The Charles Camsell Hospital was opened in 1946 by Lord Alexander the Governor General of Canada, and closed its doors in 1996, condemned due in part to asbestos. This hospital, which was located in the Inglewood Area in northwest Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, was named after Charles Camsell (1876–1958), a geologist and map-maker dedicated to the exploration of Canada's North. The original part of the building housed a tuberculosis sanatorium in the 1950s, mainly looking after aboriginal patients. Some people were forcibly placed into the hospital, and patients with certain “defects” were involuntarily sterilized. The hospital has seen more than its share of the dark and tragic side of human suffering and it is believed to be haunted.
Charles Camsell Hospital (2009)
The original building that housed the Charles Camsell Hospital was built around 1913 in Edmonton, Alberta. At first, the building was used as a Jesuit College for boys until 1942 at which time it was taken over by the American Army. The Americans added a number of detached frame buildings to the property, and the entire facility was used as a holding and forwarding centre for American Army personnel and civilian engineers employed to construct the Alaska Highway.
Then the property and the equipment were sold to the Government of Canada, and the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps used it to set up the Edmonton Military Hospital. At this time several detached buildings were connected to the main building by a system of corridors.
In the summer of 1945 Dr. W. Lynn Falconer, assistant to the Acting Superintendent of Medical Services for Indian Affairs in Ottawa, was sent to Edmonton to inspect the facility. The purpose of this inspection was to determine whether or not the site could be converted to a tuberculosis hospital to serve the Inuit and other First Nations groups in Alberta, the Yukon Territory, and parts of the Northwest Territories. The site was deemed suitable for conversion to a tuberculosis hospital and the first patients were admitted shortly before Christmas of 1945. For several months, the hospital was an "Experimental Hospital" run by the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps and Indian Health Services jointly known as the "Indian Hospital". Stigma surrounds the hospital as it is alleged that the aboriginal population was treated poorly, abused, and murdered.
Early in 1946 the hospital was named after Dr. Charles Camsell, one-time geologist and Deputy Minister of Mines and Resources from 1920 to 1946. Transfer of the land and buildings from the Department of Defence to the Department of National Health and Welfare officially took place on June 1, 1946, and the Charles Camsell Hospital officially opened on August 26, 1946 by Lord Alexander the Governor General of Canada. The Charles Camsell Hospital ran out of the former Jesuit College building for several years.
In 1964 the Federal Government approved the building of a new facility, and by 1967 the new building was complete. On July 11, 1967 equipment, staff, and patients were moved into the new building and the old Jesuit College building was demolished.
During the 1970s the function of the Charles Camsell Hospital began to change. There was no longer a need for a tuberculosis hospital in the area, so the Charles Camsell became a general treatment hospital.
In 1982, a young man working on the roof fell to his death. It is also alleged that south of the building near what used to be the staff garden is a mass grave of aboriginal children, though when officials questioned about this it is denied and stated that most of the people that died in this hospital were buried near a residential school in St. Albert north of Edmonton. These rumours and others regarding hauntings of the hospital are based more in urban legend than fact.
Sitting abandoned since 1996, the building gives off a haunted impression, and people walking by say they can feel many eyes looking out at them from the hospital windows. There are Satanic symbols and graffiti on the walls, and parts of the hospital are in slow decay. The fourth floor of the hospital housed the psychiatric wing. The patient isolation rooms and rumors of shock treatments make it a hot spot for confused and earthbound spirits.
Few years ago a group of paranormal investigator led by Rona Anderson try to investigate the hospital at night. Using video camera and a digital recorder, an anguished female scream was caught on the fourth floor, and it was verified that it did not belong to anyone in the investigation group. On the second floor is the surgical wing, and blood stains are still on the floor in one room. They captured a male voice on their recorder in Operating Room 6 calling out “Karen” and some unearthly groans. The most startling audio was something “slamming” its hand down hard on the metal shelf they had left the recorder on. Seconds after that, the recorder shut off.
In the auditorium, everyone with a camera caught at least one picture with orbs floating in it. A psychic impression given in the auditorium was of a very sad, older aboriginal man with mobility problems looking for his wife. It’s obviously that the hospital is very active with unseen patients walking around in the middle of the night.
Sources :
http://www.albertaonrecord.ca/charles-camsell-hospital
Encyclopedia of Haunted Places : “Ghostly Locales from Around the World” by Jeff Belanger;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inglewood,_Edmonton
Pic Source :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_Camsell_Hospital_Edmonton.jpg
The original building that housed the Charles Camsell Hospital was built around 1913 in Edmonton, Alberta. At first, the building was used as a Jesuit College for boys until 1942 at which time it was taken over by the American Army. The Americans added a number of detached frame buildings to the property, and the entire facility was used as a holding and forwarding centre for American Army personnel and civilian engineers employed to construct the Alaska Highway.
Then the property and the equipment were sold to the Government of Canada, and the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps used it to set up the Edmonton Military Hospital. At this time several detached buildings were connected to the main building by a system of corridors.
In the summer of 1945 Dr. W. Lynn Falconer, assistant to the Acting Superintendent of Medical Services for Indian Affairs in Ottawa, was sent to Edmonton to inspect the facility. The purpose of this inspection was to determine whether or not the site could be converted to a tuberculosis hospital to serve the Inuit and other First Nations groups in Alberta, the Yukon Territory, and parts of the Northwest Territories. The site was deemed suitable for conversion to a tuberculosis hospital and the first patients were admitted shortly before Christmas of 1945. For several months, the hospital was an "Experimental Hospital" run by the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps and Indian Health Services jointly known as the "Indian Hospital". Stigma surrounds the hospital as it is alleged that the aboriginal population was treated poorly, abused, and murdered.
Early in 1946 the hospital was named after Dr. Charles Camsell, one-time geologist and Deputy Minister of Mines and Resources from 1920 to 1946. Transfer of the land and buildings from the Department of Defence to the Department of National Health and Welfare officially took place on June 1, 1946, and the Charles Camsell Hospital officially opened on August 26, 1946 by Lord Alexander the Governor General of Canada. The Charles Camsell Hospital ran out of the former Jesuit College building for several years.
In 1964 the Federal Government approved the building of a new facility, and by 1967 the new building was complete. On July 11, 1967 equipment, staff, and patients were moved into the new building and the old Jesuit College building was demolished.
During the 1970s the function of the Charles Camsell Hospital began to change. There was no longer a need for a tuberculosis hospital in the area, so the Charles Camsell became a general treatment hospital.
In 1982, a young man working on the roof fell to his death. It is also alleged that south of the building near what used to be the staff garden is a mass grave of aboriginal children, though when officials questioned about this it is denied and stated that most of the people that died in this hospital were buried near a residential school in St. Albert north of Edmonton. These rumours and others regarding hauntings of the hospital are based more in urban legend than fact.
Sitting abandoned since 1996, the building gives off a haunted impression, and people walking by say they can feel many eyes looking out at them from the hospital windows. There are Satanic symbols and graffiti on the walls, and parts of the hospital are in slow decay. The fourth floor of the hospital housed the psychiatric wing. The patient isolation rooms and rumors of shock treatments make it a hot spot for confused and earthbound spirits.
Few years ago a group of paranormal investigator led by Rona Anderson try to investigate the hospital at night. Using video camera and a digital recorder, an anguished female scream was caught on the fourth floor, and it was verified that it did not belong to anyone in the investigation group. On the second floor is the surgical wing, and blood stains are still on the floor in one room. They captured a male voice on their recorder in Operating Room 6 calling out “Karen” and some unearthly groans. The most startling audio was something “slamming” its hand down hard on the metal shelf they had left the recorder on. Seconds after that, the recorder shut off.
In the auditorium, everyone with a camera caught at least one picture with orbs floating in it. A psychic impression given in the auditorium was of a very sad, older aboriginal man with mobility problems looking for his wife. It’s obviously that the hospital is very active with unseen patients walking around in the middle of the night.
Sources :
http://www.albertaonrecord.ca/charles-camsell-hospital
Encyclopedia of Haunted Places : “Ghostly Locales from Around the World” by Jeff Belanger;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inglewood,_Edmonton
Pic Source :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_Camsell_Hospital_Edmonton.jpg
Hospitals are already creepy enough places without ghosts!
ReplyDeleteWhoa, cool.
ReplyDeleteThe Charles Camsell Hospital was built in 1946 and not 1967 that the article states.
ReplyDelete@Arliss Arbeau: Thank you for the correction. Apparently the year are different between Jeff Belanger's book (it stated that it was built in 1967) and the Wikipedia (it was built in 1946).
ReplyDeleteI already change it based on wikipedia's article, since it's more reliable source. Thanks
Best regards,
Tripzibit
Those aren't orbs that they caught, the flash lights up the dust particles and ones that are closer to the camera show up as big orbs. Either way I've been in that hospital numerous times and never had anything out of the ordinary happen
ReplyDelete@Stray Dog: Interesting. Thanks for sharing your experience with us
ReplyDeleteThe Building that is standing today was built in 1967. Before that there was a much older group of buildings that had been known as the Jesuit Boys College built in 1913. During the second world war the building was used by the US Army as a support office for building the Alaskan Highway. In 1944 Veterans Affairs bought the place and re-purposed it was the Edmonton Military Hospital. The government then changed it to a TB hospital in 1946 serving aboriginal paitents. When the new hospital was built in 1967 the 1913 structure was demolished and there was no TB unit in the new hospital since TB could be treated by then.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteOpened in 1913 as a Jesuit College for Boys, the building at 114th Avenue and 128th Street was renamed in 1946 for Charles Camsell, a geologist who was Canada’s Deputy Minister of Mines and Resources from 1920 to 1946. During World War II, the building was used by the American Army to support their efforts building the Alaska Highway and was known as the Northwest Service Command headquarters.
After the highway was completed in 1944, the building was transferred to the Department of Veterans Affairs and became the Edmonton Military Hospital. Two years later, it was converted to use as a tuberculosis hospital serving the Inuit and First Nations groups in Alberta, the Yukon Territory, and parts of the Northwest Territories.
The 1913 building was demolished in July 1967 and operations were moved into a new building on the site since by that time a treatment of TB had been developed
I loved that hospital. Great staff, great care. Real food....lol :)
ReplyDelete@J.R. Reid: Thank you for your information about the history of this building. Really appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteThis article still need some revised, i'll update it soon
@Geraldine Wilde: Too bad its already closed. Thanks for dropping by and have a nice day :)
ReplyDeleteTo bad I did not see this 4 months ago, our 97 yr old grandmother was a nurse there for many years and I could have asked her about the buried children on the site. I don't believe that there is a graveyard there simply because grandma worked, then became head nurse of the children's ward (she even helped design the children's ward in the new hospital) she said that it did not feel right handing the parents a blanket wrapped child that passed away to travel home with. Grandma and another nurse started to make real nice boxes to put the babies in in the hospital basement. After some time the Undertakers found out and wanted to have them arrested for building caskets! Grandma said that it did not dawn on them that that is what they were doing, they just wanted it to be as easy on the families as possible. Needless to say an arrangement with the Undertakers was made.
ReplyDeleteI also do not believe that there was cruelty against the patients as Grandma had learned many of their traditions and ceremonies by participating in them. Many years later they bestowed upon her the title of Honorary Elder. They had mutual respect for each other.
I worked there as Certified Nursing aide 1966/67. Worked in both HOSPITALS.OLD/EW.
ReplyDeleteI was born in this hospital and still live close to it. Some of the facts stated are untrue and yes there is definitely a burial ground there. Please do more research if you are going to write an article. Ive been following these stories for a long time now.
ReplyDeleteYou know your projects stand out of the herd. is something special about them. It seems to me all of them are really brilliant!
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