the spring. It was far creepier navigating in the dark, and the possibility of running into any modern day forbidden lovers was all that was on my mind. Although unrecorded, there have been sightings of the young Indigenous woman crying, walking along the banks of the Grand River. If you are planning on further investigating this haunting, bring extra layers as the temperature drops significantly out of the blue.
– The Cord
More Haunted Buildings
While most stories are based around a specific person, there are legends about buildings, particularly the older ones, in the region.
For example, Kitchener Collegiate Institute, which opened in 1855 as the Berlin grammar school, is known for ghostly sightings.
The sightings, [Joanna] Rickert-Hall said, crop up usually as construction projects are being completed. Every new extension brought out a new ghost sighting.
In Cambridge, at Galt Collegiate Institute (GCI), it is said that soldiers who graduated and died in service in the First World War returned to the school to haunt it. Founded in 1852, GCI is one of the oldest operational high schools in Canada.
“Some former students have said that at different times, in a hallway, people can be alone and they’ll hear voices down the hallway. Or there will be a flash of light and they’ll see movement out of the corner of their eyes,” said Rickert-Hall.
– Waterloo Chronicle
Haunted New Hamburg
Many residents hear footsteps and voices in other rooms when they are home alone, but one owner, on Waterloo Street, got to meet the source of the noises.
“In 1983, this woman was rocking her daughter to sleep and an apparition of a seven-year-old girl sat next to her and said she was ‘not OK.’ The woman put her arm around her for comfort and the girl decided ‘everything was OK and she should go because she was loved,’” recounted Voisin.
The same house had a nasty, bloodlike stain on the floor that could not be scrubbed away and would occasionally move locations.
At the Waterlot, owners Leslie and Gord Elkeer nicknamed their ghostly visitor “Roger the Dodger” because he liked to steal things from the office and have them turn up later. Roger also had a penchant for locking people in the upstairs bathroom or blue room. Behind the Waterlot, legend has it that a makeshift cemetery was dug for victims of the 1832 cholera outbreak. In the 1960s, during infrastructure construction, human bones were found and reburied on site.
Over on Wilmot Street, a decommissioned cemetery was not entirely cleared of remains. Over the years, headstones have occasionally surfaced in the river behind it and human skulls were found during later construction.
Across the road from that burial ground, homeowners experience doors slamming, lights coming on at night, and an intermittent aroma of cherry pipe tobacco — the brand that the owners’ grandfather used to smoke. When the current owners’ grandchildren were younger, the kids would have conversations with an empty living room chair that belonged to the pipe smoker who had died in the house.
Local hotels and bed and breakfasts seem to be a favourite haunt. In one room of an establishment, a spiritualist claimed to have seen an early 1900s, female servant who couldn’t leave because she had ‘things to do.’ A resident corroborated the story, saying she never sets her alarm clock as a woman with a gentle voice whispers, ‘It’s time to get up’ at the appropriate hour.
Across town, innkeepers report toilets flushing on their own and doors slamming. An elderly visitor, who happened to be a descendant of the original owners, screamed when she walked into the dining room, having seen her long-dead grandmother walking in with a silver, serving tray. Another chilly visitor at the inn was spiritually tucked into bed one morning with the message, ‘You’ll be warmer now, dear.’
On Jacob Street, the spirits have an appetite. After caring for a relative until her passing, a woman took a short vacation to re-energize. On her return, she opened the door to the wafts of apple pies baking. Later on, the smell of popcorn surrounded a favourite chair of a deceased grandmother, exactly where she often watched TV and snacked. Tobacco smells and a radio playing could also be heard from the cellar where the grandfather used to smoke and tinker on equipment while listening to music.
– New Hamburg Independent
If you’re not too spooked by those local legends, here is another blog you might be interested in during the season of chills and thrills. Give your guests a frightful delight with tasteful Halloween decor
