Toronto – Yonge and Front St
Old Bank of Montreal Building
Built in 1885, this remarkable building is haunted by the spirit of a young woman. For decades she was only known as Dorothy, a teller who worked at the bank. Numerous reports of strange activity echo throughout the historic structure. From lights that go on and off by themselves, doors that open and close without reason, moans, cries, screams and other eerie sounds.
Staff and employees have heard footsteps when working alone at night. A few have felt a phantom hand on their shoulder or leg. Some have even reported seeing her apparition.
The Bank of Montreal building was converted into what is now the Hockey Hall of Fame in the early 1990s.
It was the Toronto Star that eventually gained the teller’s real name and what had occurred.
On Wednesday March 11, 1953, the teller Dorothea Mae Elliott, 19 years old, had shot herself with the bank’s 38 revolver in the second-floor woman’s washroom. She died 22 hours later at St. Michael’s Hospital.
It was interesting to note that neither of the two major newspapers barely mentioned the incident. The most common theory, however, was that she was having an affair with either another teller or the branch manager, a married man who had an apartment in the bank.
She was described as a beautiful young woman who was very popular. She looked like the actress Rita Hayworth. One witness reported she came in about 8 a.m. and Dorothea was already there, she noted that Dorothea who was wearing a blue-knitted dress, looked “distressed and disheveled”. Just after nine o’clock another employee, began screaming and yelling over the balcony They rushed upstairs to see what was wrong and discovered Dorothy’s body. “We didn’t hear a shot, no one heard a shot.”
I had the privilege of working at the Old Bank of Montreal Building in the early 1990s, as it was part of BCE Place. While it was being retrofitted to eventually become the Hockey Hall of Fame, contractors had mentioned that lights were on when they arrived, doors were open that were locked earlier, and most mornings the construction manager arrived to find fresh coffee was brewing already before any of the workers had arrived. They didn’t mind the coffee but were concerned about the doors being open, so they hired a night guard.
As a security supervisor for the facility, they asked me to check on him from time to time. One night I was walking with one of my patrol officers along front street around 3:30 am when we saw the night guard running down the street towards us. We stopped him and asked him what the problem was. He explained that he was positioned just inside the door of the old bank sitting on a chair, when he felt a soft touch of fingers caressing his face, he turned to see a woman next to him, so he ran. He refused to come back to work. Patrol and I checked the building, nothing was found and we locked the front door. It was difficult to keep night guards in that building.
But my favorite report of all came a few years ago when a young boy was visiting the Hall of Fame, when he started screaming, “Don’t you see her, don’t you see her,” “He claimed a woman with long black hair was going in and out of the walls.”
Great place and its open to the public.
