VIDEO: ‘Haunted’ St. Catharines building still standing 50 years later
Published March 4, 2022 at 2:03 pm
The building that still stands at 237 Church Street in St. Catharines got some serious attention over 50 years ago after news stories broke about it being haunted.
In fact, it got so much attention that late night TV show host Johnny Carson made a crack about it in his opening monologue one night in 1970.
So what exactly happened in that building way back on February 10, 1970?
Let’s break down the make-up of the ‘haunted’ building first. Based on its construction, it was likely built in the mid-1950s. There is a storefront and six attached apartments – four on the second floor and two at the rear of the first floor.
While the entire building went on the market in August 2020, it doesn’t appear there were no takers. It appears that there still might be tenants there but it’s equally possible they have all vacated and simply left curtains and blinds behind. There is no “For Sale” sign in the door.
That is now. Let’s go back to now.
Videos
What the website claims it the official police report from that night and the picture of the building used on the TV show “Portal to the Unknown.”
According to a website called “ufoinsight.com” on February 10, 1970, a St. Catharines police officer (then an independent police force) named Bob Crawford showed up at 237 Church for an alleged domestic squabble. That didn’t turn out to be too much so he was ready to leave when another tenant named Barbara Page caught his attention and asked him to join her.
Once inside her apartment, the website said he witnessed paranormal behaviour. Furniture was moving off its own accord. A bed moving away from a wall and levitating above the ground. An 11-year-old boy sitting in a chair that raised itself a foot off the ground and then random objects striking him.
Soon he was joined by a second officer, Bill Weir, for the now-canceled domestic call and he told Crawford that on a trip to the building a few weeks prior, he heard complaints from other tenants about “strange noises at all hours of the day.” He apparently noted it… and then shrugged it off.
Regardless, the “paranormal” activity carried on for a few days and caught the attention of others. One leaked it to the local newspaper which ran the story under the headline: “Ghostly Presence In An Apartment On Church Street”.
Soon, paranormal investigators, other reporters and nosy bystanders crowded the area around the building. Radio and television stations reported on it. That turned out to be too much for the Page family who left town, staying with friends in Montreal.
Once they returned, none of the spooky occurences ever happened again.
The following video, posted by “The Ghost Walks,” is from a TV show called “Portal to the Unknown,” which ran for one season in 2013. It takes a 12 minute look at the mysterious case of 237 Church Street.
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