A local media company has made a short documentary on the possibly/potentially/maybe not haunted Baker Street parking lot.
The 15-minute video focuses on the parking lot’s history and the rumours that it might be haunted.
It’s an interesting look, with some interesting historical images, at a parcel of land slated to be turned into the Baker District in the coming years, including a new library.
“It was fun to do,” said Catherine Robertson, who owns Guelph Digital, a digital marketing firm, with her husband Stuart. Their daughter Gwyneth was also involved.
“We’ve lived in Guelph for about 20 years and we keep hearing all this stuff about Baker Street,” she said.
The parking lot sits on a former cemetery and some believe it was also once home to a First Nation burial ground.
The video talks of a ghostly woman in a white dress reportedly seen in the parking lot and other reports of supernatural behaviour.
The Baker Street parking lot was a cemetery until 1920, when the city decided that bodies would no longer be buried in the city, but rather on the outskirts of town, in what is now Woodlawn Memorial Park.
Bodies were relocated, but not all of them. Excavation at the site over the years often turns up skeletons or bones.
It was also once the home to the Guelph curling rink.
The Robertsons dug deep into the archives and microfiche of the Guelph Public Library to do their research and also got help from staff.
“We thought it would be a fun, seasonal project to do,” Stuart said, referring to Halloween.
“Stuart’s background is in film and tv and mine’s in anthropology, so we kind of combined the two and this is the fruits of our labour,” added Catherine.
The documentary also features a paranormal investigator, a metaphysicist/energy worker, Ken Irvine of the Guelph Museums and a ton of really cool old photos of Guelph.
Do the Robertsons believe in ghosts?
“Stuart’s more of a skeptic, I’m more of a believer,” Catharine said.
“I’m open minded, let’s just say that,” Stuart added.
Stuart said if nothing else the video brings attention to what is a very significant location in Guelph’s history.
“A lot of people walk by and drive by and see it as a very plain looking parking lot,” he said. “But it really does have all this interesting history to it.”
