Academy Theatre, Lindsay, Ontario

'Mary','Bloody Mary', call her what you will but for years strange and unexplained things attributed to this ghost have been occuring at the turn-of-the-century theatre in the heart of the Kawarthas.

Billed as Ontario's oldest theatre,the Academy was built in 1892 on the site of Lindsay's first tavern - a log structure erected about 1834 and probably destroyed in the "Great Fire" of 1861. When the town's new "Opera House" opened in 1893, it was billed as the most technically perfect theatre in Canada, and certainly earned effusive praise from the local press. Its large stage, 900 seats, crescent-shaped gallery, private boxes, frescoed ceiling, rich decor and beautiful proportions apparently left visitors speechless.

The Academy had three furnaces which needed to be fed coal constantly. The couple who looked after the building around 1919 lived in an apartment on the third floor. Legend has it that the lady, rushing down the stairs, had a bad fall and died before reaching the hospital It is her spirit that is said to haunt the theatre to this day. I've read other reports that say she was changing a light in seating area of the theatre and fell off the ladder to her demise. No one seems to really know for sure.

Mary, as she has been named, is a friendly but mischievious ghost, who, according to theatre employees, moves or hides objects - and then returns them - lowers seats, makes light go on or off, opens and shuts doors, and so forth One set of doors is particularly heavy and takes some effort to close them. Busy staff have, on occasion, appealed to Mary to tone down her pranks, and she complies. If you want to feel her presence, it's suggested that you sit in seat #13 in any of the rows when the theatre is silent and empty. In fact, items that have gone missing have strangly appeared in these seats. Including seating area, her presence has been felt in many other location of the theatre including the offices, the stairwell, the third floor as well as the boiler room. There has been some conjecture that a male presence has been felt from time to time as well.

If anyone has any additional information or experiences, please send it to info@hauntpursuit.com.