Robb Demarest, Amanda Quill, and St John Alexander

The 2025 Halloween season brought another opportunity to visit some of Vancouver’s most active paranormal locations with St. John Alexander, reporter for CTV News Vancouver.

My friends and fellow paranormal investigators, Amanda Quill and Robb Demarest, and I spent time with St. John in two haunted spots in New Westminster to capture footage and stories about their ghosts.

It was lots of fun, as usual, working with St. John to help him get two terrifying tales ready for broadcast right around Halloween.

Location 1: Native Art Gallery
We visited the Native Renaissance Art Gallery on Carnarvon Street. Artist and gallery owner, Jay Groening, has heard phantom footsteps on the ground floor above him while creating his artwork in the basement. And the business owner next door has seen a ghostly figure in the basement of her consignment store that she describes as ‘black or grey’. Amanda has been tracking this entity for a long time. Check out St. John’s story and video about this location here.

Location 2: The Gatehouse of B.C.’s Most Haunted Former Prison
Our next stop was the Gatehouse of what was once the B.C. Penitentiary. Amanda, Robb, and I have investigated this castle-like building several times together in the past. We all know how very haunted it is, especially in the basement where holding cells used to be. Amanda and I both felt like we were being watched from behind while shooting our scenes in the long, dark hallway down there. And Robb, of Ghost Hunters International fame, once recored an angry, male voice in one of the former jail cells that said it was going to slit his and Amanda’s throats. Thanks to that ‘charming’ incident and others, Robb believes the Gatehouse is the most haunted place in Western Canada. See St. John’s story and video here.

Enjoy!

The post Haunted-Location Fun with St. John Alexander in New Westminster appeared first on Ghosts of Vancouver.

The Samson V stern wheeler, berthed in New Westminster, was launched in 1937 and served as a snag boat on the Fraser River. Its job was to remove logs and other obstacles in the river that would interfere with vessels and fishing. It was turned into a floating museum after being decommissioned on Halloween in 1980. The boat is haunted by the ghost of a crew member who died on board it in the 1940s.

My paranormal-investigator friend, Amanda Quill, and I recently spent a couple of hours with CTV News Vancouver reporter, St. John Alexander, on board the Samson V. We were there to record a story about its ghosts for the Haloween 2022 season.

Check out St John’s story about the haunted boat on the CTV News Vancouver website, and click on the video to watch it.

As he always does when he covers haunted locations, St. John did some very cool videography and editing. In the video I comment a couple of times about the haunted boat and play the ghost (leaning over the boiler).

I’m excited to report that while on board the Samson V, I saw a shadow figure move inside the galley. This isn’t featured in St. John’s story, as he was in another part of the boat videoing at the time. My sighting was very brief and had me shaking my head at what I witnessed. But I’m convinced it was genuine.

Amanda heard footsteps and picked up on the ghostly presences, too.

The Samson V is a fabulously haunted, atmospheric location! I plan to add a new chapter about it in the next edition of the Ghosts of Vancouver book, which I’ll publish in October 2023.

Amanda Quill, left, and St John Alexander, right, on board the Samson V.

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Amanda and St John in O’Bryan’s Haunted Basement

A few days ago, Amanda Quill of Coldspotters and I spent some time in New Westminster with St John Alexander of CTV News Vancouver.

Last October, St John and I filmed a story about the ghosts of Waterfront Station. We had a great time doing that, and the piece aired on CTV News at Six (Vancouver) a couple of days before Halloween 2019.

St John got in touch last week to say he was keen on doing more ghost stories for this year’s spooky season. He wanted to focus on haunted places in New Westminster. I suggested we visit Kelly & Carlos O’Bryan’s restaurant and Irving House (both of which are featured in Ghosts of Vancouver: 39 Haunted Places).

We all met up at O’Bryan’s. They kindly gave us privileged access to its basement storage area where disembodied voices have been heard. St John interviewed me about its ghosts and filmed Amanda doing some investigating. Then we both watched as he did some video-camera wizardry to get atmospheric shots of the underground area. You can see his story and video here.

We ate a delicious lunch in O’Bryan’s, which they kindly gave us free of charge. Then we moved on to Irving House.

At Irving House we met museum curator, Oana Capota. St John interviewed her about the house and what she knows about its resident spirits. And in between filming our interviews and action shots, Oana kindly gave Amanda and me separate tours of the place.

The Library at Irving House

It was truly amazing to see the inside of Irving House! It’s like a time capsule from over 120 years ago. Original furniture and household items from the late 1800s imbue the place with history. Oana showed me the infamous bed in an upstairs bedroom where a ghost was seen in the 1960s. Downstairs, the small library on the ground floor drew my attention. This is where a weird light anomaly appeared some years ago. The library has a mildly dark, brooding atmosphere but the rest of the house evokes a warm, inviting feeling. Check out St. John’s story and video about the Irving House here.

If you’re enthusiastic about places that are both historical and haunted, make a point to enjoy a meal at Kelly & Carlos O’Bryan’s restaurant and visit the museum at Irving House.

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People often ask me where Vancouver’s most haunted places are. This is a tricky question to answer, however. Exactly how can we determine whether somewhere is “most haunted”?

Do we measure it by how many ghosts are in a location? Or by how many people have had spectral encounters there? Or should it also be based on how spooky a place feels?

I take two things into account to answer the most-haunted question. The first thing I consider is how many ghosts haunt a place. The second is the number of separate sightings or other weird things that have happened there. Add it all up, and the higher the number of ghosts and incidences the more (or most) haunted a place is.

My Top-10 List of Vancouver’s Most Haunted Places

With the calculation done, the following is my top-10 list of Vancouver’s most haunted places:

1. Riverview Hospital – This old psychiatric hospital is in Coquitlam, but it’s within the boundaries of Metro Vancouver so it counts. Its decaying buildings are awash in negative energy and riddled with ghosts. It’s currently a location for movie and television productions. Crew members and security guards see shadow figures, apparitions of former patients and staff, a phantom dog, strange lights, and objects moving on their own. Some hear disembodied footsteps and voices, doors and windows banging, and patients’ bells ringing in empty wards.
2. Waterfront Station – It was here on the Ghosts of Vancouver website, over 10 years ago, where I first declared this location as downtown Vancouver’s most haunted place. At least eight ghouls haunt this magnificent building. Security guards and other people who work there have regular encounters with them. There are probably other ghosts in residence at the station, too, but it’s hard to say how many.
3. Burnaby Art Gallery – The gallery is in an old mansion that used to be a summer residence, a priory and, later, a schoolhouse for a nefarious cult. The ghosts include those of its former owners, a monk, and several traumatized children.
4. Hycroft Manor – There haven’t been many reports of paranormal activity in this beautiful, big old house in recent years. But six spirits still roam its hallways and make noisy disturbances.
5. Old Spaghetti Factory – Of all the haunted places featured on the Ghosts of Vancouver website, the Old Spaghetti Factory gets the most page hits. This is for good reason – this restaurant has been a Gastown fixture for nearly 50 years and is a favourite among tourists. It’s lavishly decorated inside with an old trolley car and many other historical artifacts. At least four spectres haunt the place. One regularly spooks the restaurant’s staff members, especially after closing hours.
6. Hotel Vancouver – We all know about the ghost of the lovely Lady in Red who haunts this venerable old hotel. But do you know about the spectre of a man who is seen on the upper floor? Or how about the guest room so frightening you won’t ever get to stay in it?
7. Seaforth Armoury – I’m privileged to have had an inside tour of this historic military facility. Several ghosts of soldiers haunt the armoury, including a regimental bag piper. He plays a sombre tune throughout the building. Over the years, many brave regimental members have had strange and terrifying experiences there.
8. J.W. Horne Block – A long-time anchor tenant of this wedge-shaped building – Salmagundi West – went out of business in 2018. This is a shame because that curios shop stocked some of the most intriguing antiques and nick-nacks in the city. Many ghosts were attached to the used jewellery and other old items that were for sale there. Staff members and customers regularly encountered the spooks. I haven’t heard whether the current tenants – a teapot store and an antique shop — have had any paranormal encounters. Time will tell.
9. HMCS Discovery – When will we ever learn to not disturb native burial grounds? This Canadian-military base sits on top of an old First Nations grave site. Burial boxes once rested on trees branches and, later, cholera victims lay buried in the ground. Many personnel have had frightening experiences in and around the base.
10. Stanley Theatre – While the Vogue Theatre is Vancouver’s best-known haunted performance venue, the Stanley Theatre has more ghosts – three to be exact – who get up to more hi-jinks than at the Vogue. Many staff members have experienced weird things at The Stanley, mostly after-hours.

Buy my book to learn more about these places. All the locations are featured there except Riverview Hospital, which I’m working on for a future edition.

Happy Halloween!

The post Vancouver’s Most Haunted appeared first on Ghosts of Vancouver.

I agreed to share my knowledge of the station’s ghosts with him. I also arranged to get us into a third-floor office in the station where strange things have occurred.

St John (pronounced sin-jin) and I met up outside Waterfront Station toward the end of a rainy afternoon. When I got there I was surprised to see him do his own camera work. Other TV reporters I’ve worked with have had camera operators with them. But St John explained that all CTV News reporters now do their own videoing.

Read About the Shoot

I watched as St John took some exterior shots of the building. He then had me present an introduction about the station and its ghosts to the camera. After that, we moved indoors and went up to a passageway on the third floor. This passage is next to an office where a frightening thing happened to an employee in 2013.

While St John took various shots of the hallway, we bumped into an employee of the office in question. He enlisted her help to video some short scenes to recreate the haunting experience from a few years back. She was a trooper! We then set up the camera and me on a staircase so I could describe the paranormal incident.

With permission from a friend who co-owns the business, we moved into the office to do some further shots. We then wrapped up and I parted from St John in the parking lot outside. He said he was going to do a few more exterior shots after I left. But the rain was heavy at that point, so I don’t know if he was able to carry on.

It was a great experience working with St John. He’s an intensely energetic, witty, and fun-loving guy. He was into the paranormal vibe and was obviously having fun with the assignment. I admire his creative skills with the camera and in directing. It’s a lot of things to juggle by himself!

Watch the Stories

Click here to see St John’s Vancouver ghost stories, including our Waterfront Station segment.

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