Orangeville Town Hall a spooky place?

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Orangeville Town Hall a spooky place?
March 19, 2009
Orangeville Citizen

The arrival of consultants at Orangeville's 134- year-old town hall is commonplace, but the consultants who visited over the weekend were not normal. In fact, they were paranormal.

The Meadowvale Spookies Paranormal Research Team visited the building Saturday night to investigate and discern the presence of spiritual entities in the edifice, most of which dates from 1875.

When the investigation ended, at about 2 a.m., the team determined that the town hall is a highly spirited place.

"The place is definitely active," concluded researcher Carrie Pierce. "I would say this has been one of my best investigations. I felt there were a couple of people who walked out of it who were a lot less skeptical than they were when they walked in."

Ms. Pierce explained that the role of research teams like the Meadowvale Spookies is not only to confirm the presence of spirits at a location, but also to prove that there aren't.

"You play both sides of the fence when you do this type of work," she said. "The idea is to first try and explain it logically."

The Meadowvale Spookies' claim that the town hall is indeed haunted likely came as no surprise to Stephen Nixon, who works as assistant technical director of Theatre Orangeville, which uses the secondfloor Opera House.

Due to the nature of his job, Mr. Nixon is often alone in the building at night. In an interview, he recalled two paranormal experiences.

One time, he said, he was locking up after a performance when he saw a woman walking up the stairs from the basement. He called to her and said "sorry, but we're closed." The woman didn't respond. Instead, she simply disappeared.

On another occasion, when Mr. Nixon was doing repairs in the dressing rooms, he heard the sound of someone climbing a step ladder that was positioned on the stage.

Concerned about health and safety regulations, he ran to the stage to tear a strip off the culprit, only to find there was nobody to be seen.

In his profession, said Mr. Nixon, a presence of the inexplicable is fairly common. "I've been working in live theatre for 10 years, and I find that most venues have this weird feeling about them."

On Saturday night, a few people on hand claimed to see a shadowy figure in the council chambers.

For those with a penchant for the glib, it could have been the ghost of a former councillor doomed to purgatory after committing political suicide.

But the team says it did record a number of paranormal occurrences, including the presence of orbs of light hovering over the investigation's participants.