eastcoastghost – Piercing Moon Creations

What is now a popular seafood restaurant on Canada’s East Coast used to be a school, a warehouse and even a funeral home. The popular restaurant in Halifax, Nova Scotia is called: The Five Fishermen Restaurant. This restaurant is said to have a lot of paranormal activity and there are a ton of restless spirits lingering in it. For a building that is approximately 200 years old and has played a role in some of the greatest human tragedies of the twentieth century, it is not a wonder why people believe this restaurant to be haunted.

Citadel and Harbour in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1914 – photo by Library and Archives Canada

The building that now holds The Five Fishermen Restaurant is located on Argyle Street in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was first used as a school – The National School. The school opened its doors in 1818 by parishioners of Saint Paul’s Anglican Church. The most interesting aspect of this school was that it was the first school in Canada to offer free accessible education. The parishioners put an emphasis on teaching religion and giving education to poor children in the area. It was not long before the school could not keep up with the growing population and the number of children being enrolled. The school moved into Dalhousie College and the building is said to have been bought by Anna Leonowens.

This is where the history of this building begins to get a bit hazy. It is said that Anna Leonowens bought the building in 1903 for her school of arts and stayed there for 54 years. However, this would contradict the story that it was a funeral parlour in the early 1900s. All the sources point to Leonowens’ having purchased the building but there are no concrete dates, so it will be included in this, although highlighted that there are some issues with this part of the story.

Anna Leonowens was the former tutor to the King of Siam. She is widely known, not just in Canada, for her ability in the arts. She bought the old National School and turned it into The Halifax Victorian School of Art. It was incredibly popular and had to move when it became a part of The Nova Scotia College of Art. Or possibly before that. The history of this art school is particularly unclear during this time.

It is known that after The Halifax Victorian School of Art moved, John Snow and his family purchased the building a turned it into a funeral home – The John Snow and Company Funeral Home. This parlor had a significant role in two great human travesties of the time: the sinking of the Titanic and the Halifax Explosion. It was April 1912 when the Titanic hit an iceberg and went down. While many ships had tried to save the bodies of those who perished, many third class passengers and crew members were not brought back to shore, they were put back into the sea because of the lack of embalming materials. It was only really the rich who made it to John Snow’s Funeral Home to be prepared for funeral services and only about fifty-nine actually made it back to their families to be buried. Those who were brought to Halifax and could not be identified, approximately 129, were buried in the Fairview Lawn Cemetery.

It was 1917 and the First World War was raging in Europe. Halifax, being a port city, was a major port for the war. Troops, supplies and munitions would be shipped from Halifax over to Europe. It was a busy time in the ports of Halifax. In the morning of 6 December 1917 two ships, the Norwegian Imo and the French Mont Blanc collided. The Mont Blanc was filled with highly explosive munitions: pitric acid, TNT, high octane gasoline and gun cotton. The pitric acid set ablaze instantly and the crew abandoned ship. They tried to warn people but onlookers just began to crowd. The Halifax Fire Department was quick to respond but it was too late. The Mont Blanc exploded.

Damage caused by the Halifax Explosion at the north end of Campbell Road in 1917 – photo by Library and Archives Canada / C-003625B

1, 800 people were killed. 9, 000 people were injured, 200 of them blinded. Almost all of the northern part of Halifax was destroyed. The sound blast could be heard miles away. John Snow’s funeral parlour’s windows shattered, but the company stayed opened. They conducted the funeral services for those who had died in the explosion. They did approximately thirty to forty funeral services a day and coffins were piled high outside their parlor. It is said that after this disaster, the ghost stories really began.

Coffins Outside John Snow & Co. after Halifax Explosion – photo by Nova Scotia Archives and Records

In 1975, The Five Fishermen Restaurant opened and there have been no shortages of hauntings in the restaurant. In fact, it is said to have a high amount of activity. Glasses will fly off shelves, cutlery will fall off tables, sinks will turn on by themselves and the swinging doors to the kitchen open and close by themselves. There are cold pockets in the air and people feel ghosts moving through them. Some employees or late night guests hear voices and their names being called.

There have been sightings of apparitions. Once an employee saw just a grey mist in the form of a person floating towards her, she did not stay long to find out what it was. The second was a full body apparition of a man. The employees thought he was a customer and went to help but he vanished before their eyes.

In the restaurant there is always tapping and crashing noises that the employees have mostly gotten used to. Sometimes there are things you just cannot get used to and that is physically being touched by a ghost. An employed had reported being touched on the shoulder by a ghost but when they looked around no one was there. Another reported being brushed on the cheek by something. When she went to serve a table they asked who had slapped her as she had a red handprint on her face where something had brushed her cheek. Confused, she said no one had slapped her, no one had actually even touched her. These are just a few tales from The Five Fishermen Restaurant.

What had begun as a school is now considered one of the most haunted restaurants in all of Canada. Considering it had been a funeral home to two devastating events, especially the Halifax Explosion where almost all of the victims were dealt with by The John Snow and Co. Funeral Home alone. The sudden accidents and deaths linger on in the area, and inside the restaurant. While it is said that the most activity happened before and after during the open hours, there are times when both customers and employees witness the hauntings of The Five Fishermen Restaurant.

View of Halifax Harbour and Dartmouth in 1914 – photo by John Woodruff/Library and Archives Canada/PA-

Bibliography

Bundale, Brett. “Ghost Stories from Halifax Restaurant That Once Served as The Titanic’s Morgue.” Global News (May 8, 2017). Accessed March 29, 2019. globalnews.ca/news/3434202/eerie-encounters-at-the-five-fishermen-a-historic-halifax-eatery/

Halifax History. “Five Haunted Places in Halifax That You Have to Experience.” Discover Halifax (October 11, 2016). Accessed March 29, 2019. discoverhalifaxns.com/haunted-halifax-spookiest-things-to-do/

History.com Editors. “The Great Halifax Explosion.” HISTORY (July 20, 2010). Updated August 21, 2018). Accessed March 29, 2019. www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-great-halifax-explosion

“History of Five Fishermen.” The Five Fishermen Restaurant. Accessed March 29, 2019. www.fivefishermen.com/history/

Horodyski, Kate. “The Story Behind Canada’s ‘Ghost Restaurant’ The Five Fishermen.” Culture Trip (September 26, 2017). Accessed March 29, 2019. theculturetrip.com/north-america/articles/the-story-behind-canadas-ghost-restaurant-the-five-fishermen/

Kernaghan, Lois and Smulders, Marilyn. “Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University.” The Canadian Encyclopedia (October 31, 2012). Updated by Daniel Baird, December 9, 2016. www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/nova-scotia-college-of-art-and-design

Matthews, Diana L. “The Recovery Effort.” A Look Thru Time: Looking Through the Cracks of Time (April 24, 2012). Accessed March 29, 2019. alookthrutime.wordpress.com/2012/04/24/the-recovery-effort/

SamR and artsytari. “Five Fishermen Restaurant.” Atlas Obscura (2019). Accessed March 29, 2019. www.atlasobscura.com/places/five-fishermen-restaurant

“Sinking of the RMS Titanic.” Wikipedia. Accessed March 29, 2019. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_the_RMS_Titanic

Sutherland, Joel A. “Dining with the Dead.” In Haunted Canada 4: More True Tales of Terror, 80-84. Toronto, Ontario: Scholastic Canada Ltd, 2014. Amazon Kindle ebook version.

Newfoundland was the last province to join Canadian Confederation in 1949, but it was one of the first areas to hold colonizers. Newfoundland, in particular St. John’s, was a rough place to live in the nineteenth century. There was a low population, alcohol was cheap, there were always people arriving and leaving, and unwanted bodies were piling up in the streets with no one dealing with them. No one until Nancy Coyle prepared and buried the unknown and discarded. It was not long until her good deed turned against her and she was called a sorceress, shunned by the society she had been helping. Although the 1840s have been over for a long time, no one is really certain if Coyle has left with it.

St. John’s Newfoundland before 1892 – Library and Archives Canada / C-021355

In the early 1800s, St. Johns had a small population and relied heavily on a single industry economy – the fisheries. Landowners were often absent and no one wanted to pay municipal taxes, so, Newfoundland and St. John’s were reliant on their colonial government to take care of things. The military garrison and the clergy were essential for keeping peace and taking care of the citizen safety. Only a handful of police constables had even been hired in 1812, were paid from tavern licenses and had minimal responsibilities. The military was also essential for fire control, even though a voluntary fire brigade had formed in the 1820s with compulsory payments from landowners and businesses. Their equipment was poor, only getting slightly better in 1846 when private brigades developed, tied to churches and business, who helped pay for the equipment. Newfoundland had no real social structure during this time and without it, it was hard to properly give care to its citizens. It was not even until 1855 that Newfoundland was given full responsible government.

St. John’s was a particularly difficult place to live in the early nineteenth century. The social help and authority was severely lacking. One significant social service missing was morgues and a place for preparing and burying the dead. Burying the dead was left to families and for those who did not have families, well, they just began piling up. No one wanted to deal with them. The bodies mainly belonged to those who had died on ships – there were a lot of foreign vessels where the dead did not have their family on it or just could not be identified, so they were left on the street. Prisoners who had been executed, or died in prison, had no one who wanted or could bury them and no morgue, so they were piling up. Patients from insane asylums who had passed in the mental hospital’s care, were dumped on the street, no one took care of them. These were the common bodies left on the streets of St. John’s.

St. John’s Water Street 1886 – original photo by Library and Archives Canada / PA-139016

In 1840 the Colonial Government hired Nancy Coyle, with a standing salary, to prepare the bodies for burial. Coyle was skilled at her job and would prepare them right in her own home. Some said she was so skilled that she could bring people back to life.

While there is some truth to people “coming back to life,” it was more likely that the people waking up had been knocked out, drank too much, had sick or something else that may have been scientifically unknown at the time. The population at this time was also incredibly superstitious so they pointed at her and called her a sorceress. It was not long after the first two bodies “came back to life” that she was ostracized from St. John’s society.

The first body to rise again was a Dutch sailor who coffin she had been nailing closed. He woke up suddenly and sat up. Stunned and not knowing what else to do, she gave him a drink of whiskey and he went on his way. The second one was a mental patient from the insane asylum, John Murphy. She had laid his body on the table in her parlor, intending to work on him the next day, before heading to bed. Unable to sleep due to the noises coming from that area of her house, she went to investigate. It was John, he had woken up. As soon as she opened the door, he fled from her house. For days after he was seen walking the streets of St. John’s yelling and talking to himself.

Once these two events transpired, Nancy was no longer welcome with the living. She died friendless and alone in her house. All the time she spent on unwanted, discarded bodies, no one did the same for her. No one even really knows what happened to her body and if she was buried, she does not have a marked grave.

Now she is said to just wander. People see her wearing an old-fashioned red cloak, going through the cemeteries of St. John’s, most often of Trinity Church. Sometimes she can even be seen pulling a hearse drawn by a horse. These are the places she supposedly haunts. It is said that even in death she continues to watch over the people buried in the cemeteries. She never interacts with the living, not since being ostracized, her only concern seems to be the dead.

St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Trinity, Newfoundland – photo found at http://parkscanadahistory.com/series/chs/25/chs25-1j3.htm

Nancy Coyle cared for those who had no one else left to care for them. It was a time in Newfoundland that lacked basic social necessities to offer proper services for their population. Individuals often did the work that present day governments oversee. In Coyle’s case, the work she did made her an outcast. She lived and still “lives” taking care of the unwanted and forgotten. Something no one gave to her.

Bibliography

Archived Canadian Confederation. “Newfoundland.” Libraries and Archives Canada, (May 2, 2005). Accessed March 26, 2019. www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/confederation/023001-3060-e.html

Collier, Keith. “St. John’s ,1815-2010.” Heritage Newfoundland and Labrador, (2011). Accessed March 26, 2019. www. heritage.nf.ca/articles/society/st-johns-nl.php

Enkguy. “Newfoundland and Labrador.” 21Ghosts, (April 27, 2016). Accessed March 26, 2019. 21ghosts.info/newfoundland-and-labrador

“History of Newfoundland and Labrador.” Wikipedia. Accessed March 26, 2019. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Newfoundland_and_Labrador#19^th_century

Summers, W.F. “Newfoundland and Labrador.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, (September 12, 2010). Updated by Melvin Baker, Jacqueline Mcissac, and Erin James-abra in January 19, 2019. Accessed March 26, 2019. www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/newfoundland-and-labrador

Sutherland, Joel A. “Queen of the Dead.” In Haunted Canada 5: Terrifying True Stories, 945-988. Toronto, Ontario: Scholastic Canada Ltd. 2015. Amazon Kindle ebook version.

Women’s History Group. “Nancy Coyle (1840s).” Heritage Newfoundland and Labrador: The Women’s History Walking Tour Booklet, (1999), updated August 2013. Accessed March 26, 2019. www.heritage.nf.ca/articles/society/nancy-coyle.php