Haunted hotel guide · Kingston, Ontario
The Haunted Hochelaga Inn, Kingston: The Woman in Black at the Window
A turreted Victorian mansion in Kingston’s old Sydenham district, where guests have long described an elderly woman in black who sits by the front window as if she still owns the place.
Kingston calls itself one of the most haunted cities in Canada, and the Hochelaga Inn is one of the buildings its ghost walks stop outside. The inn is a red-brick Victorian mansion on quiet Sydenham Street, built for a lawyer who became mayor of Kingston, and for decades guests have told stories about a woman in a black Victorian dress who seems to have never moved out.
This is a guest-led haunting rather than a marketed one. The inn’s own website talks about its architecture, its breakfasts and its location, and its manager has told the Queen’s University student paper that he has never had a ghostly experience in the building. Below we set out the stories as guests have told them, what the records say about the house, and how to make the most of a night here.
Hochelaga Inn at a glance
Haunted Rooms Score
- Address 24 Sydenham Street, Kingston, ON K7L 3G9, Canada
- Built 1879 for lawyer John McIntyre (one student-paper history gives 1876); an inn since the 1980s
- Most haunted spots The chair by the front window, the main stairwell, the guest rooms and hallways
- Best-known ghosts A woman in a black Victorian dress, a fair-haired boy
- Booking the haunted room No single haunted room; most stories center on the front of the house and the stairs
- Good to know 21 rooms, breakfast included, quiet pets welcome if mentioned at booking, 9 on-site parking spaces
The ghosts of Hochelaga Inn
The woman in black
The best-known story at the Hochelaga Inn is about an elderly woman in a long black Victorian dress. Guests have described seeing her sitting in a chair by the front window, looking out at Sydenham Street, and others say they have felt the brush of her skirts as she passed them on the stairwell when nobody else was there.
One guest account published by the Queen’s Journal in 2005 described a woman in black Victorian clothing who seemed to occupy the house, unseen by the other people in the room. Later retellings credit her with setting off fire alarms, switching on televisions, moving objects and even singing lullabies, although those details are harder to trace to a named witness.
Many people assume she is Harriet McIntyre, the wife of the man who built the house. That is a natural guess, but there is no record linking any sighting to her, so treat the identification as local legend.
The fair-haired boy
Less often reported is a small boy with blond hair, glimpsed in the hallways and guest rooms before he disappears. Nobody has put a name to him, and there is no known record of a child dying in the house. He appears in the same 2005 accounts as the woman in black and has been part of the inn’s story ever since.
The figure at the foot of the bed
The most detailed story comes from a mother who stayed at the inn with her two teenage daughters in an adjoining room. During the night she saw one of her daughters standing at the foot of her bed, and in some tellings the girl urged her that they had to leave right away. In the morning both daughters insisted that neither had left their room all night.
Another guest has described a door to a lower-level room being pulled shut by an unseen hand, after which her party chose to stay somewhere else.
Alarms with a mind of their own
Writer Linda G. Hill stayed at the inn for several nights in 2013 and wrote that the fire alarm kept going off for no reason she could find. She also admitted to a little mischief of her own on her last night, standing in the window in a white sheet as a ghost tour went by. It is a good reminder that an inn on a ghost walk route will always attract a few stories, and a few jokes.
What the inn says
Management has been consistently skeptical. Manager Robert Penev told the Queen’s Journal that he has never had a ghostly experience in the building, and that staff who had worked there for more than ten years had not either. The inn does not market its ghosts, so if you ask at the desk, expect a friendly shrug rather than a tour.
The most haunted rooms and places to look
- The front parlor window: The chair by the front window is where the woman in black is most often described sitting. Take a seat there in the evening and watch the street.
- The main stairwell: Guests have reported feeling a dress brush past them on the stairs. The original Victorian woodwork makes it the most atmospheric part of the house.
- Sydenham Tower Suite: The inn’s largest suite, at about 365 square feet with a king bed. No specific story is tied to it, but it is the room to ask for if you want the full Victorian mansion experience.
- The McIntyre Study and Library Suite: Two king rooms named for the house’s past. Again no named ghost, but they keep the period feel of the McIntyre years.
History of Hochelaga Inn
The house was built for John McIntyre, a Kingston lawyer, and his wife Harriet, on land that came from Harriet’s family. The inn gives the date as 1879, while a history in the Queen’s Journal gives 1876. McIntyre served as mayor of Kingston in the late 1870s. Some accounts call him the city’s first mayor, which is not right: Kingston had mayors from the 1830s onward.
Harriet McIntyre is often said to have been a relative of Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister, who practiced law in Kingston. The house was designed to impress, with elaborate Victorian ornament, a tower and fine woodwork, and McIntyre later added a carriage house for extra servants, which is now part of the inn.
After McIntyre’s death the house was bought by the Bank of Montreal, through a branch known as the Hochelaga Foundation, and used to lodge traveling bank staff. That is where the name comes from: Hochelaga was the sixteenth-century Iroquoian village on the site of present-day Montreal. In 1933 the mansion was divided into apartments and slowly fell into disrepair.
Private owners restored it and opened it as a bed and breakfast in the mid-1980s, with 1985 the date most often given. It has changed hands several times since. Today it is a 21-room inn in the Old Stones and Sydenham Heritage District, a short walk from downtown Kingston, the Lake Ontario waterfront and Queen’s University.
Tips for a haunted stay
- Join an evening ghost walk in downtown Kingston: the inn is a regular stop on the city’s Haunted Walk, so you can hear the story told outside the building you are sleeping in.
- Ask for a room in the main house rather than the carriage house if you want to be close to the front window and stairwell where most stories are set.
- Spend a little time in the front parlor late in the evening, when the house is quiet. That is when the woman in black is said to keep watch.
- Parking is limited to nine spaces for 21 rooms, first come, first served. A large lot across the street is free overnight and on weekends.
- Breakfast is included, and quiet, well-behaved pets are welcome if you mention them when you book.
Want to investigate, not just sleep?
Sleeping in a haunted hotel is one thing. Investigating one after dark is another. On a Haunted Rooms ghost hunt our team takes you through the building with professional ghost hunting equipment, runs EVP sessions and lets you explore on your own during free roam.
- Historic Four Corners Ghost Hunt, Herkimer, NY: A jail and historic house in upstate New York, about three hours from Kingston via the Thousand Islands Bridge.
- Fort William Henry Ghost Hunt, Lake George, NY: A night inside the reconstructed 1755 fort at the foot of Lake George.
More haunted hotels nearby
- Ottawa Jail Hostel: sleep in a real 1862 jail cell, two hours up the road
- Fairmont Chateau Laurier, Ottawa: a grand railway hotel with a ghost tied to the Titanic
- Fairmont Royal York, Toronto: the eighth-floor ghost of Toronto’s landmark hotel
- Haunted hotels in Canada
- Haunted hotels in Ontario
Stayed in one of these hotels? Tell us what happened
We collect first-hand accounts from guests and add the best ones to our guides, with your first name and the date of your stay. We read every story before it’s published.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Hochelaga Inn in Kingston haunted?
Guests have reported a woman in a black Victorian dress, a fair-haired boy and unexplained alarms for decades, and the inn is a stop on Kingston’s ghost walks. The current management says it has never experienced anything, so these are guest stories rather than something the inn promotes.
Who is the woman in black at the Hochelaga Inn?
Nobody knows. Many people assume she is Harriet McIntyre, wife of the lawyer and mayor who built the house, but no record links any sighting to her.
When was the Hochelaga Inn built?
The inn dates the house to 1879, built for John McIntyre. One student-newspaper history gives 1876. It became a bed and breakfast in the mid-1980s.
Why is it called the Hochelaga Inn?
The house was owned for a time by the Bank of Montreal, through a branch called the Hochelaga Foundation. Hochelaga was the Iroquoian village on the site of present-day Montreal.
Does the Hochelaga Inn allow pets?
Yes. The inn says quiet, well-behaved pets are welcome and asks you to mention them when you book.
Is the Hochelaga Inn close to downtown Kingston?
Yes. It is on Sydenham Street in a residential heritage district, about a five to ten minute walk from downtown restaurants, the waterfront and Queen’s University.
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.
- Hochelaga Inn (official site)
- Queen's Journal: The stories behind the structure, Hochelaga Inn
- Michael Kleen: Hochelaga Inn's lady in black
- Mysteries of Canada: 10 haunted hotels in Ontario
Get new haunted hotel guides by email
New guides, haunted hotel picks and ghost hunt dates near you. No spam, unsubscribe any time.
About the authors
The Haunted Rooms Team runs public ghost hunts and overnight investigations at historic venues across the United States. We research every hotel in our guides using hotel histories, local archives, news coverage and the accounts of guests and staff, and we review each guide regularly so you are not booking a hotel that has closed or changed its name. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
Booking links on this page are affiliate links. If you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.