The Official Haunted Hamilton Blog

In 1956:
The Reio family opens the Naples Macaroni Company.  Workers in the factory are mostly women from the Italian community living in Hamilton’s north end.  The basement was used to pack olives, the main floor a mix of pasta and doughnuts… you can only imagine the interesting smells coming from the Custom House.

With all of this food, it would take an organized business to stay clean and sanitary… Naples Macaroni wasn’t organized.  Conditions were horrendous – bugs and rats ruled this building.  The Reio family needed a quick way to solve this problem. 

They decided to spray the walls, floors, furniture… and the macaroni with dangerous pesticide!  The product was then sealed and shipped to an unsuspecting public.

The health department closes Naples in 1979:
The Custom House is left empty for its longest time ever.

The Custom House goes dark again, almost for good
From 1979 until 1988…
For almost 10 years the Custom House remained abandoned.  Decay and the elements set in, and the structure starts falling apart.  A tree grows through the main lobby.  Many times, the city contemplated demolition… then a very crafty business man walks in with a kicking awesome idea in 1988.

In 1988:
The main dojo of a martial arts academy opens in the Custom House.  A great business mind, this owner is able to get $400,000 worth of grant money for renovations and restoration.  Much of the building is saved, including the original oak staircase in the lobby.

In 1992:
For all this man possessed in business sense, he lacked in running a successful dojo.  The building was reposed by the bank and sold through power of sale to a computer company four years after the renovations.  The computer company would only last one year.

In 1995:
The Workers Arts and Heritage Centre bought the building and held a one-day, pre-renovation celebration of the over 135 years of working-class history at the Custom House.  The building was reopened one year later as a museum dedicated to the blue-collared.

 It was during these major renovations that the spirits were stirred up.

Soon night classes began for boys and girls who worked full day, only finding time for school at night.  They would then go home for a little sleep before starting over again the next day.

The ghosts of children are prominent in the Custom House, possibly from this time.

In 1893:
The YWCA took over for a North End facility. Girls could take classes in cooking, sewing, and housekeeping, all taught by Hamilton’s upper-class women on the YWCA Board.  The lower-class women would be given a penny savings account as compensation.  After graduating, many of the young girls would be sent to the wealthy Aberdeen neighborhood to work as servants.

In 1908:
The Associated Charities of Hamilton took over the building and provided accommodation for the homeless, such as recent British immigrants.  The difference in quality of life at these shelters must be made, as some believe the building was technically abandoned during this time.

The first sightings of the Dark Lady:  Hoboes riding the rails would climb into the building for a night’s stay.  It was during this time that Alexander Wingfield’s ghost returned.  They all talked about a woman in dark clothes who walked among them at night. 

Everything went dark in 1912:
The Custom House stood empty – a leaking roof, broken windows, gas and water torn out.  It was at this time a fire destroyed the vinegar factory next door, bad luck for the factory, but great luck for the Custom House.  The owner bought the Custom House building to quickly carry on his successful business.  

Textile Town begins 1917:
Long before Hamilton was the Steel City, we were Textile Town.  This is evident in our historical mills of the East-End, such as the Imperial Cotton Centre [linktoGHPage]

The Ontario Yarn Company was not to be left out.  They moved in to the Custom House, hired men and women to turn out woolen yarn for the city’s knitting mills.

In 1920:
The ghosts of the Vinegar Factory strikes back… a fire breaks out at the Custom House and destroys the second floor.  When rebuilt, high ceilings were out of style, and an attic was added inside the original walls.  Today the attic is a storage facility for many treasures collected over the years.

The thriving textiles are gone in the 1950′s:
The yarn company closed, along with much of the textile industry in Hamilton.

In 1855:
The Custom House was constructed in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada for handling the trade flowing through the Port of Hamilton and along the new Great Railway lines.  Hamilton was now a booming city and trade was growing fast as lightning.  The original construction was approved by the lord of Dundurn Castle and a spiritual leader for the community… Sir Allan MacNab.

In 1858:
Teams of highly skilled stonecutters, stonemasons and carpenters were deployed to Stuart Street, at the base of Hamilton Harbour.  They began work on a building which would be called “an ornament to the city” by the Hamilton Spectator.

In 1860:
Construction was finished and Customs in the city of Hamilton was born.

Then from 1860 until 1887:

Seventeen white collared government men worked in the Custom House.  Daily they would deal with sailors, longshoremen, railway-men, and teamsters, the men who delivered goods into the city, including supplies to sustain a community… food, building materials and much more.  

It was during this time that a caretaker and messenger moved in.  He lived there with his family, a wife and kids who called the Custom House home. 
Many have seen the caretaker still in the building to this day, wandering the attic.

During this time, specifically in 1872:
The Nine-Hours League, a community group in Hamilton, organized a parade through the city streets.  One of the leaders was Alexander Wingfield.  Alexander was a railway worker during the day… and at night would trade in the wrench for a pen to write poetry.

He penned a tribute to the marchers entitled “The Nine-Hour Pioneers”.  A few years later he was given a job in the Custom House.

Alexander’s other poem would become evidence of Hamilton’s oldest ghost.  Called “The Dark Lady”, this would be the first account of the Custom House’s famous spirit.  This poem is read during our Ghost Walk of the Custom House, in the attic.

…and in 1887:
The Customs Department moved out… the city was getting too big for this two-storey building.  They moved into the Post Office building once located at King and John Streets.

In 1887:
The board of education quickly took over the Custom House to help alleviate the space crisis for elementary schools.  They set up classes in the building and used the backyard as a playground.

Some great ghostly experiences on the last Ghost Walk. 

1.  Two guys on Lady Elizabeth’s tour felt some interesting energy in the second floor hallway.  This is the location of the young boy who tugged my cape during a tour and the famous murder wall.

2. In the basement vault, a young lady felt an invisible hand stroking her hair.  She wasn’t sure if it was real until coming out into the light and seeing that one side of her hair was curing upwards.

3. In the main gallery before my tour, I was taking a survey from the group about who believes.  Just after asking, “Who believes in the spiritual side of ghosts” a loud banging was heard from an unknown location.  Nick Spring was helping us that night.  He ran to the front door thinking the sound was knocking (it was that loud), and found nobody there.  Lady Elizabeth was on the second floor and said she didn’t hear anything.

Stay tuned for more ghostly updates throughout the year as we walk through the haunted Custom House once a month.

Haunted Hamilton has been around for over 10 years, and in that time we’ve made many friends, learned many things about have collected a lot of experiences.

This Blog will be a way to post:

1.  Updates about local and worldwide related news on history and ghosts
2.  Letters addressing problems in the world of the Paranormal
3.  Quick articles and information on every Haunted Hamilton and abroad
4.  Anything else we can think of…

Expect regular posts to begin soon.  Also, the design will get better (once Stephanie gets to it! - Steph got to it!).

Thank you and we hope you enjoy The Haunted Hamilton Blog – http://www.hauntedhamilton.com/blog

Daniel Cumerlato
Founder of Haunted Hamilton