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We first heard
about the Bellevue Mansion, which we called it at the time the
"Belvidere Mansion" back in 1998. The house seemed to be the talk
of all the local teenagers as rumours of murders, suicides and
hauntings floated about.
The Legend
____________________
We decided
to make this Haunted Hamilton's first official investigation...the
one that we would use as our debut.
The only mystery
that we heard of the place was from many years back.
A young boy killed his entire family in the house, then hanged himself
from the "Belvidere" which is the glassed in Widow's Walk that
overlooks the city.
Then years later, another family lived in
the home, and the father killed his family in a similar way and hanged himself
from the Belvidere.
We also heard
from a woman that there was a sighting of a spirit by a clairvoyant
who came to visit the house. The clairvoyant lady, who was standing
outside of the building, saw a woman with blazing red hair running
back and forth on the second floor waving her arms frantically
in the air.
As well, the clairvoyant said to see a man with
light brown hair walking towards them on the property. All of this
being interesting enough, prompted us to check into this.
Our Visit to Bellevue
__________________________
It was a beautiful
sunny day when we visited this historic house. We were all geared
up and ready with our 35mm Canon camera and 400 A.S.A. film.
The following
is an explanation of our venture inside the Bellevue House and
pictures that we took. Please do not copy any of the images, because
they are real photographs that we have taken during our investigation.
If you would like to use an image, please contact us.
 
 
Our first
view inside the Bellevue was amazing. The ceilings were extremely
high and the walls were painted in bright colours. The pictures
above are from the front entrance.
 
 _
 As
we looked to our right while standing in the front entrance, there
was a room that basically opens up right into the front hallway.
There was a fireplace in the room with beautiful white plaster
mouldings around it, as well as a couple of very large windows
that went as high as the ceiling. The first two images above are
from this room. Then directly adjacent to this room was the library.
The top right images are from this room.
 
The
first four pictures above are also taken in the library. The first
one is of a beautiful ceiling moulding. The last three pictures
above were taken in the dining room. The last image is a picture
of a "dumb waiter", where the servants used to have their kitchen
in the basement, and when dinner was ready, they would lever it
up on this. To this date however, the dumb waiter was turned into
a glassed-in shelving unit.
 _
 The
first image above is taken in a back sunroom of the house. This
room was most severely damaged of all the rooms due to water leakage,
etc. There was also a bathroom on the main floor which only consisted
of a toilet and sink. The next picture is of the kitchen. There
was only one entrance to the back area and it lead through the
oldest kitchen and then led into the new kitchen (most likely
for the newer apartments at the back).
_
 
We
made our way up the staircase. There was a ledge embossed into
the wall, perhaps to hold a valuable antique of some sort (at
Whitehern they have an antique vase resting here). We were greeting
by a gorgeous arched glass window with a few shattered panels
in it.
_
The
above rooms are the bathroom and the bedrooms. One is at the back
and one is at the front. This one allows for an extraordinary
view of the city of Hamilton. The two top pictures are from the
bathroom on the second floor. Interestingly, the attic has a window
that overlooks down into this bathroom. The second image is what
I deemed to be a "boys" room. The general colour of the room is
blue, and there is a unique wallpaper surrounding the room with
sailboats on it.
The
third and fourth image was the "girls" room because it was very
pink and purple and covered in flowered wallpaper. The ceiling
moulding had a wallpaper which matched that of the walls. The
last image here is of a very small bedroom that had awfully yellow-coloured
walls. There was also a rope with a decorative fringed end hanging
from the ceiling light fixture. This seems to be a place where
many rumours of people hanging themselves in here was started.
The
above pictures were taken in what seemed to be perhaps the master
bedroom. There was a fireplace in this room, large windows that
overlooked the front and side of the house, and a gorgeous mirrored
ceiling treatment.
 _
_
These
are the stairs that lead to the attic and "Widow's Walk". They
are located on the second floor. The last two images are pictures
of windows taken inside the attic.
_
These
are the stairs that lead up to the Bellevue or the Widow's Walk.
The last image is of the ceiling, said to be where the boy, and
the father hung themselves after murdering their families.
_
This
first image is looking out of the Widow's Walk window...overlooking
the rose bush in the front lawn and the entire city of Hamilton.
The last two images were taken at the end. Then the final image
of the front door...which closes the history on the Bellevue Mansion,
forever!
Halloween Ouija night goes bad
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This story was told to us by a friend of Haunted Hamilton that happened to a girl very close to him. We'll call the girl Mary for this story (her name has been changed).
Mary, her boyfriend and another couple went to the Bellevue Mansion at night to explore the spooky old house, but also prove for themselves if the violent ghosts of the murderous man and young boy really did exist.
With them they brought a Ouija board. This was the best way to communicate as none in the group claimed any psychic ability. They arrived at about 11pm that night and spent about an hour walking through the house and looking at all the old rooms.
Mary was disgusted by how decayed the house was, seeing that many of the rooms were damp, moldy and some areas were already beyond repair, including a back room with a caved in ceiling.
Finally they setup the Ouija Board in the old parlour. Each of the four kids put two fingers on the planchette. Mary's boyfriend called out, summoning the ghosts of the husband and the boy. Time passed and nothing happened.
Just before giving up, Mary heard a knocking from the second floor. The knocking got louder and harder, so much that the house started to shake. All four got to their feet and ran for the door, but Mary tripped.
She thought it was just a rock, or something left on the floor, but realized she was wrong when an invisible hand started dragging her back into the house.
Mary's boyfriend saw her being pulled away, but fear was stronger than chivalry, and he kept running... all the way home.
The next day all the kids met at school, including Mary. She refused to tell any of them what happened after being dragged into the house. Needless to say Mary and her boyfriend didn't remain a couple after that unique Halloween experience. |
