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Haunted McKay Avenue School

(Reports of McKay Avenue School being haunted)

Once in a while there is truly a strange haunting that it must be reported on. You'll know what I mean as you read this strange case. It was 104 years ago that the McKay Avenue School in Edmonton opened its doors to students and spirits.

The school had reports of being haunted soon after it was built in 1905. At the time mysterious voices could be heard near the two stone fireplaces. Usually, it takes years if not decades after a building is made when it becomes haunted if at all.

Other occurrences include the traditional haunting events: locked doors become unlocked, furniture being mysteriously moved, wooden floors being scraped, lights being turned on. All these events are done by unseen hands of those from the netherworld.

The following events are taken from Beware of Ghosts at McKay Avenue School (published in April 2002) by Mike Kostek, Archivist, EPS Archives and Museum.

Ron Hlady, former custodian and building preservation technician, has had his own encounters. Frank Newson, a former student and public school trustee in the early years of the 20th century, recalled the strangest event this reporter ever heard. It seems a student got stuck in a crawl space in the bowels of the school. Although he was rescued alive his screams could still be heard. It was not an echo of his screams; his screams could be heard for years after.

Enter the 1960s and a former school principal George Schurman recalls moaning sounds from the school's attic. About 86 years after the school was built, Ena Schneider, a secretary at the school, said that something strange would brush past her on several incidents.

Another employee John McCormick, painter, said something tried to push him off his ladder not once but on several occasions. Finally, a team of respected psychics spent the night in the school trying to contact some, if not all, of the spirits which make the old school their home.

Each member of the team had encounters with the tenants from another dimension. They are in fact owners of photos of weird shapes as the shapes hovered over the old wooden staircase.

Katherine Luck, Supervisor of Edmonton Public School Archives and Museums, stated that at around the Halloween season many paranormal groups who explore the unknown "are convinced" that the building has spirits which roam the halls and rooms.

One personal incident Luck recalls involved a radio station. After one paranormal group packed up their equipment and left the building she turned on her car radio on her way home. The station CBC was on 730AM instead of 740AM. "I couldn't get it on 740AM." Luck said she turned off her radio and about a half mile away from the school "I turned it on again and it went to 740AM."

"I'm not convinced but I'm not 'unconvinced'," she stated about her experience, the spirits and strange incidents about the school.

The 78-year-old building closed in 1983 and reopened the same year as an archive and museum where it is in operation today.

There is really no time limit whether a building is haunted. The land itself can be haunted, making whatever structure built on the land haunted as well. Young ghosts or old spirits, they all have a place to haunt in things that go bump in a Canadian night.