King's Playhouse, PEI
The PEIGHS did some research at the Coles Building Public Archives in Charlottetown and found that a Bill was passed in 1841 about a survey that was done of the Common in Georgetown for proper burial grounds to be set up.
The King's Playhouse was built in 1897 by William Critchlow Harris. Before it was built the bodies in the graveyard that occupied the site were to be moved to a new site. The PEIGHS discovered, during their research at the archives, that there have been no records found to this date to show that any bodies were moved to a new location.
So, who could be responsible for the strange, unexplained occurrences that people over the years have reported at the King's Playhouse? It is believed that the resident ghost is "Captain George". The reason for this is solely based on the town being named "Georgetown" and it's shipbuilding history which isn't much to go on in regards to a haunting.
In 1983 the Playhouse burned to the ground. When it was rebuilt the strange occurrences seemed to be more active than ever. Due the the property's history of being a burial ground, could a few ghosts possibly be responsible for the paranormal activity and not just one ghost?
Experiences
- People have heard their name being called when there was no one around.
- Items that were placed in one area go missing and turn up in another area.
- In the center of the ceiling, of the auditorium, there is a large magician's playing card stuck to the ceiling. The story goes that the magician performing that particular night was performing a magic trick, and when he threw the playing cards up in the air, this one card went to the ceiling and stayed there (we were unable to get the card down to verify how it was able to be stuck to the ceiling so this remains a mystery).
- Lights would come on for no particular reason or not work and then come on later. Lights flickering also seems to happen quite often.
- Someone heard someone scream into their headset during a rehearsal when there was no way for this to happen.
- Footsteps in different areas of the building has been heard.
- The stereo system volume has turned up and down on its own.
- Someone once saw a ball bouncing down the upstairs hallway which then turned a corner.
- The playhouse was once being locked up for the evening, and when the person got in their car and started to drive away, every light upstairs turned on at once.
Investigations
August 15, 2009
We were invited by our friends, the PEIGHS (Prince Edward Island Ghost Hunters Society) to Prince Edward Island, to assist them in a joint investigation of the King's Playhouse which is located in Georgetown. This was a great experience, not only because it was our first investigation in PEI, but also because we finally had the chance to meet the PEIGHS.
Since this was the first joint investigation for both ghost research teams, Rushell and I knew there might be some organizational challenges ahead. But, we quickly put our heads together, and came up with a plan. Along with help and input from the other members of both teams we were all ready to go.
That is until a transformer blew and knocked the power out to half of the town. Transformer fixed, and back on track, both groups mixed together in order to work with one another and we split up into teams in order to cover the entire building. During the night there were two notable occurrences. One was that a door opened three times upstairs but it only occurred when one of the three teams were up there during the night. Due to the condition that the door latch was in though (you could push it open without turning the handle) Grim Undertakings decided to leave this occurrence as "inconclusive".
The other notable occurrence, which was stranger, was that a team upstairs asked, if there was someone there with them, could they turn on their flashlight. Nothing happened. However, during this time, the team who were in the main theatre, experienced one of their flashlights turn on and off by itself. This was unknown to the upstairs team until the theatre team radioed to report the occurrence. After the investigation no unexplained data was found by Grim Undertakings. There were no notable fluctuations on our EMF meter during the night and no significant changes in temperature.
The PEIGHS had some things show up in their data though. Here is their link to learn about their findings and to read their report of the investigation.
In conclusion, we would like to thank the PEIGHS for a great experience. It was wonderful to meet and work with you. We would also like to thank the King's Playhouse for the opportunity to investigate. Last, but not least, we would like to thank the Council of the theatre, the Town of Georgetown, and anyone else we may have missed. PEI is a great province and we enjoyed our trip.
