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~ Port Perry ~

… And he could roast and seethe

And boil and fry

And make a good thick soup

And bake a pie.

Chaucer, “A Cook”

Can you see it, the grand old hotel that sits on the historic main street of Port Perry? Most people have lost sight of it and see instead the building that has taken its place — a restaurant and pub, once the Murray House, now The Jester’s Court. The old hotel is no longer visible yet something remains — the people who once inhabited it!

The Jester’s Court Inn as it appears today.

Imagine for a moment, this hotel as it once was — a two-storey wooden structure with white lace curtains flowing in the window breezes, a genteel lifestyle long-forgotten. Enter by the front door and see the large main foyer graced by an elaborate oak staircase leading to the second floor. To the right is the elegant dining area which overlooks a sparkling stream and the main street. A parlour is located to the left where the amazing price of 25 cents fetches a gallon of whiskey. As evening approaches, the hotel staff routinely lights the candles on the tables and on some of the window sills.

A young couple, here for the night, are seated at the far end of the dining room overlooking the street. They converse with an elderly female staff member with bright eyes and greying hair. A white cotton apron hangs to her ankles. Her job is to welcome guests and to serve them delicious meals. Her smile is genuine and infectious. A single candle flame illuminates the moment.

A young girl plays on the staircase landing with some imaginary friend, all the while taking in the activity around her. She thrives on the bustle of the hotel but somehow she is unnoticed by those around her. Perhaps she is the daughter of the hotelkeeper. The confectionary store in the same building offers a host of merchandise. No doubt the little girl in the hotel craves some of these sweets.

The first building on the site was built by a mason, James Good, who erected a workshop and residence on the property in 1859. He sold the property to Daniel Ireland in 1865 and he turned the building into a hotel.

At the time, Port Perry was a going concern. In 1871 the community received a major boost when the Port Whitby to Port Perry railroad was completed. Additional surveys of lots had been made, property greatly increased in value, and large additions were planned to meet the demands of rapidly-growing businesses. Hotel owners were delighted by the development. What could possibly happen to halt this progress? Fire!

Two fires in less than a year destroyed the Port Perry business section. The first fire broke out in the Thompson House, then known as Ruddy’s Hotel, in November 1883. Except for one small hand engine, there was no fire extinguishing equipment. Most of the buildings were wood frame and the fire spread quickly. From Ruddy’s Hotel corner along the north side of Queen Street, the fire spread to McCaw’s Jewelry store and everything was burned. With winter fast-approaching little was done toward rebuilding, and what the fire of 1883 missed, the fire of 1884 did not.

At 20 minutes to 12:00 p.m. on July 3, 1884, a large fire started in the sheds of Ben McQuay’s hotel, which stood on the site of the present-day post office. By daylight, every place of business on the main street was in cinders with the exception of William Tummond’s store and this hotel, then owned by Daniel Ireland.

The community rallied to face the devastation of its town. A shortage of nails and building supplies contributed to a slow start. In time, however, life continued as it had prior to these two incredible fires. Meanwhile, Daniel Ireland’s hotel maintained its services to the town.

Its time was to come, however, and tragedy struck one winter evening when a fire began in the adjoining confectionery store. The fire brigade quickly responded to the emergency. In the attempt to save the hotel, one firefighter, Joseph DeShane, was struck down and pinned by burning timbers. Although the crew came to the rescue quickly, Joseph sustained severe injuries. One eye and half of his face was severely disfigured for life. In a few hours there were but ashes and charred stone foundation remaining.

Downtown Port Perry after the horrific fire. The building in the background is one of the only ones that remained standing.

Downtown Port Perry, facing east, after rebuilding at the turn of the century. The building located at the end of the row was one of the few to survive the fire.

No newspaper accounts of the fire are to be found — as a result of yet another fire in the newspaper office which destroyed several years of newspaper files forever. No one is left to tell the story of this tragic hotel fire. Had any guest or hotel workers died that night? Will we ever know? For many years the property remained vacant, the old foundation hidden from view by vegetation.

After the fire, Daniel Ireland sold the property to Andy Campbell who built a carpentry shop on the land. In 1913 James Carnegie purchased the property from Campbell, tore down the workshop and built a new, two-storey, red-brick house the following year using the old foundation for the new home. James and Louisa Murray bought the house from Carnegie and the dwelling became known as the Murray House. The Murrays raised a large family there. James was the manager of the Osler Estate south of the causeway. The Murrays left one day, as people do, and in the 1950s a man with the same last name rented the house. He had three children who all slept in one bedroom.

The first reported ghost sightings occurred in the house at this time. Apparently, an elderly female ghost would check in on the children at night. She was a benevolent presence and the children felt very comfortable with her. The youngsters saw her on several occasions and openly referred to her as their night visitor. The Murray family eventually moved out of the house.

In 1979 the Murray house became a tea shop and restaurant and the property once again became a festive centre in Port Perry. Was history repeating itself? Rumours of ghosts began to circulate around town during this period. Had the first Murray family kept the haunting a secret or were they unaware of the spirits in their home?

Carol Morrow and Peter Kirk operated the establishment and subsequently sold it to Whitney and Mark Freeman. The Freemans were unaware of hauntings upon purchase, but not for long!

“We had just bought the house when one night the dog went crazy. Our dog is normally quite passive and well-behaved. This night the dog ran through the kitchen door and down the back hall. We followed her and she eventually arrived at the entranceway to the sun porch. She was baring her teeth and snarling. She went to table 13 and started barking. We didn’t know what to think. We had just moved in. We were not aware of the ghost stories,” said Whitney.

Mark admitted that he became quite annoyed, “I had the place rewired when we bought it. Then every light in the house reversed itself, but not at one time. We would be sitting in a room with the light off and it would suddenly come on. We had to reverse the procedure of the switches. I called an electrician in, but he had no explanation. You had to believe that something was going on. There was no logical explanation.”

The Freemans shared their experiences on The Dini Petty Show. Mark spoke of two occurrences that particularly intrigued him. One occurred on the second floor of the house by the attic door. In those days the Freemans operated the business on the first floor. The second floor and attic space were used for living quarters.

“I used to have an office on one side of the attic door and a living room on the other. It only took three steps to pass from the office to the living room, past the attic door. One day I noticed the attic door open. It shouldn’t have been open since a deadbolt lock always kept it shut. I locked the door and went into the living room. About three seconds later I turned around and noticed that the door was open again,” said Mark.

One year Mark and Whitney decided to take separate vacations. “I intended to leave for my vacation the day after Whitney returned from hers. By now I was quite aware of spirit activity in the house. This particular evening I was going downstairs to the basement. At the bottom of the stairs a light switch was positioned approximately five or six feet away. I told them ‘I’m going away for a couple of days and I know that you like to disturb Whitney. I don’t want you to do anything while I am away. Is that understood?’ The moment I said ‘understood’ all the lights on the bottom floor came on.”

Whitney had experiences as well. “She woke me up out of a deep sleep. I had never seen her, but I had heard and felt her. I knew it was a woman. It was a woman’s voice calling out my name.”

Whitney’s pet rabbit slept in a cage in her bedroom. The cage had a water bottle attachment and made quite a noise when the rabbit took a drink. When that happened at night, Whitney would get out of bed and remove the water bottle. As the bottle started to rattle one night, she rose to remove it. Then Whitney remembered the rabbit was up north with other members of the family. There was no cage and certainly no water bottle. Had the rabbit always been responsible for the noise in the past or did someone else like to “rattle the cage”?

Stairway at the Jester’s Court Inn.

The Freemans sold the business in 1986 to Niki Bainbridge who continued to operate the establishment as a restaurant and to reside in the upstairs of the building with her family until 1997. In that period Niki developed an incredible relationship with several spirits inhabiting the house. Niki often saw the apparition of a thin woman in her 70s. She wore a high-collared blue dress and a long, white bibbed apron. Niki described the clothing as late 19th century. This ghost always had a “heavenly” smile and displayed nothing but kindness in her eyes. Her presence was reassuring and somehow comforting. “When I saw the woman I felt her saying that I never needed to worry. Then she would turn around and walk right through the wall,” said Niki.

One day a dinner guest in the restaurant saw a little girl sitting on the stairs to the second floor. The girl was playing with a doll. The man thought the girl was real. He had no previous knowledge of haunting in the building and was very surprised to discover that there were no children on the premises.

One night Niki was sound asleep in her bed in the attic; she awoke to hear heavy breathing. She quickly turned on the bedroom light. A glance to the other side of the bed revealed the shape of a human figure outlined in the duvet beside her. Seconds later she watched as the figure disappeared and the duvet returned to its normal flat shape. A ghost had actually joined her in bed!

Another night she was startled from sleep by someone shouting her name in her ear. At first she paid no heed to the noise, rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. Then it dawned on her. Could this be a sign of danger? Rising from bed she quickly scrambled downstairs to check her children on the second floor. They were fine. All this time the thought of fire played on her mind. Her fear took her downstairs where she discovered a candle burning against a wooden window sill. Somehow a mysteriously lit candle had fallen against the pane of glass and then onto the sill. Had the spirit not awakened her the entire family might have been trapped by fire. The original fate of the hotel could have been repeated!

Who lit the candle? The spirits, of course. It was not uncommon for Niki to come downstairs in the morning to find a burning candle on a dining room table. Indeed, Niki once encountered a lit candle every morning for 30 days in a row! Once she even discovered a candle burning under a table. She had had enough. Like Mark Freeman, she decided to address the spirits. Niki asked them to stop; she demanded that they end this ritual and they listened. For a time the candle nonsense was curtailed.

The spirits found other ways to taunt Niki, however. She found herself locked in her room one night, from the outside. She had to call a friend in the morning to come and unlock her bedroom door.

Despite the number of pranks they played on her, Niki felt the spirits in the house cared for her. “After working all day and evening I would stay up to watch television and then nod off. The spirit would turn the television off. I would wake up, turn it back on and shout at them, tell them I was not finished watching the tube. Then I would doze off and waken to find it turned off again. I know they were looking out for my welfare.”

One evening after closing time Niki sat down at her desk on the main floor to do some bookkeeping. Suddenly she felt that somebody was watching her. She turned and saw the figure of an old woman standing in the down-stairs hall. The woman smiled at her, turned, and disappeared down the hall.

The infamous “Table 13” at Jester’s Court Inn looks innocent.

When Niki was out for an evening a young male staff member worked late in her place. He phoned Niki to come to his rescue; he couldn’t handle the ghostly activity. He saw a couple sitting at table 13 and an elderly woman serving them dinner. The restaurant was officially closed at the time. The lights had been turned off in the dining room but somehow a candle had been lit at table 13. He wasn’t long in finding another place to work.

Table 13 is located in the glassed-in porch, overlooking the main street. It was not unusual for a passerby to see a candle burning at table 13 and a couple having dinner — after closing hours. Niki had many requests from diners to be seated at table 13, famous in the area for its “special status.”

In late 1997 Niki had to make a heartwrenching decision — continue to stay in business or sell. She was tiring of the long hours and all the hardships that go with owning your own small business. By now she was quite attached not only to her business, but also to the spirits who lived in the building. Nevertheless, she decided to sell. How did the spirits feel about the change?

Apparently they were not happy to have Niki depart the premises. At one point when discussions were being held in the restaurant regarding the sale to the new owners, a plate from an overhead shelf flew off and broke into three pieces in mid-air. One piece hit Sam Chiusolo, one of the prospective buyers, on the head, and the other two pieces landed on the other side of the room.

The new owners decided to change the name of the business and expand it to include a pub. They called this business “The Jester’s Court.” A lovely interlocking brick patio with a black iron fence was installed in the front. The second floor, formerly living quarters, was renovated and is now a pub, complete with dining tables and a large bar. The washrooms are located on this second floor down a hallway near the stairs.

Scott Chiusolo helped to manage this busy establishment. He was soon introduced to the spirit activity that continued to be a daily occurrence. The large front door to the building has top-bolt and bottom-bolt locks. No keys exist for the bottom lock so the business is locked nightly using only the top-bolt lock. About once a month Scott would arrive at work in the morning only to discover that the key would not open the door, because the bottom bolt had been locked by some unforeseen hand.

“We have often heard footsteps coming down the central staircase. One night I was by myself in the office in the basement when I suddenly heard footsteps coming down the stairs. I got up to see who it could be, but discovered that no one was there,” stated Scott.

Joanne Chiusolo was cleaning the ladies’ washroom one day when she heard a creaking sound as the door to one of the washroom stalls opened and closed three times. It has also not been uncommon for the washroom stalls to be locked on their own. Many female patrons have had the experience of entering the ladies’ room and watching the stall door close on its own followed by hearing the lock being positioned into place. Two female customers saw the elderly woman dressed in blue walk into the ladies’ room and disappear right in front of them.

One night Sam locked up and was headed home when he remembered some important papers. As Sam opened the front door on his return, he was grabbed from behind and held in a bear hug for 12 to 15 seconds. He felt quite cold — and needless to say, terrified. On another occasion he was downstairs in the basement adjusting a compressor when he was pushed from behind.

Other employees of The Jester’s Court experience “sightings” or “unexplained activity.” Salt and pepper shakers move from table to table, the radio and the lights are turned off and on, dirty dishes are moved from one table to another, pens and eye glasses are taken and a chair is placed on the stairway landing at night. Windows remain open and are unable to be closed. The gas burning stoves and the overhead ventilation fans in the kitchen turn on and off by themselves … and the list goes on. Certainly a number of pranks involve candles — fire — a strange coincidence considering the history of the building.

Spirits always seem to be attracted to one or two individuals. The reason for this is unknown; perhaps these individuals are more sensitive to the energy. Niki was one and Debbie Burton is another. Debbie has had some incredible and quite hair-raising experiences.

Debbie Burton, a waitress at the Jester’s Court, has experienced several supernatural encounters.

For Debbie it all began back in October 1997 when she was hired as a waitress at The Jester’s Court. At the time she was quite aware of all the ghost stories circulating in town about the place, but she paid little heed to them. One of her first experiences was being locked out of the restaurant after finishing her evening shift. She was standing outside on the front porch when she heard the bottom bolt move into the lock position. She threw her hands up in the air and said, “Oh, fine, lock me out I’m finished for the day anyway!”

On another occasion she escorted the last group of people out of the building at closing time and locked the front door. As she turned around to go back into the main room she discovered that some force was holding the door to that room shut tight. Debbie was unable to turn the doorknob. She started shouting, “Let me in. Stop playing this game. I have to close up.” The door suddenly released and she was allowed into the room.

When Debbie would arrive to open up in the morning she would unlock the front door and then proceed to go down into the basement to switch on the lights. It was not unusual for Debbie to return upstairs only to discover that some lights had remained off. She may have gone through the ritual of going downstairs to turn the lights on and back upstairs three or four times before all the lights remained on. She often scolded the spirits about the lights. One night at closing time she went downstairs to turn the lights off for the night. When she arrived back upstairs the lights were all on. At that point she confronted the spirits, “If you want the lights on I’ll leave them on.” She shut the front door and headed home.

One of the most unusual stories Debbie related to me concerned a friend who refused to believe that this building was haunted. It was lunch time at the restaurant when Debbie sat down for dinner in front of the main floor fireplace with some of her friends. The skeptic asked Debbie if she could share her so-called ghost stories.

Debbie related some of her experiences to them. The skeptic said, “I still don’t believe that ghosts exist in this place.” At the moment the salt shaker flew off the table and landed right in front of him. He was astonished. Then a number of small framed prints on the wall by the table turned sideways. Debbie said, “Look at that!” Then the pictures moved back into an upright position. The friend was now convinced.

If the pictures on these walls could speak ... They do move, however, which was enough for one visiting skeptic to change his mind.

On yet another occasion, Debbie was having a discussion with a female customer by the north facing wall. Two elderly couples were seated nearby enjoying their dinner. The woman asked Debbie, “Do you have ghosts here?” Before Debbie could respond a picture on the wall near the elderly couples suddenly tilted sideways. The couple exclaimed, “They really are here!”

One Sunday night Debbie was serving the last couple in the dining room. They were seated at table 15. All that was left on the table were two wine glasses, a carafe, and two coffee cups. When the couple finished she escorted them to the front door. When she returned to tidy up, all the items were on table 16.

The pub area on the second floor was usually open at night. In May 1998 some security professionals from a nearby casino had decided to drop by for a drink there. They were seated at a table when the elderly woman appeared out of thin air and began to walk toward their table. Twice this happened. During the second visitation the men fled, shouting at Debbie, “She’s after us — the lady.”

“I’ll talk to her if you like,” Debbie replied.

They even left their drinks behind. This same group registered a complaint at the town office with regard to allowing a haunted business to operate in town.

Karen, who worked as a cook in the restaurant, has her fair share of stories to tell concerning the spirits. One night she turned the gas stoves and overhead hoods off and walked a few feet away when she heard the fans turn back on. She shouted to Debbie, “She’s turned the hoods back on.”

Debbie shouted, “Shut them off.” And the hood fans shut off. Karen and Debbie then turned their attention to filling the ketchup bottles and the kitchen fans went on again. They returned to the kitchen and found the fryers on as well. Debbie gave the spirits a lecture. “When you play with fire, you get burned. You could burn the place down. So you had better stop it now.”

One night Karen and Debbie were cleaning up the night dishes. Debbie was standing by the bar in the main room. Karen caught sight of something. “I thought I saw a shadow moving by the window. So I stood up and looked over and saw a woman wearing a long navy blue dress. She started to move into the central room and then disappeared right in front of me,” Karen said. That same night Debbie heard two people giggling and laughing in the kitchen, but she had had enough for one day and waited outside the building for her ride.

It was not unusual in this place of business to answer the phone and find no one was on the line; or to have heard the knocker on the front door go bang, bang, bang. One of the ghosts even enjoyed whistling and could be heard in the dining room. The music of choice is classical. Just ask anyone who works in the restaurant and they will attest to the fact that the radio sometimes changes to a classical station, apparently on its own.

Returning to The Jester’s Court years later I discovered that Deena Vallieres, who was working as the manager back in 1998 is now the owner of the restaurant. I was excited to discover that Debbie Burton, the waitress I had interviewed years ago, was still employed at the restaurant. I spoke with Debbie to see if she would grant me an interview. She agreed and added that she had quite a few new experiences to share.

The restaurant has been physically altered over the years. The small bar area on your left as you enter the building has been enlarged. The kitchen that was adjacent to the bar is now located in a new back wing of the structure. Some tables and chairs have been replaced with booths. Overall, the dining establishment has maintained its cozy and homey atmosphere. The restaurant specialties that continue to draw diners from far and wide are prime rib, slow roasted and served au jus with Yorkshire pudding and liver and onions, baby beef liver, pan-seared and served in red wine gravy with bacon and onions.

I met Debbie Burton on a Thursday evening. Still very animated and willing to share her stories, she immediately launched into a ghostly situation that occurred a few years ago when a film crew arrived in Port Perry to shoot Welcome to Mooseport, featuring Gene Hackman. Debbie told me, “It was Friday afternoon around 12:30 p.m. when three film crew members arrived for lunch. One man in the group was a short Scottish gentleman. During lunch the Scottish gent got up from the table and proceeded to go up the stairs to the washroom located on the second floor. A short time later I saw him come down the stairs. Suddenly he stopped. He was having a fit. He began to stammer and shake and I could see beads of perspiration on his bald head.

“I asked him, ‘Are you having a heart attack?’ He couldn’t talk. Then he pointed up and muttered, ‘Ghost Lady upstairs.’

“I said to him, ‘relax, this spirit likes you.’ Then I proceeded to give him a brandy to calm his nerves.

“Then he told me that he was upstairs in the washroom, washing his hands, when he looked in the mirror and an elderly female spirit was looking back at him. She was laughing at him.

“The Scotsman and his companions did manage to eat their lunch; but the group were not filming that afternoon and decided to go to the casino on Scugog Island after lunch.”

Guess who went with them?

Debbie added, “I knew our female spirit had gone with them.

“A few hours later the film crew returned. The Scottish man had won three jackpots! He had this huge roll of money. I knew his good luck was a result of our kind female spirit. Then he said to me. ‘I just wanted to come back and thank her (the female ghost) for my good luck.’

“So he went back upstairs to the washroom to say his thanks. He also gave me a generous tip,” stated Debbie.

More people have reported seeing the spirit of a little girl in the restaurant. Often children who visit the establishment see her standing on the staircase landing that leads to the second floor. Debbie never saw her, not until the year 2000.

That night Debbie and some other staff members were alone in the bar area at closing time. One of the staff had Debbie’s digital camera and decided to take a photograph of the group.

At home later that night Debbie and her husband, who is the chef at the Jester’s Court, decided to take a closer look at the group picture that had been taken earlier.

Debbie described what happened next, “There we were looking at the photograph. We couldn’t believe it. There was the little girl spirit in the corner of the photograph. I was astounded. She was wearing a white Victorian night gown. She had blond hair with bangs. She also had a large piggy turned up nose with deep set eyes and full cheeks.”

Debbie explained what happened to the photograph. “We had a friend who owned a good graphic computer and quality printer. We decided to have him make some prints of the picture. Unfortunately, before he could complete the task someone broke into his house and stole his computer equipment along with our ghostly picture. It has been lost forever.”

How unfortunate! What are the chances of that happening? Debbie still had more stories to share involving this young girl spirit.

“One time we had two families from England who had daughters, aged eight to ten. Both families had come for dinner. During the dinner the two little girls left the table to go to the washroom upstairs. Who do you suppose they saw? The little girl spirit appeared on the landing in front of the girls. I caught sight of the two girls standing on the landing. They seemed quite animated and appeared to be having a conversation with someone that I could not see. I knew then that the girls were talking to our young female ghost.

“The girls eventually returned to the table and told their parents about seeing and talking to a little girl.

“The parents called me over to the table and said, ‘Our daughters tell us they have found a friend.’ I told them that they had encountered our little girl spirit.”

Every time the two English families arrived for dinner the daughters would return to the landing to talk to the young girl.

For years now Debbie has maintained a close relationship with the elderly female spirit who wears her grey hair up in a bun and appears throughout the building. Debbie explained, “One night I saw her. It was Friday night and no one was seated in the dining room. I was behind the bar with a group of customers, seated and standing, in front of me. Then I caught a glimpse of her. She appeared in the dining room window located in our enclosed porch area. She was looking right at me and motioned with her arms to come and see her. I excused myself from the bar and went out to the porch to see what she wanted. By the time I got there she was gone. She was just playing with me.

“Another night at closing time two chefs and I heard something. Most of the lights were already turned off. We could hear our female ghost walking down the second-storey stairs. We could not see her, but certainly her footsteps were loud and clear. Down the stairs she came and then back up the stairs.”

There is another spirit seen at the Jester’s Court. It is a man. Debbie has never encountered him, but a couple seated at table 15 did, one Saturday afternoon.

Debbie explained, “The couple at table 15 called me over. They said, ‘You know there’s a male ghost here.’ They continued on to describe him. ‘He looks like Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind. He is quite handsome and has a handlebar mustache.’ One staff member has also seen him standing by the bookshelf in the dining area. They said he looks like Captain Highliner.”

Occasionally spirit activity occurs in the bar area. One of the spirits enjoys throwing glasses behind the bar. Just last month Debbie was the victim of a ghostly physical assault. “I was standing behind the bar, the wine rack was behind me and some other bottles of wine were standing on the counter near the rack. The bar area was full of customers at the time. Suddenly a full wine bottle flew off the shelf and struck me in the back and then crashed to the floor and shattered. The customers at the bar watched the whole thing happen in disbelief.”

Debbie continued with tales of ghostly activity, “Two chefs, the dishwasher and I had just closed the restaurant for the night. We had shut all the lights off and the radio. We all decided to go out on the back porch to have a cigarette before locking up. Just as we got outside all the lights came back on and the radio. Someone or something changed the radio station and turned the volume up, then down and back up again. At this point the dishwasher fled down the porch steps, tripped, and tumbled to the ground.”

Debbie’s relationship with the spirits in the building continues after all these years. She summed it up. “When I go upstairs I talk to them and within a couple of days, spirit phenomena will begin to happen in the restaurant.”

Occasionally the spirits are helpful to Debbie. For example, “I was walking upstairs with my arms full of paper towels and bathroom tissues. When I reached the washroom door someone opened the door for me.”

What do you think? Are these spirits from the hotel days? Some townspeople and restaurant employees believe the elderly woman is the first Mrs. Murray. What about the couple who dine at table 13 and are waited on by the grey-haired woman? Hotel guests? That is how it seems.

Perhaps we can peak in a window and catch sight of the shadows of yesterday and of others who have gone before and have a word before the curtains are pulled once again.

One thing is certain. We cannot assume that what we see is what everyone else can or does see.