Earlier this month, St. John Alexander invited me to hang out at Overlynn, a Burnaby mansion for a CTV news Halloween segment. I spent an amazing Saturday with St. John, Greg Mansfield and Amanda Quill—two experienced ghost hunters.
Listen to Cold Case Canada podcast Episode 34
Charles Peter:
As the history geek in the group, I discovered that Overlynn, which is in Vancouver Heights, is part of North Burnaby. Around 1909 when the streetcar line was extended to Boundary Road, and the CPR was selling off Shaughnessy, Charles Peter, head of the Blue Ribbon Tea Business, a division of GF and J. Galt Company, thought that Vancouver Heights could become another exclusive subdivision for the rich.
At the time, the average house cost $1,000 to build, but you had to spend at least $3,500 to buy into Vancouver Heights. Peter’s house was a model for what the rich could do. Designed by Samuel Maclure at a cost of $75,000, it was named Overlynn because you could look right over Burrard Inlet to North Vancouver’s Lynn Creek. The house took three years and was finished in 1912. It didn’t work though, the rich stayed in Vancouver.
The Sisters of Charity of Halifax:
The Peters family lived here until the late 1920s when the house sold to the Sisters of Charity of Halifax. The nuns ran Seton Academy, a private Catholic girls boarding and day school for the next 40 years.
We had all two and one-half storeys to ourselves. Greg and Amanda say the house may look empty but it’s brimming with paranormal activity. Thornton Tunnel which runs under North Burnaby, may be behind some bumps and shakes, but it can’t explain the swinging arm, the man who coughs or the little girl in the white dress who suddenly appears, and just as suddenly, disappears.
The Attic:
The stain-glassed windows, the elaborately tiled fireplaces and the wood paneled walls are just gorgeous, but the most interesting part of the house is the attic. You go through the servant’s quarters and up a narrow set of stairs until you get to a heavy metal door at the top.
What’s particularly creepy is that the locks are on the outside and this is where the girls must have slept. The floor is still covered in red and grey checkered lino, there is a bathroom with several sinks and a large room that likely served as a dormitory.
In 1970 the house and grounds were sold to the Action line housing society for $350,000. A tower was added, and it’s been used as seniors housing ever since.
The house received heritage designation in 1995.
Watch the CTV News Segment: Burnaby’s Haunted Overlynn Mansion
Also by St. John Alexander: The Vancouver Police museum – the city’s most haunted building?
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