The Haunted Prince of Wales Hotel, Niagara-on-the-Lake: Room 207

The Prince of Wales Hotel is the centerpiece of Old Town Niagara-on-the-Lake, a Victorian hotel on the corner of King and Picton streets that has hosted royalty from the future King George V to Queen Elizabeth II. In a town that calls itself one of the most haunted in Canada, it has its own ghost: Molly McGuire, said to haunt Room 207.

This guide covers the Room 207 legend, the hotel’s other stories, its real history from Long’s Hotel to the present, and how to book the room. The story features on the Friends of Laura Secord’s haunted Niagara tour, and Room 207 is an ordinary guest room you can ask for when you reserve.

The ghosts of Prince of Wales Hotel

Molly McGuire and Room 207

Before the hotel was built, a wooden house stood on part of the site. During the American invasion in the War of 1812, so the story goes, Molly McGuire was waiting at a window for her husband, a British soldier. An American soldier searching the house saw a tall figure at the window watching his comrades outside, took it for an enemy fighter and charged. He killed Molly, not a soldier. In some versions she is shot; in others she is bayoneted.

Room 207 is said to stand where that house stood. Guests in the room report flickering lights, footsteps and voices when nobody else is there, and a shower that turns itself on and off. The Friends of Laura Secord include Room 207 on their haunted Niagara tour, and note that the only way to see the room is to book a night in it.

Mary or Molly?

Like many legends, this one has drifted over time. She is called Molly in most tellings and Mary in some, and we have not found a contemporary record of her death. Niagara-on-the-Lake was occupied by American forces in 1813 and burned by them that December, so a story like hers is plausible, but treat the details as local legend.

The phantom horse and carriage

Guests and locals have also reported a ghostly horse and carriage outside the hotel on more than one occasion. It is a fitting image here: horse-drawn carriages still carry visitors along King Street, and the hotel’s original builder, William Long, was involved in a runaway-horse accident in the 1890s.

Hugh Hutchison and the stables

The Niagara-on-the-Lake Museum, writing in 2023, told a darker local tale. Across the street from the hotel stood stables, and there a man named Hugh Hutchison is said to have gone out of his mind, apparently over a screeching cat, and died. Earlier versions of this guide said he bought a shotgun for the cat and was found dead in the stalls in 1895. The museum suggests Hutchison may be the spirit behind some of the tales about the hotel and its neighbors, and jokes that trick-or-treaters should watch out for him and his cat.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• Room 207: The center of the legend and the room most guests ask for. It is a standard guest room, so request it when you book, especially for October.
• The second floor: If 207 is taken, ask for a room nearby on the same floor.
• The Drawing Room: Where afternoon tea is served. Open to non-guests and the easiest way to spend time in the hotel.
• King Street outside: Where the phantom horse and carriage has been reported. The corner of King and Picton is lovely after dark.

History of Prince of Wales Hotel

The Long family built the hotel in 1864 on the corner of King and Picton streets, and William Long ran it as a local hotelier. Over the following decades it went by several names, including Long’s Hotel, the Arcade Hotel and the Niagara House, the name Patrick J. O’Neil gave it after buying it in 1899, when rooms cost six dollars a night.

In 1901 the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York, later King George V and Queen Mary, stayed during their royal tour, and the hotel was renamed the Prince of Wales in their honor. Queen Elizabeth II stayed in 1973 during her visit to the area.

The hotel was extended in 1975 along King and Picton streets. It is owned by the Lai family’s Lais Hotel Properties, which renovated it, and is part of the Vintage Hotels group in Niagara-on-the-Lake. The three-story hotel has 110 rooms, the Noble restaurant, the Churchill Lounge, afternoon tea in the Drawing Room and the Secret Garden Spa with an indoor pool.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Request Room 207 when you book and phone to confirm a few days before. October fills early.
• Book the Friends of Laura Secord haunted Niagara tour or one of the town’s evening ghost walks for the same night.
• Afternoon tea in the Drawing Room is the easy way to visit if you are not staying.
• Fort George, a short walk away, has its own ghost tours and War of 1812 history that sets the scene for Molly’s story.
• Please be respectful if you visit without staying: the hotel may ask non-guests to stop photographing or leave.
• Stayed in Room 207? Tell us what happened using the form below.

More haunted hotels nearby

• Glenerin Inn, Mississauga: a haunted manor inn on the way to Toronto
• Fairmont Royal York, Toronto: Toronto’s grand railway hotel
• The Walper Hotel, Kitchener: a restored 1893 hotel with local ghost lore
• Haunted places in Ontario: more Ontario ghost stories
• Haunted hotels in Canada
• Haunted hotels in Ontario

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the hotel’s own website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as guests, staff and local historians tell them. Read how we rate haunted hotels.

• Prince of Wales Hotel (Vintage Hotels, official site)
• Wikipedia: Prince of Wales Hotel (Niagara-on-the-Lake)
• Friends of Laura Secord: Haunted Niagara tour, Room 207
• Niagara Now (NOTL Museum): The spirits of the Prince of Wales Hotel (2023)
• Slice: haunted hotels in Canada
• Pinecone Diaries: Six haunted places in Ontario and Quebec

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