The Deane House
The Deane House is located on Fort Calgary, in Calgary, Alberta. Fort Calgary was built in 1875 between Bow and Elbow Rivers. This location was picked because this spot had become an area for whiskey traders and outlaws. The North-West Mounted Police were charged with establishing order in the spot, since rail lines were being laid. The superintendent of the Fort was Captain Richard Deane, and in 1906, he began the construction of a house for his wife Martha, due to the fact that the living conditions were unfit for her.
The home was finally built, and it would cost the large sum of six thousand dollars. Martha would never be able to live in the house because she died of illness before it was ever finished. The fort was closed in 1914, and it was purchased by the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. The company tore down all the buildings on the fort except for the Deane House. The house became the station agent’s quarters. Entrepreneur C.L. Jacques bought the house in 1929, and turned it into a boarding house. The house went into a dark period from about 1933 to 1968.
These dark days included: a suicide in the attic, a husband who murdered his wife and then took his own life, two deaths due to natural causes, and two other murders. In the 1980s, the house became a part of the Fort Calgary- preserved historic site. The Deane House currently serves a restaurant that tells the tales of many ghosts. An apparition seen often at the house is that of an old native man who has long black braids. He once told a woman that she shouldn’t be here because the land was sacred. People have reported smelling cigar smoke, hearing voices and telephone rings, and also the sound of a piano playing from upstairs when no one is there. A dark apparition was seen by a staff member as it came down the stairs and vanished before his eyes.
(Source: Belanger, Jeff. Encyclopedia of Haunted Places. 2005.)
