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CASTOR ALBERTA, CANADA
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History and Ghost Stories From Our Lady of the Rosary Hospital

Sitting atop a hill overlooking the scenic Pals Park is a large three story building painted red and white. This building is apart of Our Lady of the Rosary Hospital and is the town's original hospital dating back to 1911. During the hospital's lifetime it functioned as a convent and a boarding school in addition to being a hospital. Construction began in 1910 and after the arrival of 6 French speaking nuns who were apart of The Daughters of Wisdom, the hospital first opened it's doors on November 1st, 1911. Making it at the time the only hospital located between Red Deer, Alberta and Moosejaw, Saskatchewan. Castor had some of the best doctors around and people came from as far away as Calgary to receive surgeries. The nuns lived on the 3rd floor, the cubicles that they slept in still reside. Other occupants of the 3rd floor were staff members, and out of town school kids who boarded and attended school across the street at Theresetta Catholic School. Girls were on one wing and the boys were on the other. The second floor of the hospital was women's rooms only, and had the delivery room and nursery. The first floor was men's rooms only and contained the pharmacy, and operating room. The large built-in wooden cabinets give away where the pharmacy was located as well as the old tiled walls of the operating room don't make it hard to imagine its previous use. Old hospital equipment previously used on the daily but now unrecognizable compared to today's equipment sits in cupboards, drawers and in the corners of rooms. Over the first decade that the hospital was open, it suffered from overcrowding and underfunding, however in 1920 an addition was made that helped with the overcrowding issues. In 1930 an elevator was added that still functions today, this made transfers from floor to floor much easier. In 1962 a new hospital was built adjacent to the original hospital, however the nuns continued to reside in the old hospital, and certain areas of the old hospital remained in use, including the operating room. After Castor stopped doing surgeries the sisters turned the O.R. into their kitchen and lunch room. In 1994 a Long Term Care was built which fused all three buildings together. The hospital was ran by the nuns until 1992 when a site administrator was hired, but the nuns continued to play an influential part in healthcare at the hospital until 2003. In 2003 Covenant Health took over the hospital and the last of the remaining nuns moved out.  Today parts of the old hospital still remain in use. Offices, board rooms, the chapel and the therapy department all call the old hospital home. Now the nuns no longer reside and the operating room sits empty. The 3rd floor sits virtually untouched with workers only going up there to dig things out of storage. Things are a lot quieter than they once were, but louder than ever are the whisperings of ghost stories. People talk of experiencing pockets of cold air, and the sensation that something is watching them. Motion sensors going off with no reason. The smell of tobacco smoke where the priest used to smoke his pipe. Apparitions of a nun on the stairs. Clocks being turned back in time on the 3rd floor. People hearing  their names called in the halls. Phone calls have picked up a crackly voice of a gentleman talking in the background. A little boy and girl have been seen playing in the halls and going under peoples beds. Rumor's of a piano playing itself, and of items being taken off of the 3rd floor only to be found back up on the 3rd floor. One night a staff member who was staying in the old hospital complained of having the sheets pulled off of them while they were reading. Unexplained noises make you question your hearing and things flash by your peripheral vision but disappear when you turn your head. Some staff members refuse to go into the old hospital, while very few will venture up to the third floor, as its believed by some to be especially haunted. Who knows how many of these incidents are just rumor's or peoples own fears playing mind games on them. But regardless the old hospital has garnered a reputation for being notoriously haunted. Who knows, you might just see something looking out one of the windows as you pass by.
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  • Old Hospital History & Ghost Stories