Century Manor, Ontario

Exploring abandoned places is fascinating for us. We like to conjure up outlandish and completely implausible explanations as to why they’ve sat alone left to decay!  Century Manor is no exception.

If you lived in and around Hamilton, Ontario in the 1900s, you might have heard –

“Be careful, or you might end up in the mansion on the hill.”

Originally intended to be a hospital, this historic 1876 building was an asylum for the insane. As a result, it also ended up housing the criminally insane, like murderers, serial killers and rapists. 

It was built in a remote location on 500 acres, for the treatment of mentally ill patients. Although some of the unusual methods that were used sound more like a form of torture than therapy. For example, morphine injections, salt rub simulation, alcohol, electro-shock, lobotomies and then to top it off even experiments were performed. Those types of treatment culminated in many suicides and murders during that time.

The facility has had a few aliases over the years such as The Hamilton Asylum for the Insane, Ontario Hospital and later the Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital.

In 1884 East House, now known as Century Manor, opened as a reception hospital. It is the only part of the original building remaining.

People during the late 1800s and early 1900s would picnic at the grounds, intending to spend the day making fun of the patients. They watched them talk to themselves, daring them to do weird things and often threw objects because they didn’t ‘perform’.

Inverness Place

Tunnels used for transporting patients remain, but we were unable to find any entrances. There was one possibility!

Inverness Place had a large enough gap between its small loading dock doors to peer inside. We saw two large cellar doors. One was open! Perhaps this was an entrance to the blackened labyrinth that tortured souls forever roam. Yet again, it may not be!  

At the back of the main building, there are several other derelict structures which we decided to explore. Apart from debris, some old shoes and plenty of rubbish and graffiti, there wasn’t much else.

Hauntings of century manor

The asylum closed, and the patients all relocated in the 1980s. It then became a museum until 1995 when it finally closed its doors for good. Now Century Manor sits abandoned with only spirits from the past roaming its halls.

Rumour has it; you can hear whispering, soft speaking voices and agonizing cries. Apparitions and orbs have also been seen.

One night, a security guard recounts hearing feminine voices behind a door in one of the tunnels. Thinking someone must have become lost down there, he decided to give them a scare. Barging in, two ladies dressed as vintage nurses sitting at a table turned and looked at him. Terrified, he shut the door. Regaining his composure, he peered through the door again, only to find an empty room.

In a nutshell

• Address: – Juravinski Dr, Hamilton, ON
• Admission: – Free – view from outside only

Location map – Century Manor