The historic Masonic Temple in Winnipeg is 100+ years of age, and recently began undergoing a facelift, and some modernization. Aside from being a Masonic Temple it was at one time a Mother Tucker's Restaurant, and it was during it's time as an eatery that rumours of a haunting were rampant.
A CBC broadcast dated Aug. 28, 1979 revealed the following:
"Employees at a Winnipeg restaurant converted from an old Masonic Temple believe the place is haunted. Some refuse to be in the building alone because lights flicker on and off and objects move by themselves. But the ghost doesn't seem to mean any harm. In fact, when wait staff return to work in the morning, it's as though he's had a party in the restaurant overnight. Salt and pepper shakers have been moved and napkins used. One manager who has heard footsteps in the attic says, "It really only leaves you one conclusion, that there is some type of spirit in the building."
Plans for the building include the addition of luxury loft-style condos. It will be interesting to see if this will generate new reports of ghosts, and hauntings at this heritage site.
Our thanks to the witness for sharing these experiences with us. Have you experienced something that you think might be paranormal in Winnipeg or elsewhere in Manitoba? Can you add any further information to this report? If so please do contact us at admin@psican.org Your privacy will be protected, and confidentiality is assured.
Updated April 2013: We were contacted in 2013 in regards to events at Mother Tucker's some real and yet others a confessed hoax. Please note we have shortened full names into initials only. Our thanks to the experient and former employee K.M. for sharing their story with us.
"Here goes. It's a long story and I am not much of a typist, but I will make a start!
When I first started working at Mother Tucker's, the restaurant had been opened as such for a few months. It had previously been a club or bar, I think. The manager was D.C and the asst. mgr. was M. H. They, and others, told me of the strange happenings as MT's was about to open: Chef's jackets and aprons piled on the floor in the morning, table settings disturbed and ketchup packets from the previous evening's take-out opened and sprayed across the tables.
By the time I arrived the tales of MT's hauntings were firmly established, but not really foremost in the minds of the employees. I was hired a a hostess and then took the role of cashier. One night I mentioned the car lights reflecting through the window and another employee agreed that she also saw them and found it funny that they did not appear regularly. The asst. mgr pointed out to me that there were actually no windows on the main floor, so no source for the lights. I witnessed green and red lights floating around the main dining room many, many times.
These other incidents follow in no particular order, I am just recording them as I remember them. Gee, I wish I had kept a journal!
As hostess, I would lock the door behind the last customers as they left and then go into the ladies room off the front foyer to change from my maxi skirt to jeans. I would always give each tap over the sinks a quick tightening because sometimes they would drip. On a number of occasions I would go into the stall to change and hear all the taps turn on full blast. After a while I would just tell the ghost that I didn't need such an obvious clue as to it's presence and the phenomena never recurred.
One evening I was at the manager's apartment with a couple of other employees when he got a call from the police. The motion alarm had sounded. D. C and I went over and found a policeman standing next to his car with his German Sheppard. He told us the dog would not go near the building and while he was shining his light over the side of the building a window opened and shut on its own. Don and I explained that was just the ghost and entered the building to check everything was okay and reset the alarm.
On another occasion a few of us were locking up quite late. We were just putting cash in the upstairs safe when D.C came bounding up the stairs. He had gone down to use the washroom when he saw a man in an old fashioned suit standing in the middle of the room. D.C spoke to the man and the man vanished.
One night as the asst. mgr and I were leaving by the front door, I turned to see a white presence hovering next to the hostess stand.
The spirit(s) loved to play with our telephones. On many occasions, the sound would be distorted. Once I was present when MTS came to fix the phone and the repairman asked me outright if the place had a ghost. The wiring had been jumbled in the phone box. He fixed it and sealed the box. When he had to return 2 days later, I saw him break the seal and reveal the wiring jumbled again.
One of the bus boys (B.P) was the son of a mortician and was raised around funeral homes. He was the last person that you would think would get spooked. However, one night he came flying down the stairs and ran up to me white as a sheet. He was sitting in the staff area at the rear of the second floor and heard distinct footsteps across the third floor above him.
Now comes the fun part and the beginning of the hoax:
There were two access staircases - one at the front of the building and one at the back. Both doors were locked and only D.C and the asst. mgr had keys. For safety reasons that third floor was off limits to everyone. Well, talk about a carrot! One Sunday afternoon a few of us got together and liberated D.C's keys. Then we made our way up to the third floor. There was lots of old junk...some papers and photos. Nothing of any interest. There was also a stage and some bits and pieces of props, including a coffin and a gauntlet. I can't remember, but I think I picked up a program for a production of Hamlet. Now, the coffin was obviously just a stage prop, but after all this was a haunted masonic temple and here were a couple of very impressionable people. That night there were footsteps again, but they continues to and down the back set of stairs. No one would go to get clean linen or supplies from the second floor storage room and everyone insisted on taking breaks with others rather than go upstairs alone. To put a stop to the nonsense, the asst. mgr opened the door to the back stairs and there, lying in the undisturbed dust, was the gauntlet we had seen earlier on the stage!
At the time there was a cook there. His name was P.G.... (I can't remember his last name). We decided to go to the Winnipeg Public Library and search old records of the Masonic Temple. What we found wasn't very exciting - just some newspaper accounts of the building of the temple and its opening. The only thing mildly interesting was a story about some man who made it his mission to erect a Masonic Temple in Winnipeg. A few hours and as many beers later and P.G and I had concocted a great story about how this guy died before the temple was opened and was secretly buried somewhere in the building. We went back to work and spread the story "in absolute secrecy". Of course, it spread like wildfire and the VP of Mother Tuckers cut short his weekend at the cottage to come home and find out what was going on. To say the shit hit the fan is putting it mildly. However, he never knew where that story originated because we all closed ranks pretty quickly.
So. Was (is?) the building haunted. Yes. Absolutely. Was it scary for employees? Almost never. I often worked by myself cashing out at the cashier's desk after everyone had left and the only other person in the building was the asst. mgr or D.C (the manager) up in the second floor office. I often felt the presence standing nearby and spoke to it. Usually I just mentioned that it was creepy and I would prefer if it did not manifest.
Some of the employees at that time were interested in the paranormal, but this was the 70's and .there wasn't really anywhere to go to talk about it. We did try to have a seance one night, but there was too much beer and it quickly became an all night party! That's all I can remember now, close to 40 years later.
