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~ Severn Bridge ~

Let me take you to a time and a place of mystery, history, solitude, and peace. This is not necessarily linear time; perhaps it is eternal.

Welcome to the Severn River Inn at Severn Bridge, on the picturesque Severn River. May you enjoy an interesting holiday!

First — the river: the Severn River winds for 53 kilometres from Lake Simcoe through Lake Couchiching to Georgian Bay. Its namesake is a similar river winding through southwestern England. The First Nations called it Mujeduck.

The river came to be after the Wisconsin glacier and it was shallow in spots and more turbulent than it is today. The last century marked the growth of the Severn River into a gigantic waterway when a system was needed to make navigation possible from Lake Ontario to Georgian Bay. By the middle of the 19th century the river was also harnessed for power.

The Severn River Inn is a welcoming sight to contemporary visitors, as it overlooks the Severn River.

The first recorded pioneers came here in 1858. They were James H. Jackson, William Johnston, and John Young. They had all been given land grants on the river. By 1862 Severn Bridge was reported to be a thriving village site.

It was James H. Jackson who settled on the site where the Severn River Inn stands today. There he built a log cabin close to the river and opened a general store.

In January 1861 the Jackson store became Muskoka’s very first post office and J.H. was the Postmaster. Three years later Jackson had fulfilled the requirements for his land grant and received a patent for all 95 acres of the combined lots 1 and 2 on the east side of the Muskoka Road.

With a mortgage of $500 from William Anderson, Jackson constructed a large, white, frame building which included his residence, the store and the post office.

The Northern Extension Railway arrived in 1873–74. It brought with it a new industry — tourism. Next came the steamboat Pioneer, making daily runs from Severn Bridge to campsites and hotels on Sparrow Lake and not far behind came other steamboats to accommodate the growing trade.

By 1896, Severn Bridge boasted a population of 150 people. More stores and shops opened to service the area residents, tourists, and the workers from mills that had been established on the river.

James Jackson passed away in 1894, and his son James H. Jackson Jr. took over the daily operations, which now included the telephone exchange. James Jr. knew that tourism would always be a good source of revenue and so he built a summer hotel to accommodate 35 to 40 guests. He named his hotel, which was situated on the bank of the river next to his residence, Riverview.

A disastrous fire in 1906, caused by a spark from the burner at the mill, levelled most of the village. The Jackson residence, store, post office, and hotel, along with many other homes and businesses were destroyed in a matter of minutes.

The merchants and villagers rallied to the task of rebuilding. By 1907, with the help of his brother, Joseph, who was a carpenter, James rebuilt a new brick building by the river, a building large enough once again to accommodate a store, a hotel, and a family residence. The establishment was named the Severn River Inn. This is now the third time for a building on one site.

It continued to be operated as a general store, a post office, and a telephone exchange, and they now boarded teachers, travellers, and summer guests. They were well known for their “Jackson hospitality.” The inn became a thriving centre of social activity for the area.

James Jackson Jr. died in 1942 and the business was sold to his son-in-law, Arthur Fawcett, who had married James’s daughter, Marjorie Jackson. Their daughter Pauline Delamere recalls growing up at the inn. “The teachers and guests ate their meals in the dining room, while the family dined in the kitchen. We had five rooms for lodgers to rent. They all shared one washroom, but there were two outhouses to use — one on one side of the building for men and another on the other side for the women to use. My grandmother Ida lived with us and resided on the second floor on the right-hand side of the front section of the building. She passed away in the inn … but … I don’t recall any hauntings while my family lived there.”

In 1972 the Fawcetts retired from business and sold the Severn River Inn. This was the first time in 110 years that it was out of the Jackson family. Since that time it has changed hands several times. Patricia Raymond purchased the place in 1981 and, with the help of her three children, she restored the building and opened a 10-room country inn.

Shortly thereafter, the Town of Gravenhurst declared the inn a Heritage Building under the Ontario Heritage Act. The original architectural features of the building have survived the passing of nine decades. The twin wooden posts, which supported the beam over the Victorian storefront of the general store, the original double-hung windows, the brick veneer, and the decorative columns on the long, screened verandah, now a summer dining area, still remain.

Eventually, Norman and Rosalie Rondeau and Curt and Kaaren Brandt purchased the historic inn. Both couples acknowledged that some unexplained activity certainly had been occurring in the building. However, no one, at that point, had sighted a ghost nor identified the spirits in question. Nevertheless, there were stories to verify a presence there.

Phyllis, an employee of the inn, had also worked for the previous owners. She had experienced mysterious happenings at the fire door. “I sometimes find the fire escape door, located at the front of the building, wide open. The door might open at night after the guests have retired and the patrons are gone. I have never seen a ghost, but I don’t disbelieve — anything is possible.”

Rosalie stated, “I get tapped on the shoulder in the back dining room area. This happens about once every two months.” Her partner Kaaren, has heard children playing by the backstairs in the building but nothing was ever visible. There were no children physically present. “I could hear them running around and playfully squealing,” she added. It was almost as if parallel lives were being lived or simultaneous activity was occurring, somewhat oblivious to the present day.

Kaaren has also experienced spirit activity on the grounds of the inn. “When I was raking leaves once, I felt someone tugging at my coat. I turned and said, ‘If you’ll be nice to me, I’ll be nice to you!’”

Guests and patrons visiting the inn have the opportunity to explore several different settings in the building. They can enjoy a meal in the J.H. Jackson Dining Room, which was the original post office, the telephone exchange, and the general store, or they can just relax in the more formal parlour with a restful view of Severn River. The cozy Storefront lounge provides a turn-of-the-century atmosphere. The seven guest rooms, all beautifully furnished with antiques, are located on the second floor. One could almost step back in time themselves as the scene has been well set to do so. Could this be a key to keeping the past alive?

Gabriella Kira was the chef there in 1997 and she took great pride in her menu — prime rib on Sunday nights, the immensely popular beef Wellington, or the maritime seafood chowder prepared by her husband. Gabriella, herself, has had a number of experiences with spirit activity.

“One evening I was working with Rhonda. It was about eight o’clock and we were the only two people in the inn. We were in the bar area when we heard footsteps upstairs. Then we heard someone walking up and down the stairs by the back dining room, the stairs that lead to the second floor. The floors creak, so we know when someone is walking around. I also heard a door slam. It sounded like the door to either room 3 or 4. Rhonda said to me, ‘Do you want to go upstairs to see who it is?’ I said ‘No!’”

“I think this spirit activity is so intriguing. Somehow it renders the previous inhabitants mysterious,” Gabriella added.

One night Gabriella was working with Norman Rondeau. At the end of each day Norman would retire to the office on the second floor to complete the day’s bookkeeping. At this time of the evening the business would be closed. On that particular night Norman and Gabriella were the only two people in the building.

Gabriella explained what happened, “I was downstairs in the basement taking some food out of the freezer for the next day. Suddenly I heard someone walking around in the bar area. I came upstairs, thinking it was Norman and then I realized he was still in the office. I asked Norman, if he had been downstairs, but the answer was no. I returned to the basement and again I heard the footsteps.”

Gabriella took me to the basement, to show me how you can hear the footsteps of customers walking on the first floor. The sound of footsteps was quite pronounced.

As for Norman, although he had never seen a spirit appear, he had often heard mumbled voices. On another occasion, Norman, his mother Carol, and her sister Lillian were in the sitting room on the second floor when the lights went on and then off all by themselves.

Objects frequently went missing in the inn. Pictures hanging on the walls completely disappear. A special knife, used in the kitchen, disappeared and was never found. Gabriella’s piping bag used for cake decorating also vanished never to be found. Who else had uses for these things and who changed the surroundings? Was there another setting, just beyond their view?

One evening at closing time, Rhonda went upstairs to check the rooms on the second floor. Walking along in the dark corridor she fell over a table in the middle of the hall. Someone had moved this piece of furniture away from the wall.

Norman’s mother, Carol, and her husband often helped out around the inn. One day she was cleaning room 5. This room was well lit by natural sunlight during the day. Carol left the room and returned momentarily to discover that the lamp had been turned on. On another occasion she had been working and sat down in room 5 for a short rest. “I closed my eyes and the lights just came on by themselves,” she explained.

It would seem that the inn is indeed a mysterious place of unexplained activity. Some people speculate that it is Pauline Delamere’s grandmother, Ida, who died in the building. Other people have chosen to ignore the activity. If Pauline is right that there was no spiritual activity in the building before the 1970s, what could have caused it to start later?

When I returned in 2007, ten years after the writing of Haunted Ontario, I discovered that there had been many more experiences.

In August 2002 Pam Sulesky and her friend Sue MacLeod Browning arrived at the Severn River Inn. In the evening they had dinner on the back porch overlooking the picturesque Severn River. During their meal Pam’s friend Sue saw something.

Pam explained, “My friend Sue is a gifted native healer from the First Nations Reserve of Curve Lake. That night she saw a woman in a blue dress with red hair worn up in a bun. She was walking along a balcony situated in front of the second-storey windows overlooking the river. This balcony doesn’t exist today. I couldn’t see this, but I didn’t doubt what Sue had seen. She often sees things that most of us cannot.

“We strolled around the building after dinner to gaze at this beautiful building that must have had a wonderful past. When we looked at the structure from across the road Sue commented ‘Look at the roof area. What do you see?’ I noticed a purple aura around the building. It was really strange.”

The women then moved to the side of the house and encountered something. Pam observed, “I heard children laughing and squealing behind me. I turned quickly. It was a little startling, but there was no one there. At the same time I was looking for children that didn’t exist, Sue noticed a man with a handle-bar mustache and wearing armbands on his sleeves. Again I couldn’t see anything.

“Then we entered the inn and sat in the bar section. When the waitress came Sue asked her if the place was haunted. She went crazy. She called into the kitchen area to the cook and said ‘these ladies have seen the ghosts.’ The cook handed us a copy of Haunted Ontario. We were stunned. The Severn River Inn was in the book. The woman that Sue had seen in the back of the building was the ghost named Ida.

“That night as we walked around the second floor where we were staying the energy was undeniable, especially to anyone who has worked with energy before.

“Every time we would mention the name Ida, the lights would flicker in the sitting area of the second floor. Eventually I sat on the couch to enjoy a cup of tea, but we called it a night when something knocked the tea cup from my hand. It literally flew from my hand to the chair beside me. The feeling was similar to that of a magnetic pull.”

This was only the beginning of the activity that night. Pam continued, “Once we moved into the room to call it a night, things began to happen. While we tried to sleep, we could hear the wind outside our window. The wind was blowing so hard it sounded as if there were a tornado outside. When Sue opened the drapes, it was still and calm outside. Under the bed, it sounded like someone was shuffling cards. It was so bizarre. Again, trying to get to sleep, I noticed someone had turned on the light in the hallway, as the door didn’t meet the floor tightly. I could see the light coming under, into our room. I thought to myself, ‘well, maybe they leave that light on for other guests’. Around 11:30 p.m., I was awakened by the sound of cutlery being sorted. I heard drawers opening and closing and the distinct sound of forks and knives being put away. Sue was already awake; she was worried because she could smell smoke. I couldn’t smell it and I tried to put her mind at ease, but she was insistent. She thought there was a fire and ran out into the hallway to check and see if there were smoke detectors. All was quiet and normal outside our room, so she came back perplexed. Finally, sleep must have come because we awoke in the morning, although not too well rested.

“We went downstairs to enjoy our continental breakfast and spoke to the woman serving us about our strange and busy night. I’ll never forget the feeling that washed over me when she told us we had been alone in the building since 9:30 p.m. the previous night. How could that be? Who turned on the light? Who was sorting cutlery? When Sue told her how she thought the building was on fire, the woman explained to us that the original house had burned down a hundred years ago. They had pushed the remains of the burned building into the river, and rebuilt the house we were in today. She told us that divers had been in the water that weekend and had brought some things out. I wondered if that might explain the dream I had had about a woman who gave me a china bunny rabbit with a beautiful burgundy and gold pattern on it. As well, I wondered if this diving group had stirred up the spirits who were watching so closely over their beloved home.

“After our breakfast, Sue went back to our room first to shower, change, and pack up. When she was finished I went up to have a shower. It seemed that the water had a mind of its own. While I was in the shower, mentally reviewing all the activities of the night before, the water completely shut off. I got out of the shower and tried the sink tap … nothing, no water. The whole time I could feel a presence around me. It wasn’t scary, but it was definitely there. I wrapped myself up, and went into the hall and hollered down to Sue and the waitress about my dilemma. Sue went out into the yard, where the owner of the inn was watering the grass! Clearly, nothing was wrong with the water flow. He went down to the basement, checked all the pipes and could not figure out why, just in our room, the water would not run. I went back into the room … stood in the bathroom and said out loud, ‘Ida, we have to leave … clean or dirty we have to leave. I promise to come back and visit again. Please let me get washed.’ No word of a lie, I moved over to the shower, turned the handle and out came the water.

“I kept my promise to Ida and have been back to the inn a couple of times for lunch and dinner.”

Contemporary photo of dining room interior, Severn River Inn

Pam’s friend Sue shared some of her own observations from their stay at the Severn River Inn.

“While dining on the patio at the inn I looked up to the top of the building and noticed rays of grey/purple trailing up into the sky … then what caught my eye was a woman who walked through the wall … she was wearing 1800s type of clothing. She glanced down among the diners and simply walked back through the wall. Pam was now going ‘what? What are you seeing?’ I couldn’t hide my expression. I told her we had visitors.”

In December 2005 Norman and Rosalie, Curt and Kaaren sold the Severn River Inn to James and Wendy Fairbairn. James and Wendy were ready to leave the city life behind and live in the country. It just so happened that James’s sister lived in Severn Bridge. When the inn went on the real estate market, his sister suggested they buy it. The Fairbairn’s put an offer in and it was accepted. Both James and Wendy had restaurant backgrounds.

James and Wendy Fairbairn at the Severn River Inn

Currently James and Wendy offer four rooms to rent. The inn has two dining rooms and a lounge/bar area. Their chef is European-trained. The dinner menu features two dinner specialties each evening. It has become well-known for excellent soups. The unique setting of the inn by the river provides a lovely location for weddings. They cater to small (50), intimate wedding festivities and corporate conferences.

The owners are well aware of the history and the hauntings of the inn. In fact, they are now part of a new chapter in the continuing ghostly experiences of visitors and overnight guests.

Wendy shared an early encounter of unexplained activity that occurred in the spring of 2005. “We had just installed a French door near the entrance to the inn. It was a self closing door. Two weeks later, at closing time, James and I were sitting at the bar when we noticed that the new door was ajar. This shouldn’t be happening!”

Wendy decided to go and check the door. As she stood up they both watched the door close on its own. Wendy explained, “The door does not stay open. It was as if someone was holding the door open.”

Last September a woman who was driving by the inn, on Highway 11, felt compelled to turn off the road and visit the inn. James stated what happened next. “This woman came in and sat at the bar. She announced almost immediately that she could feel something there. She asked, ‘tell me about the two women.’”

James was taken aback by the woman’s request. James continued the account, “I told her about our chef who at the time resided in room 1. The chef had said that in the two years he had been there, he would occasionally hear two women arguing with each other outside his door. On each occasion he was the only person in the building.”

The woman decided to stay for the evening. She asked James to tell her about the boat.

James added, “The only thing I could think of was the steamer that once travelled the river taking guests to Stanton House on Sparrow Lake.”

The woman responded, “There was a man on that boat who was having an affair with a younger woman and that is why the women were arguing in the hallway.”

Then she asked James if she could see the upstairs of the inn.

James recounted. “I took her upstairs and showed her around. She said she felt a very strong presence upstairs. The spirit, she thought, was transient. She commented, ‘They don’t live here.’ She then walked down the hallway feeling the walls with her hands. She felt a strong presence coming from room 5. Then we went down to rooms 7 and 8. She stood in the hallway between the doors and commented, ‘There is a very strong energy flow between these two rooms.’”

Wendy added, “These two rooms would have been the original living space of the Jackson family. This was where Ida lived.”

James stated what happened next. “We entered room 7. The woman walked up to a wicker chair in the room and touched it. Then she spoke, ‘The person sitting in this chair doesn’t like me.’ I just said ‘okay.’ We left the room and entered the little hallway that leads to room 5. She stood and faced room 5 and observed, ‘Someone had an accident right here. I also see someone with a noose.’”

As far as James was concerned no one had ever died in the building in that manner. He had heard that someone had hanged themselves in the barn that once stood across the street.

Then she left the inn.

James mentioned an experience a former housekeeper had had while cleaning a room. “She wouldn’t say what room. The guests had had a party in the room. The room was quite messy. The housekeeper had felt a heaviness or tension in the room. When she was standing by the doorway she was tapped on the shoulder. She looked around, but no one was there. Then she felt the heaviness leave the room.”

A group of employees from Manual Life were once involved in a conference at the inn. One person in the group kept teasing another member of their group about ghosts.

James shared what happened next. “By late evening everyone went off to bed. The man who had tormented his friend about ghosts earlier in the evening was the first to appear in the morning. He looked like he had never slept. During the night his cell phone would ring and it lit up on several occasions, but then it would shut off. He was staying in room 5. He heard noises during the night and felt extremely uncomfortable. He refused to stay there any longer and left the conference.” And the stories continue ….

Was it disturbing for the spirits to have a rapid succession of owners? Did that stir them up? Or was it divers? Activity in these places I have visited is definitely still occurring and would actually seem to be on the increase. Is this because of the time in which we live or has writing about ghosts actually stirred them up and made them more powerful? Does the opportunity to be acknowledged appeal to those who need somehow to communicate? Thoughts to ponder — a little history and a little mystery exist here, so stop and see which era it might be that you will visit.* You might find a new mystery of your own.

* The Severn River Inn is currently closed.