The Five Fishermen Restaurant

There's a building which was built in 1750, located on Argyle Street in the oldest part of Halifax, N.S. The building was first built as a school in 1817, then Anna Leonowens took the building over as an art school, the Halifax Victorian School of Art. Before coming to Halifax, Anna was the governess to the children of the King of Siam, an experience she would later write a book about called "Anna and the King of Siam" later movie versions of The King and I.

The building housed the victims of the R.M.S. Titanic and was used as a funeral home for The Halifax Explosion of 1917.

In 1975, The Five Fishermen Restaurant was open for business and it carries non-paying customers which happen to be ghosts. Gary MacDonald, restaurant manager, sent me a document outlining the history of the building.

The document, written by Leonard Currie, stated that glassware would fly off the counters or cutlery would fall to the ground, sink taps would turn on and off by unseen hands. Cold spots, sounds of swinging doors when no one was around are more paranormal experiences. A waitress saw a gray apparition, a fog-like mass moving down the staircase, near the grand stairwell. Other staff experienced cold spots in heated places, unseen spirits calling out their names.

Another person who was indispensable to this article was Andy Smith owner and operator of Tattle Tours in Halifax. He is well versed in the paranormal of Halifax. There are two main stories which envelope the restaurant. When the restaurant was closing down a waitress forgot her purse in the changing room upstairs. Seconds, later the staff heard a "horrendous scream", said Smith. Staff ran upstairs to see if she was OK only to find that she was standing against the wall as if someone was holding her by the neck. "She was looking around for her purse upstairs. When she found her purse she turned around and that's when she found an older man. He took her by the neck and forced her to the wall and then he vanished," he stated.

Recently, a medium heard a voice of a young girl coming from the women's washroom area. "He won't let me out; he won't let me out. Mommy come and help me." The medium was challenging the young girl who was being held by the older man.

The older man may have been an undertaker who was stealing from the pockets of the victims of the Halifax Explosion.

The Five Fishermen Restaurant seems to be the ideal place for historians, and tourists or a place where you can have a great meal. Don't be surprised to see something you can't explain.

The Five Fishermen Restaurant, Argyle Street, Halifax, N.S.

(The Five Fishermen Restaurant and its non-paying customers - ghosts)