The Legend of the Goucher Hotel
One hundred and fifteen years of history haunts The Goucher building. This October is your chance to enter a world unknown to most mortals. Walk through a maze of rooms and hallways and take part in a truly horrifying experience as you witness the terrors that hide behind these walls.
It seems the luxurious 30-room Goucher Hotel was “cursed” from the very beginning. During its construction, laborers incurred injuries, several were maimed from construction accidents and one fell to his death while helping place the cornerstone at the top of the building.
Finally, in 1895, the Goucher Hotel opened its doors at the corner of North Fourth & Clark Streets in Toronto, Ohio . Built, owned and operated by local financier, Mr. Samuel B. Goucher, the hotel had many amenities of convenience consistent with what luxury hotels offered, including fine dining, entertainment and dancing in the elegant ballroom. A variety of shops, open in the storefronts on street level, offered giftware, clothing, tailoring and other products and services. A barbershop provided haircuts, ‘close shaves’, minor surgery and bloodletting; a popular practice of the era. The Toronto Bank, owned and operated by Samuel’s brother George, was located in the lower level on N. Fourth Street .
It wasn’t long after the Grand Opening of the Goucher Hotel when tragedy struck the building once again. Six guests, a bellhop, Mr. Goucher’s wife Anna and his beloved 8-year old daughter were killed when the elevator transporting them to the suites on the top floor crashed to the basement as a result of the cables snapping. A devastated Samuel Goucher immediately shut down his luxury hotel where he locked himself in becoming a recluse for the next 46 years.
Throughout the remainder of his life, Mr. Goucher devoted his time in renovating his hotel into an eternal home for the spirits of those who lost their lives in the elevator and construction accidents. During this time, the only hotel guests that Mr. Goucher welcomed were the circus performers who came to Toronto once a year “because they amuse me”, he reportedly told his brother George.
Unfortunately, even the circus performers were not exempt from the ‘curse’ of the Goucher Hotel. During one performance in Toronto, a fire spread through the big top killing several of the clowns who were trapped in the fiery inferno. Many have encountered these spirits roaming the hallways of the Goucher Hotel, a place they will be bound to for all eternity, for they never were able to officially check out.
As he lay on his death bed in his private hotel suite, Mr. Goucher reportedly took his final breath and whispered to his brother George, “I will NEVER leave my home”. It is rumored that George returned to the dark hotel nightly to visit his dead brother and family.
It’s not uncommon for Goucher Hotel visitors to witness firsthand the secrets that hide behind these old walls. Some spirits will show themselves to you. Others will interact using sounds and lights.
Mr. Goucher’s haunted hotel is open every Friday and Saturday night in October. A ghastly good time awaits you from 7:30 till ? The spirits also want you to know that the Goucher Haunted Hotel is open for Behind The Screams tours every Sunday in October from 2 to 4 p.m. for the younger fresh souls and their ‘less than brave’ parents.
Check in if you dare. Check out alive….if you can! The spirits are waiting for you!
* Proceeds from ticket sales benefit WTOV 9 and Toronto Kiwanis Coats For Kids Campaign, assuring that Toronto children receive warm winter coats.
