Fairacres Mansion

The place I’m working tonight with Masters of Horror is called Overlynn or Fairacres Mansion, just 8 minutes away from here. I worked there once before with the TV show The 4400 (who also called me to work today).

The place felt creepy when I was there and I had to be in the house, specifically the attic, alone whilst wrapping out in the evening with no illumination but my little flashlight. My creative head was telling me that perhaps the place was haunted as something just felt off moments of weird drafts and gooseflesh. I disregarded it as my wanting to see something that wasn’t there and tried to put it out of my mind. When I heard last night that I’d be going back there I thought about doing some research.

I found some interesting stories.

The Burnaby Art Gallery has a long and sordid history, the perfect backdrop for a houseful of spooks. The mansion was built in 1909 by Henry Ceperley, a wealthy and powerful insurance and real estate tycoon, and christened “Fairacres”. It was designed as a retirement home for himself and his second wife, Grace, who preferred the solitude of her garden. Grace was a sensitive soul who loved children and the quiet peace of her Burnaby mansion. When she died, she left the house to her husband (the mansion was in her name) with the provision that if it was ever sold, the proceeds were to go to a children’s playground in Stanley Park.

In 1922, Ceperley sold Fairacres, however, instead of following his late wife’s wishes, he kept the money for himself. Many people feel this is the root of the Faiacres haunting.

The huge mansion proved to be too large and expensive for private owners, and within five years, it was sold to the City of Vancouver and was converted into the tuberculosis ward of the Vancouver General Hospital. In the years before the medical advances of anti-tuberculosis drugs, one can only imagine the pain and misery felt in the walls of the Burnaby mansion.

In 1939, the tuberculosis ward was moved and Fairacres became the home of a Benedictine order of monks. The monks lived there happily for fifteen years, and in 1954, were moved to a new abbey in Mission.

It is at this point that the history of Fairacres takes a drastic turn for the worse. The mansion was bought by William Franklin Wolsey, who was wanted throughout the United States on a string of charges for bigamy, extortion and assault. He called himself Archbishop John I, heading a cult known as The Temple of the More Abundant Life. The cult involved bizarre and violent practices ranging from bigamy to incest. It also involved the ritual abuse of many young children in a school setting. Wolsey was allowed to continue these practices until he was exposed in 1960. He then disappeared to the U.S., leaving in his wake an angry public and many unanswered questions.

Fairacres was then bought by Simon Fraser University to be used as a dormitory while the campus locations were being built. They mansion saw many a sit-ins and hootenanny, and the stunning architecture and interiors, now old and in need of repairs, were ignored and abused. During a protest, a bonfire was set on the hardwood floor of the billiard room, and graffiti was spray-painted over the exterior.

The students were eventually evicted, and the city of Burnaby took over the building, opening an art gallery in 1967, in celebration of Canada’s centennial. It was during the extensive renovations that the haunting began in earnest.

There were many reports of a woman in a white flowing old- fashioned dress who could walk through walls. The apparition, thought to be Grace Ceperley, always brought about feelings of peace and tranquillity, but also sadness. As well, workmen reported a figure of a man in old-fashioned dress who would stand at the top of the main staircase. At times, the sound of children crying could be heard from the unused third floor. One employee who worked in a second floor office often heard the sound of footsteps and furniture scraping the floor above her head. At first, she gave no thought to the sounds and assumed someone lived on the third floor. It was several months after that she began working at the art gallery that she discovered the third floor was unoccupied.

The third floor is not the only haunted area of the mansion; the basement seems to have a mischievous ghost of its own. An employee named Lagasse was working late one night, alone, in the basement, removing painting from their frames with a hammer and screwdriver. Every time he would set his tools down and turn his back, he would find his tools hung up on the wall several feet away. When he left the room to place the frames in storage, he returned to find the room locked, the padlock on the door swinging to and fro, as if someone had just left it.

Joanne Christensen, in her book Ghost Stories of British Columbia, raises an interesting point regarding the haunting of the Burnaby Art Gallery. She states, “Could the unhappiness of the abused youngsters have drawn back the spirit of Grace Ceperly, a woman who loved children? Or perhaps unaware of their desperation, Grace simply walks the halls of her beloved home to protest the disregard of her last will and testament.”

Today, no one can disregard the fact that something is very, very wrong with the spirit of Fairacres mansion.

I found the story on this web site, but though I’d spare you having to read it there with the text so hard to see.

Here’s another story on the SFU website and a story and a time line at Vancouver Paranormal.

I’m heading out early with my camera to get some pictures. I’ll post them tomorrow.