For more than a century, local residents have flocked to the Montreal House for a drink, some home cooking and camaraderie.
Legends say some people like the place so much they haven’t left.
Owner Lynda Defour has employed hundreds of staff during the 26 years she’s owned the landmark at the corner of Grand Ave. and Lacroix Street and almost all of them have a story to tell about strange happenings.
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“Everyone who’s worked here at night knows what I’m talking about,” she said. “Things…just happen. There’s no explanation that makes sense except something we can’t understand.”
One of the most popular phenomena is the television set near the kitchen, that despite being replaced over the years, turns on and off by itself and controls its own volume.
One-time Montreal House employee Kerry Myerink said part of her routine more than a decade ago was to go through the various rooms, shut things off and tidy up at closing.
“I’d turn the TV off, go into another room and come back to find it back on,” she said. “It happened so often I just got used to it.”
Defour said she was speaking with a group of patrons only a few weeks ago when they mentioned that they didn’t believe the stories.
All of the sudden the TV volume went way up. I went to turn it off and it shut down by itself,” she said. “I think it changed a few minds.”
A Mr. and Mrs. Campbell who owned the bar decades before have both made appearances to staff.
“One bartender looked around the corner, saw a customer in a white dress shirt and a black tie and told him she’d serve him in a minute,” she said. “When the bartender turned around, he was gone. Later she noticed a picture of the man posing with his staff members and everyone was wearing the white shirt and black tie. It was Mr. Campbell who had been dead for years.”
It’s believed that Mrs. Campbell is behind chairs moving and lights going off and on.
“The one light in the entrance was would turn itself off and on. It was an old cut glass light so we had the light and the wiring changed. I can be halfway up or down the stairs and the light goes on or off.”
One staff member decades ago used to play one of the pinball machines in the “men’s room” after closing.
“Every once in a while the machine next to the one he was playing came on and sometimes it started playing along with him. He was convinced he saw Mrs. Campbell and wondered if it was her.”
The bar has had “our share” of patrons who have passed away while at the bar. “It happens, if you get an older customer, sometimes it’s like they’ve just fallen asleep.”
She said some paranormal researchers stayed overnight at the bar a few weeks ago and had some higher than normal electromagnetic readings and some unexplainable sounds that they are now analyzing.
“I don’t know what it will mean when they figure it out but I’m curious,” she said.
With the bar up for sale, Defour wonders where the spirits will go if a new owner wants to use the property for another use.
“I can’t see someone haunting one of those franchise places that seem so popular. They don’t have much in the way of personality. I can see why somebody wouldn’t want to be caught dead in one,” she laughed.
