The Lonely Ghost at St. Michael's Orphanage

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
The Belvedere Orphanage in Newfoundland was slated for demolition after it was damaged by fire in April, 2017. The question is: what happens to the spirits that are said to haunt this centuries-old orphanage, school and convent when it is repurposed as an apartment building? 

---

Bishop Fleming

NEWFOUNDLAND, CANADA
Hugh Alexander Emerson, a politician built a Second Empire style house in 1826. When Emerson's wife died in the 1840s he sold it to Bishop Michael Anthony Fleming (1792-1850). The bishop died within its walls, but he is not one of its purported ghosts. This house became part of the group of buildings that would include the Belvedere Orphanage.

St. Michael's Convent which housed the Sisters of Mercy, was converted into a girls' orphanage in 1826. Within 30 years a new building named the Belvedere Orphanage (a.k.a. St. Michael's Orphanage), was constructed to accept all the foundlings brought to its doors.

About 200 girls lived at the orphanage during the 1950s, but the numbers dwindled until they closed in 1969. The building was then used as a school house, offices and a home for the local Catholic newspaper.

---

Belvedere Orphanage building c.1989

In 1989, allegations of abuse at the orphanage surfaced. One of the girls (now an adult) described how in the 1950s, she along with her older sister were placed there by her father after her mother died. She was four, and her sister was ten years old. The orphanage was their home for the next 8 years. She said she was hit so hard that it raised welts, and she saw nuns slap girls and swing them by their hair.

The woman said she had never seen any sexual abuse by the nuns, but she did watch older girls make advances on younger one. Social workers never visited, and police would return any runaways.  She was able to leave when she was 12 to live with her father and her stepmother. She, along with her sister and other prior inmates sued the Sisters of Mercy in 1996.

​By 2010, more than 30 women were suing the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy, and the province of Newfoundland. The case was 13 years old then, and many of the nuns had died, and memories of those alive were fading.

The order abandoned the building in 1999, and it became derelict. For years, there were stories about a ghost witnessed mostly during the 1970s when it functioned as a school.

---

Sisters of Mercy with orphans c.1950s-1960s (Source - Facebook)

The one-time Sister Michael, who served as the principal for Belvedere Junior High School from 1971 to 1976 when it closed, lived in the convent portion of the building during those years. She described hearing strange sounds she couldn't explain. It was the sound of someone walking, always on the top floor of the building. She never had the courage to investigate. The janitor told her he had doors open after he had closed them.

A visit from a paranormal expert with the Memorial University described the ghost as a poltergeist, which are usually connected to teenage girls.

On another occasion two women from Argentina stayed at the school. One woman told Sister Michael that from the moment she arrived at the property, she was in touch with the suffering of young girls, especially with a particular spirit.

---

Demolition of Belvedere Orphanage building after it caught fire c.2017

On another occasion the superintendent arrived at the school to find his secretary in the parking lot waiting for him. She said she refused to be alone in the building after she heard footsteps down the main hallway, when no one was there.

Behind the Convent, there’s a single tree, known as the Shade Tree. Curiously placed and super old, it’s the subject of plenty of folklore.

In November, 2023, a zoning change for the land where St. Michael's Convent and the Belvedere Orphanage operated from was submitted, which would allow the erection of a 60-unit building. The oldest structure would be demolished.

The orphanage building was razed after it caught fire in 2017.

And two questions remain: who is it that has been heard pacing along the 4th floor corridor, and will she finally be set free, or continue seeking either revenge or redemption in a place that is no more?

---