The Haunting on Site of Sir Humphrey Gilbert Building
One of the many ghost stories from old St. John’s involves the old Foran’s Hotel, officially named the Atlantic Hotel. It was located on the site now occupied by the Sir Humphrey Gilbert Building on Duckworth Street.
The ghastly happenings started one cold, winter night when guests were awakened by a loud knocking sound which echoed throughout the entire building from top to bottom. They were so spooked that they gathered in the hallways, puzzling over what was taking place.
Two men left the group to conduct a search of the hotel in an effort to try and solve the mystery. They traced the sound to an upstairs room. Upon entering, the noise came to an abrupt stop. The men searched the room high and low but could not find any explanation.
Each night, after the guests had settled down for the night, the knocking would resume, but it would always end when someone entered the vacant room.
Word of the haunting noises spread throughout the city and was reported in the newspapers. It resulted in a loss of business for the hotel as people began avoiding it. Eventually, the haunting faded away and customers began to return.
Six months later, a stranger registered. He was escorted to the haunted room by a staff member who found humour in the fact that they finally had a guest for the room.
Adding to the stranger’s visit was speculation amongst hotel staff and guests that the stranger was a hangman from Canada.
At midnight a sudden thunderous knocking erupted and people rushed to the hallways. The noise was much louder than ever before and brought the hotel owner and manager to the scene. He went to the room and after calling to the occupant and not receiving a reply, he unlocked and open the door.
The pounding stopped. But lying on the floor was the hangman with a terrifying expression on his face.
When the undertaker went into the room to remove the body the knocking broke out again, and lasted about a minute. The stranger was buried at the General Protestant Cemetery on Waterford Bridge Road — and the knocking in the hotel stopped forever.
The hotel’s owner was John Foran, a prominent member of the Royal St. John’s Regatta Committee, who owned the boat the Placentia crew used to win the 1877 Fishermen’s Race at Quidi Vidi. He was often called upon to tell the story of the ghost at Foran’s Hotel.
EDITOR’S NOTE — In last week’s excerpt, “Leon Trotsky Visited St. John’s,” there was a factual error regarding the relationship between Leon Trotsky and Nicolai Lenin. The paragraph should have read: An especially remarkable story was one he (Smallwood) told during June 1940 that drew an interesting Newfoundland connection with a giant of world history. That man was Leon Bronstein, who became famous as Leon Trotsky. It was Trotsky along with Nicholai Lenin who became the fathers of Communism and the leaders of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. Source: The Twentieth Century: An Alamac. General Editor, Robert H. Spurrell. 1985. World Almanac Publications.