If you’re wandering around Victoria, check out the ghosts of James Bay at the two Bent Mast and the James Bay Inn.
I was in Victoria recently researching my book Sensational Victoria and spent time in James Bay. 150 years ago the area housed huge mansions with large tracts of land owned by people who live on in street names like James Douglas, J.S. Helmcken and Robert Dunsmuir. Even though a lot of these heritage houses became ugly apartment buildings in the ‘60s and ‘70s, the Victoria Heritage Foundation still lists over 150 buildings on its heritage inventory, some dating back to the 1860s.
Quite a few operate as either restaurants, pubs or B&Bs and are worth a look for both architectural merit and fascinating social histories.
The Bent Mast
I had dinner one night at the Bent Mast, a restaurant in an 1884 house on Simcoe Street. According to the menu I swiped, the house was once a rooming home, a brothel, four different restaurants and an erotic art gallery. Apparently a number of ghosts haunt the house. There’s the happy child, a cranky old man who likes to hide things in the kitchen (did have to wait a while for the wine) and an older woman. Female staff report being felt up by a guy in a red fedora who disappears before they can take his order. I’m pretty sure I saw him by the bar when I first came in. The second floor, where the washrooms are, is definitely creepy. There’s a staircase that goes down to the back of the house and a bunch of locked rooms that I wouldn’t want to explore by myself after dark.
James Bay Inn
The next morning I had coffee at the James Bay Inn on Government Street. The hotel was designed by architect Charles Elwood Watkins in 1911 and is the third oldest in Victoria. It sold to Mother Cecilia’s religious order during the Second World War, and its claim to fame is that Emily Carr died there in 1945, a block from where she was born. The artist would be mortified to learn that the room where she died is now the men’s room in the pub.
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24 comments on “The Ghosts of James Bay”
Good morning Eve, I recently came across your short article on the James Bay Inn in Victoria, BC. I spent a week there in september of 2010. I got some intruiging video footage and still photography of some amazing phenonmena, including intelligent coloured orbs chasing each other around our room on the third floor, they were actually going in and out of the room, through the walls and ceiling. It happened almost every night we were there. Also have an interesting photo of what looks like a gentleman in a military uniform looking out a window at the hotel. Anymore info needed please e-mail me at ShadowmanRG@hotmail.com.
can you please send us a picture of the goast:)
There was a little girl, frail and ill (very pale) – about 8 years of age, short dark hair, (shoulder length) and she looked out the window quiet a bit. She mostly stayed upstairs.
Haven’t seen her in a while but upstairs was her room and another beside the bathroom was more ‘heavy’ I wouldn’t recommend meetings there – the business deals may go sour. Keep it light if you are in the room.
I saw her too but haven’t lately for a few years but she would be as you say on the second floor standing in front of the window by a curtain with short dark hair pale and sad looking like she was very ill.
I will be staying at the James Bay Inn this month. I’ll watch for the ghosts!
Check for Emily in the downstairs men’s washroom!
I’m staying at the JBI this weekend and am sorry to hear that Emily died in what sounds like a small dingy room in the basement (I’d pictured her being able to gaze out at the sky through one of the bay windows upstairs). I gather that it was the religious order that made the hotel into a hospital (I’d known it was a convalescent hospital at the time of Carr’s death, but hadn’t known that it started out as a hotel). Thanks for the info!
Enjoy! I stayed there a couple of years ago, but sadly didn’t see any ghosts.
There is a book on her it is called Haunted Canada 5. And it is about haunting. I think it was the 5 haunting, but it was of Emily Carr. It said that when people were sleeping she would grad there legs and the residents were to scared to move so they stayed in that position all night. There would not sleep and by the morning they she would be gone and they would race to pack there bags and leave the hotel. SO SCARY, BUT I REALLY WANT TO GO THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I must have been in the wrong room when I stayed there – didn’t have any visits from Emily or anyone else!
emily carr haunts the rooms and never speak bad about her paintings
She didn’t appear when I stayed there, but I don’t doubt you’re quite right!
I used to work there. Had a few things happen in the kitchen, and the girls who cleaned the rooms on the 3rd floor told us some stuff that happened to them.
Do tell
They are not harmful they are only want to have someone to talk or understand them just tell them that you are not there to harm them and they will leave you alone but tell them
[…] Apparently inside though, this place looks just as creepy as the stories paint it to be. There are dark rooms that not many people would like to be left alone in and sightings of many, many unexplained people, from an old man who likes to hide things from the staff to a young girl. Even the washrooms are apparently creepy – don’t let the outward appearance fool you. […]
I’ve stayed on both the second and third floors. Nothing spooky, but steeped in history. Love the JBI and thanks for there info regarding Emily Carr.
My children and I stayed at James Bay Inn when they were little. We were in our room facing towards the door when we saw the doorknob turn and the door move in its frame. I jumped up and threw the doiropen, but no one was there. My children said they saw a shadow beneath the door frame as the knob was turning.
I’ve stayed there a couple of times, and nothing out-of-the-ordinary every happened. And, I’m quite okay with that!
I was staying on the first floor and fell into a nap but was startled awake by a poke in the back. I looked over to see where my husband was, but he was fast sleep beside me.
My boyfriend and I just stayed there and we thought it was the floors in our room making us dizzy to the the fact they weren’t level, however I felt heavy in our room and I couldn’t breath all that easy. I’m not sure if it had anything to do with paranormal stuff but after we left (we were supposed to be there for 5 days, we checked out after 1 night) my dad told me it’s actually on the ghost tour in Victoria.
I’ve stayed there as well, but didn’t run into any “activity.” You’d be hard pressed to find accommodation in Victoria that isn’t haunted!
I can sense things and have seen/experience “stuff.” A friend is visiting from out of town and booked a room at JBI for her and her two kids. It was on the main floor. We went to the pub for a drink and I just felt very uneasy. Then, I really wanted to see her room. Everything felt normal in the lobby (very cute and sweet actually) and also in the hall of the first floor. But then I went into her room – and all I can say is that it was “heavy.” I don’t know how to describe the heaviness but … ummm … it’s almost like humidity but not. Anyway there’s something going on there and given my sensitivites I’d not like to stay the night (although they could be friendly – but I just don’t know). There is something there…for sure.
Regarding the ghosts at JBI, my husband and I stayed there for 3 days recently. I have been told many times that i am psychic, so I thought i would test this out in the pub ( no, i was not drinking ☺️). I was near the men’s washroom and asked Emily (or whoever was present) to show themselves. I asked for them to move a jacket that was hanging on a hook. Right beside the jacket, there was a padlock on a door. Instantly the padlock began to swing back and forth at a rapid rate for over one minute, then it abruptly stopped. I could not summon it again, so it must have given up on me! I truly believe that place is haunted, but in a friendly way!