Empress Theatre
Empress Theatre is located in Fort Macleod, Alberta. The franchise of the Famous Players theatre went under construction in 1910 on Main Street of Fort Macleod, under J.S. Lambert. The Empress Theatre built by Lambert would serve for vaudeville, concerts, lectures, live theatre, and moving pictures. Daniel Boyle purchased the theatre in 1937, making major renovations on the theatre. These renovations included inserting a balcony and moving the projection room over this balcony.
The ghost stories at the theatre began in the 1950s, following the mysterious death of a janitor there. People reported smelling the cigar smoke from the dead janitor for years. Also in these reports was the sight of a hairy-armed man who would then vanish suddenly. The theatre would not be touched again until 1982, by the Fort Macleod Provincial Historic Area Society. In total, 1 million dollars were put into the renovations, which throughout the entire process, ghost sightings remained prevalent. One specific tale involves Diane Segboer, who was a worker of the theatre. One day, she experienced the seats of all the chairs slamming down at once by an unseen force.
(Source: Belanger, Jeff. Encyclopedia of Haunted Places. 2005.)
