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Bellevue Mansion

When I first moved to Hamilton in 1997, my wife took me down a street on the edge of the Niagara Escarpment, pointing out an old house that had been abandoned since she was a child. She talked about that common childhood experience regarding old, creepy abandoned houses: almost every town or neighbourhood has one. One that children regularly cast leery glances at and step a bit more quickly when passing the sidewalk in front, particularly when the sun begins to set and the shadows grow long.

The neighbourhood and lot were actually desirable, and as the years passed and the old abandoned building was torn down, Francine and I speculated that it would be a great property to purchase and build a house on. It is a decent-sized lot on a lovely street, close to the amenities we’re used to and near the school our son attends. And the view of the city was spectacular.

We made some basic inquiries regarding the property, but nobody ever got back to us. I thought it was strange that a salesperson wouldn’t respond to a call from a serious customer. It was only later that I discovered some of the history of that lot and its “haunted house” — and was glad that a salesperson never returned my calls.

Francine and I now merely need to mention that abandoned lot and a shared chill runs up our spines.

The stories we have heard cause the imagination to run wild, conjuring haunting visions of a deranged man, a domestic predator, slowly lumbering through the halls in search of his family. In these thoughts, the house, the very grounds themselves, are possessed of some evil spirits that could drive a man to commit unspeakable acts.

But I have gotten ahead of myself here. Let’s go back to look at the house in question and learn a bit about its history.

The Bellevue Mansion stood atop the mountain brow for over 150 years[1] with a commanding view out over the city and bay. It ranked among Hamilton’s finest examples of historic residential architecture. Built by John Bradley between 1848 and 1850 of local quarried limestone, the Bellevue Mansion (bellevue being a French term for “beautiful view”) closely resembled the McQuesten homestead of Whitehern, both in style and construction.[2] Of particular significance are the north, east, and west facades, the stone chimneys, and belvedere of the building.[3]

The symmetrical and compact Classical Revival design of Bellevue displayed the finest sense of scale and proportion from the beginning, a testament to the competence of builders Melville, Herald, and White. Later embellished with a belvedere (after which the street is named), the Bellevue was one of the first in Hamilton’s tradition of beautiful escarpment estates.[4]

In the nineteenth century, Bellevue — along with other contemporary limestone mansions such as Inglewood, Rock Castle, and Whitehern — marked an important initial step in Hamilton’s rapid transition from a pioneer settlement to a cosmopolitan centre.[5]

The original owner of Bellevue, John Bradley, contributed to the Hamilton region not only through his commercial success (he owned a tavern, two downtown hotels, and land in the Hamilton area) but also through his political leadership in the growth of the community. Mr. Bradley, who had Bellevue built to accommodate him in his retirement, was a lieutenant, a major in the militia, and was appointed to the Board of Police. He is also often known as the man responsible for bringing the Roman Catholic Church to Hamilton. He retired a wealthy man and lived a good life until he died in the home in 1864.[6]

In the 1860s and 1870s George Gillespie, a later resident of 14 Belvidere, was a successful merchant and industrialist who did many things to promote Hamilton financial institutions.[7]

In the years since then, many other people lived in the residence, often home to distinguished citizens such as the Innes family, who took it over in the 1930s. Conversely, just as it was known to be the home of upstanding citizens, it was also rumoured to be the setting for some lurid and horrific occurrences.

It is said that a loving family — happy, comfortable, and content — once lived in the house, until one night, under the light of a full moon, the father stalked quietly up and down the hallways, wordlessly sinking an axe into the flesh of his two children and his wife. Upon completion of this gruesome task, legend has it that he climbed upstairs to the widow’s walk, where he hung himself from the main wooden beam of the belvedere.

The next morning, the police found the family butchered in their beds and the father’s body swaying in the attic. As evidenced by the tale of another family that lived there, the deceased may have been victims of some evil spirit that possessed the father.

This second story involves a son who, like the previous tenant, found an axe — perhaps the very same axe used in the first murders — and, again under a full moon, killed his family before taking his own life with that worn out beam on the widow’s walk.

Of course, frightening rumours like this spread like wildfire in the midst of a dry summer, passed not only from child to child but adult to adult. In the presence of such shameless decay, it’s no wonder that people cling to bizarre tales without any evidence. It’s as if believing something supernatural is taking place provides justification for the building going unlived-in for so long.

The lot at 14 Belvdere Avenue now stands empty. The house, as captured in this 1999 photo, is but a memory that will haunt Hamilton forever.

Courtesy of Stephanie Lechniak.

Initial searches into whether or not murders actually occurred in this neighbourhood in that time period were inconclusive: no immediate evidence could be found. Claire Sellens purchased the home in 1971, but he never moved in. Instead, he rented it out. As time passed, and the building continued to deteriorate, it was eventually abandoned.[8] It became the house at the end of the street, the one that children, such as my wife and her friends, feared; it became that haunted house, the building with eyes, the one that gave you the creepiest feeling when you walked past it.

Daniel and Stephanie shared a story told to them by a friend of Haunted Hamilton. It happened to a woman close to him one Halloween. Changing her name to Mary, here is how they tell the tale:

Mary, her boyfriend, and another couple went to the Bellevue Mansion at night to explore the spooky old house, but also prove for themselves if the violent ghosts of the murderous man and young boy really did exist.

With them they brought a Ouija board. This was the best way to communicate, as none in the group claimed to have any psychic ability.

They arrived at about 11:00 p.m. that night and spent perhaps an hour walking through the house and looking at all the old rooms.

Mary was disgusted by how decayed the house was, seeing that many of the rooms were damp, mouldy, and some areas were already well beyond repair, including a back room with a caved-in ceiling.

Finally, they set up the Ouija board in the old parlour. Each of the four kids put two fingers on the planchette. Mary’s boyfriend called out, summoning the ghosts of the husband and the boy. Time passed and nothing happened.

Just as they were about to give up, Mary heard a knocking from the second floor. The knocking got louder and harder, so much that the house itself started to shake. All four got to their feet and ran for the door, but Mary tripped.

She thought it was just a rock, or something left on the floor, but realized she was wrong when an invisible hand started dragging her back into the house.

Mary’s boyfriend saw her being pulled away, but his fear was stronger than his sense of chivalry, and he kept running ... all the way home.

The next day, all the kids met at school, including Mary. She refused to tell any of them what happened after being dragged into the house. But needless to say, Mary and her boyfriend didn’t remain a couple after that unique harrowing experience.[9]

Haunted Hamilton also heard from a woman that there was a spirit sighting by a clairvoyant who was visiting the house. The clairvoyant lady, who was standing outside, looked up to see a woman with blazing red hair running back and forth on the second floor, waving her arms frantically in the air.[10]

The clairvoyant also reported seeing the ghostly figure of a man with light brown hair walking toward them on the grounds of the property.

Other common legends and reported paranormal activity occurring at 14 Belvidere include visions of a young girl playing in the front yard and phantom voices whispering out people’s names.

Bellevue Mansion, which was popular talk among the local teenagers for rumours of murders, suicides, and ghosts or demons haunting the abandoned lot and building, was Haunted Hamilton’s first official investigation, the one that Daniel and Stephanie used as their debut.

They visited the historic house, which they referred to at the time as “Belvidere Mansion,” on a beautiful sunny day, taking dozens of pictures with their 35mm Canon camera.

They captured amazing views of extremely high ceilings and walls painted in bright colours, beautiful decorative white plaster mouldings, and large windows that went right up to the ceiling. They witnessed extraordinary views of the city of Hamilton.

But they also caught images of severely water-damaged rooms and a sadly neglected home in a crumbling state of decay. They saw what was once a majestic building of comfort and luxury instead as a barren and deserted shell, echoing with the rumours of murder and evil spirits.

Because it was a popular hangout for thrill-seeking teens and the police were regularly called to visit the home due to the noise, owner Claire Sellens had the support he needed to demolish the building, something that had been opposed by people like Janice Kay and The Committee to Save Bellevue.[11]

Claire Sellens was quoted in the Hamilton Spectator as saying, “There comes a time when granny no longer should be maintained on life support.”[12] In the fall of 2000, Hamilton lost yet another battle to save a historic building from destruction. Bellevue Mansion was torn down on that fateful day in September.

On an overcast day in early August 2011, I diverted from the path I usually jogged in order to pay yet another visit to this lot that so intrigued my wife and I. Having read so much and written about the history of the building, I simply wanted to visit it one more time and perhaps see if I might sense any of the alleged spectres or even an eerie feeling from being there.

Taking a short pause from my run, I took off my headphones and explored the lot. Then, I hit the record button of the voice memo application on my phone and recorded the following:

I’m standing in the barren lot where the house used to stand with sheets of misty rain running down and cooling me off from the run I just completed. Three, perhaps four building towers from the city below peek out over the overgrown grass and bushes growing behind the wrought-iron fence at the back of the lot. There are sounds of traffic on the mountain access a hundred feet below. Standing on the spot where the house once stood and looking out onto Belvidere, I can see the entrance to the lot is overgrown with bushy trees and shrubs. I can hear a couple of cars passing by on that front street and catch a quick glimpse of them as they pass a small cut-out window in the canopy of greenery that blocks almost all of the street from view. This giant, beautiful, overgrown lot has sat vacant now for more than ten years. There’s barely any evidence left of the building that once stood here, except perhaps for the eerie feeling that I bring with me from the things I have read about it.

As I stood there recording my thoughts and observations about the lot, I realized that, though I had been prepared to be frightened, though I had been prepared to feel some supernatural chill in the air, perhaps even to sense an evil presence lurking in wait for me, I instead felt sad for the loss our city faced when the building came down.

A barren and overgrown lot stands, still empty, where the Bellevue used to majestically look out over the city from atop the mountain brow for over 150 years. The lot has remained empty since the remains of the building were taken away that fateful September in 2000, and nobody knows if anything will ever stand there again; the continued vacancy of the lot is perhaps evidence enough that people still believe the legends about the evil spirits, which might continue to haunt that land.