Long before movie fans saw creepy seances in The Changeling and The Others, there was a home on Henderson Highway where a highly respected doctor attempted to communicate with the dead.

Most Winnipeggers drive by Hamilton House and have no idea it was once the North American centre of research into paranormal activity, says Chris Rutkowski, a local author and researcher of ghosts and UFOs.

Hamilton House has long been renovated into office space and is currently a naturopathic clinic. However, in the early 1900s, Dr. T. Glen Hamilton conducted seances in sealed upper rooms in the house.

Hamilton would invite mediums to summon spirits and try to capture photographic evidence of the ghosts, Rutkowski said.

“Hamilton set up a wall of cameras, all different kinds, and their shutters were controlled automatically with some very clever mechanical devices,” Rutkowski said. “For that period, 100 years ago, it was quite advanced technology.

“They were all done completely in the dark with everyone holding hands and if the medium said ‘I think there is a ghost here’ then Hamilton would depress a switch and all the cameras would flash and take a photo. There are hundreds of photographs that were taken and many of them do show weird things.”

All of Hamilton’s archive letters, drawings and photographs are preserved at the University of Manitoba, Rutkowski said. The Manitoba Historical Society also has extensive details of Hamilton’s work.

Rutkowski conceded some of the photos look “pretty hokey,” but added with a chuckle there was no Photoshop available 100 years ago.

Hamilton obtained his MD degree in 1903 at the Manitoba Medical College, which is now the Medical School of U of M. The first physician of Elmwood was president of the Manitoba Medical Association from 1921-22 and the Canadian Medical Association in 1922.

“No one considered him to be a fraud,” Rutkowski said. “In his obituary (in 1935) and memorial, the medical association did nothing but praise him for his scientific mind.

“He was not considered a crackpot. He was an MLA and a most prominent doctor. He was running in some pretty important circles and was instrumental in bringing the vote for women to Winnipeg.”

Hamilton was joined in his psychic research by his wife, Lillian, and it’s believed their interest in contacting the dead increased in 1919, after their three-year-old son died of the Spanish flu.

According to the Historical Society of Manitoba, the Hamiltons’ first medium was their Scottish nanny, who used an Ouija board. They kept their investigations into the paranormal quiet until 1926, when Hamilton delivered a lecture series on telekinesis to the Winnipeg Medical Society.

Word spread of his work, which prompted famous guests to travel to Winnipeg to participate in seances. Among them were Sherlock Holmes author Conan Doyle and Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King.

Hamilton House hasn’t been the subject of ghost sightings, but there are many Winnipeggers who believe their homes are haunted. Rutkowski keeps in touch with members of the Winnipeg Paranormal Group, who investigate them at the request of residents.

“They’re a pretty straight group who just want to help people understand what’s going on. They don’t have tinfoil hats,” said Rutkowski, who wrote Unnatural History: True Manitoba Mysteries in 1993.

“They have been in dozens of places around Manitoba and they are so busy with requests from people wanting their homes to be investigated that they could be out every weekend of the year.”

Happy Halloween.