A Haunting at Waterhouse Chambers

Waterhouse Chambers was built by successful grocer Thomas Greaves Waterhouse, who had invested heavily in the Burra Mines and made a small fortune in return.

 Waterhouse used his earnings to construct the impressive building, which was so iconic at the end of Rundle Street, that the corner became known locally as “Waterhouse Corner”, before being usurped as “Beehive Corner”, when the even more impressive “Beehive” building opened across the road.
 The building has seen many uses, including, at one time, being used as the head office of the South Australian Mining Company.

The building left the ownership of the Waterhouse family in 1919 after A. Waterhouse sold it to F.N.  Simpson of Gawler Place through realtor J.S. Kithor. In 1921 Kithor would on-sell the building to tobacco merchants “Lawrence and Levy” who remodelled the ground floor shop front.

After ninety years of occupying a section of the building, Shuttleworth and Letchford moved their offices to the YWCA building on Hutt Street.

 The building has seen many tenants over the years but perhaps one of the best-loved was the 44-year occupation by the iconic confectioner, Darrell Lea before the current Tennant, Charlesworth Nuts took over in 2013.

Ghost Stories:

Long rumoured to be haunted amongst the local paranormal community, ghost stories for this particular building are very hard to come by, but it would seem, that the majority of stories that have surfaced involve the upstairs section of the building.
 It has been reported that staff do not like the feeling of the upstairs room, reports of paranoia, smelling phantom pipe tobacco smoke when clearly no one is smoking, and hearing loud footsteps in rooms have surfaced.
 At one point this led staff from a downstairs shop, which used the upstairs as storage, to abandon the upstairs section as no one wanted to enter the rooms for fear of the unknown. If it is haunted, it has yet to be investigated by a professional paranormal investigation team or group of sceptics to find the cause of fear and paranoia! 

Trivia: Before the imposing Beehive building was built the corner of King William Street and Rundle Street was known locally as “Waterhouse Corner”.

This story was originally written for the Adelaide City Library project "Haunted Buildings in Adelaide." For a more complete history of the building and eyewitness accounts of ghost stories at this building please refer to my book "Haunted Adelaide" available via Amazon here: Haunted Adelaide

© 2016 Allen Tiller

A Haunting at the Mount Remarkable Hotel

- Part VII -

Conclusion + Ghost Stories.

At the end of my first post in A Haunting at the Mount Remarkable Hotel, I mentioned that there were several recorded deaths at the hotel. Each week I have supplied research on those deaths. Starting with watchmaker Dugald Wilson who fell into the basement, dying in the hotel that evening. Then Margaret ‘Maggie’ Salmon who suicided by poison in 1866. The next death was another suicide, that of August Fix who shot himself in an outlying building in 1908. In 1915 George Moran, son of the original owner, Thomas Moran died suddenly from a cerebral haemorrhage, and in 1931, the death of Irene Wight, followed by her husband Harry Castle Wight in 1932, who died ‘suddenly’.

So how do these deaths fit in with the local ghost stories?

The Mount Remarkable Hotel is alleged to be haunted by three (or more) ghosts. The first is a young woman who it believed may have drowned in the cellar. The second is thought to be the spirit woman and the third is a male who presents himself as a shadow person.
Owners have reported hearing people running through the unused upstairs section of the hotel. Poltergeist-like activity is also reported, with witnesses claiming to watch a bar stool topple over of its own volition, and cups from the pokies room being found on the floor in the morning during the opening of the room, which wasn’t there the night before.

I can find no corroborative evidence for death by drowning in the cellar. One would expect that such an event would require an inquest and that the inquest would be published in a newspaper. The second alleged spirit, without a description of what she looks like, could literally be anyone, but one could assume that the female spirit may be Maggie Salmon or Irene Wight.
The third alleged spirit that appears as a shadow person could literally be anyone, but again, one can make an assumption that the spirit may be Dugald Wilson, George Moran or Harry Wight. Without a proper description and a proper paranormal investigation done by professionals, it is hard to identify or conclude who any spirit is in any location.

Other alleged ghostly activity at the Mount Remarkable Hotel is poltergeist activity. With claims that cups appear in places they shouldn't be on opening the hotel. Often, things like cups left in a room are related to memory or misinterpretation. A person closing a hotel may think everything is away, having a brief look before locking up, then return the next day and be surprised when something is where it should not be, having missed it the night prior. However, there is always the possibility of a spirit moving things – there has been prior evidence of this in South Australia at the North Kapunda Hotel, The Port Admiral Hotel (Port Adelaide), and The British Hotel (North Adelaide).

Although I have linked ghosts to known deaths and made assumptions, this is unreliable and should not be regarded as evidence of the named people being ghosts in this location. If there are spirits haunting this hotel, they remain unidentified, and could literally be anyone who has passed through the building, or simply urban legends...

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2023

A Haunting at the Mount Remarkable Hotel – Part VI – Sudden Death.

 A Haunting at the Mount Remarkable Hotel 

– Part VI – 

Sudden Death.

Harold Wight served during World War One in Egypt, where he contracted Malaria. At the time of his embankment, he and Irene were living at 162 Jetty Road, Glenelg.[1]Harold Castle Wight and Irene Pearson Wight (nee Taylor) had one child Nina Marie Castle Wight.

Prior to owning the Mount Remarkable Hotel, Harry and Irene owned the Aurora Hotel at Hindmarsh Square, Adelaide. Harry was prosecuted in court for illegally supplying liquor on Christmas day and fined 10 pounds and 1-pound costs.[2]
 

Only a few years later the Wights were in trouble again for the illegal supply of liquor, however, this time they were found innocent.

Harry Castle Wight (48), on complaint, charged with a breach of the Licensing Acts, 1917 to 1927, section 183, at Mount Remarkable Hotel, Melrose; complaint dismissed. Tried at Melrose on 22/1/29. Evidence obtained by M.C. Jones.[3]

Wight bought the Mount Remarkable Hotel from Clarence Fuller in 1928. In 1929, Wight tried to sell the Mount Remarkable Hotel and its furniture and fittings.[4]

Irene died at the Mount Remarkable hotel on 25 august 1932, aged 43 years. Harry died on 29 March 1932 at the Mount Remarkable Hotel, aged 46 years.[5]They were both buried at Saint Jude’s Cemetery in Brighton, South Australia.[6]

After the deaths of the Wights, the hotel was sold to Herbert Ey.[7]

Next Week: A Haunting at the Mount Remarkable Hotel - Part VII - Conclusion + Ghost Stories.

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2023.

[1] ‘WIGHT Harry Castle: Service Number - 15400: Place of Birth - Adelaide SA: Place of Enlistment - Adelaide SA: Next of Kin - (Wife) WIGHT Irene,’ National Archives of Australia, https://discoveringanzacs.naa.gov.au/browse/records/418631.
[2] 'ILLEGAL SUPPLY OF LIQUOR.', The Advertiser, (26 January 1926), p. 7.
[3] ‘Harry Castle Wight’, South Australia, Australia, Police Gazettes, 1862-1947, AU5103-1929 SA Police Gazette, (1929).
[4] 'Advertising', The Advertiser, (18 December 1929), p. 9.
[5] 'Advertising', The Advertiser, (30 March 1932), p. 4.
[6] 'Family Notices', News, (26 August 1931), p. 12.
[7] J.L. (Bob) Hoad, Hotels and Publicans in South Australia, (1986), p. 390.

A Haunting at the Mount Remarkable Hotel – Part V – Like Father, Like Son.

 A Haunting at the Mount Remarkable Hotel 

– Part V – 

Like Father, Like Son.

George Moran was the only son of Thomas Moran and Alice Moran (nee Neagle), the original builders and publicans of the Mount Remarkable hotel. George was the publican of the Mount Remarkable Hotel between 1904 and 1915.

George Moran was educated at Sevenhill College near Clare. He served in the Mounted Police like his father before him. He earned the position of Inspector of Police in what is now the Northern Territory. He also served in Queensland and lived for a while in the Western Australian goldfields.
When he returned to South Australia, he took over the management of his father’s farm. After several bad seasons, George left the farm and took over as publican of his father’s former hotel, ‘Moran’s Hotel’ (The Mount Remarkable Hotel).
George engrained himself in his community. He served on the Port Germein District Council, supported the Frome Jockey Club, and supplied the local football team with its grounds.[1]

Despite being in good health, at the age of 59, while in his room at Moran’s Hotel, George suffered a cerebral haemorrhage that killed him. His wife Cicely and his eight daughters survived George.^[2]George Moran was buried at Melrose Cemetery, Row 12, Plot 81.

His family entered an obituary in the Express and Telegraph newspaper,

MORAN.-On the 12th of May, at Moran's Hotel, Melrose, suddenly, of cerebral haemorrhage, George William, beloved husband of Cicely M. Moran, 59 years.  R.I.P. [3]

After his death, Cicely and her daughters ran the hotel until 1920.[4]

Next Week: A Haunting at the Mount Remarkable Hotel – Part VI – Sudden Death.

Researched and written by Allen Tiller © 2023

---

[1] 'OBITUARIES.', Observer, (29 May 1915), p. 45.
[2] 'PERSONAL', Daily Herald, (14 May 1915), p. 4.
[3] 'Family Notices', The Express and Telegraph, (18 May 1915), p. 1.
[4] J.L. (Bob) Hoad, Hotels and Publicans in South Australia, (1986), p. 389.

Photo: The Wenmouth Collection: Melrose [B 64310/290], State Library of South Australia, (1969), https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+64310/290.