Ste-Clotilde-de-Horton Asylum, Quebec, Canada

https://www.urbexplayground.com/fr/rurex/la-maison-notre-dame-de-la-chesnaie-ou-lart-de-cr%C3%A9er-des-fous

From a distance, it looks like any abandoned building. Debris litters the ground, graffiti « adorns » the walls, broken glass shines in the dim light. Although the weather seems clear and comfortable, as you approach, the air becomes heavier.

Since the Quiet Revolution in the 1960s, many institutions for the care of psychiatric patients or the intellectually handicapped, commonly referred to as « asylums », have been abandoned. Officially named La Maison Notre-Dame-de-la-Chesnaie, the asylum in Ste-Clotilde-de-Horton near Drummondville is no exception. Unfortunately, the passage of time, the lack of maintenance and the passage of less well-meaning people who have left their mark on it have made the building too dangerous for visitors.

However, according to some visitors, tortured souls still roam the dilapidated corridors of the building, seeking rest in vain…

History

The history of Maison Notre-Dame-de-la-Chesnaie began in 1939. Missionaries of the Sacred Heart acquired the farmland that once belonged to a certain Alexandre Martel. A building was built on the newly acquired land and became the Monastery of the Frères du Sacré-Coeur, a building that had nothing to do with the ruins that are now on the site.

Then, 25 years later, the monastery was sold to the Frères de l’Instruction Chrétienne, who opened a novitiate of the Frères de l’Instruction Chrétienne there. Moreover, there is a sign carved in stone on the wall of the main entrance, with an illustration embedded in the hall, indicating the owners and their motto: « Sinite Parvulos Venire Ad Me » (Let the little children come to me.)

A few years later, in 1959, a first fire raged in the building, caused by three young people who were secretly smoking in a storeroom. The use of matches would have started the fire. Alas, these three boys perished in the fire.

In the late 1960s, the Quebec government acquired the building to turn it into a rehabilitation center for the intellectually handicapped with 90 places. Even then, when science was slowly but surely gaining the upper hand over religion (before the 1960s, in Quebec, the majority of « asylums » were run by religious people), the center still used electroshock therapy, lobotomies, experimental care, and other highly questionable and cruel abuses on patients.

Then, in January 1988, a second fire broke out, devastating part of the building and killing 9 intellectually handicapped people. This was the beginning of the end for La Maison de Notre-Dame-de-La-Chesnaie.

After these painful losses, the place was sold to the 7th Adventist Church. Wishing to convert the asylum into a camp (Val-Espoir), the new owners abandoned the project for lack of means. The building will be definitively abandoned in 2002.

Since that time, the land (which is approximately 300 acres) and the building have belonged to the neighbor across the street. Like many abandoned places, St. Clotilde’s Asylum has not escaped vandals, but is also regularly visited by paranormal lovers and several curious young people.

After the visit of many ghost hunters over the years, the place is now qualified as one of the most haunted places in Quebec. This reputation gave DMF Company the idea to organize a Halloween party in October 2014, in which more than 2,500 people participated.

The old asylum was hit by fire again in 2015, this time caused by vandals. It was from this moment that the municipality and the owner started a real legal battle over the future of the building.

However, since 2018, the site has been closed following a request from the town itself. The place is considered hazardous and dangerous. Since then, the owner has had a fence installed around the property. This has not prevented some brave visitors from literally cutting the fence to enter the building.

Persistent ghosts

Since the place has been abandoned, many visitors (sometimes with questionable ideas) have set foot in this sinister place. Armed with the latest paranormal technology (such as electromagnetic field detectors or machines that capture EVPs – electronic voice phenomena), many ghost hunters and thrill seekers have visited the place in the hope of capturing a sound or image that would provide proof that lost souls are still wandering the corridors.

Several witnesses reportedly witnessed ghosts, specters, and other unexplained presences. Some of them would have seen a little girl of 3-4 years old in the woods in the middle of the night. According to ghost hunters, there are at least three entities that would have manifested their presence more frequently. The first, a 9 or 10-year-old girl, Emilie, who would have made her voice heard several times. In addition, they would have managed to contact one of the three young boys who died in the first fire in 1958. But, according to several sources, one of the most present invisible inhabitants is a young man by the name of James, who appears mainly in the old locker room.

Alas, I did not have the chance to visit this place before the permanent closure. Despite my attraction for the paranormal and the numerous pieces of evidence that would have been collected over the years, the presence of entities and spirits of deceased persons remains a subject that is both sensitive and mysterious.

Since 2018, the immense land occupied by the Ste-Clotilde-de-Horton Asylum is for sale for a small sum. Also, the place will be demolished by 2023. Today, the land is guarded and forbidden access.

Will the souls lost in this former asylum ever find rest?

This will always remain a mystery.