This article contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Standing on Fort Edmonton Park's recreated early-20th-century streets, the Firkins House looks like an ordinary Edwardian family home. It has nonetheless become one of Edmonton's most talked-about “haunted houses,” and one of its most disputed.
The Real History
The house is named for Dr. Ashley M. Firkins, an American dentist and keen adventurer who moved from Chicago to Edmonton with his wife in 1912. The couple raised two daughters in the home, who lived there from birth until the family left for California in 1923. According to park staff who researched the family, Dr. Firkins died in 1933 in the Long Beach earthquake, far from Edmonton.
After the Firkins family left, the house passed through other owners over the following decades. Its last private owners were the Karpetz family, and in 1992 the house was donated to Fort Edmonton Park, which moved it from its original lot and preserved it as an example of Edwardian residential architecture with many original fixtures.
When park staff checked the popular ghost stories against the house's ownership history, they found no record of anyone dying in the house. The only former resident known to have died, according to a park program coordinator quoted by Edify Edmonton in 2010, was killed decades later in an accident on Whitemud Drive. The Firkins family also had no son, which matters because the best-known ghost is said to be a sickly boy. Much of the house's horror mythology traces to a segment of the Canadian television series Creepy Canada, which, according to that same reporting, invented a book of magic and a haunted doll for the episode. Park staff have described that version as made for television rather than drawn from the house's past.
The Haunting
The legends have outlived the debunking, and they change depending on who tells them. The commonly repeated claims are a translucent woman drifting past a bookcase, a ventriloquist's doll that turns up inside closed cupboards, and the figure of a pale, sickly young boy in the halls. None of these match any documented resident of the house.
Some stories come from before the move. Members of the Karpetz family are said to have been told by neighbours that the house had a strange reputation. During the relocation to Fort Edmonton Park, workers are said to have reported tools going missing and window panes falling out yet landing unbroken. These accounts are anecdotal, and the park staff interviewed in 2010 said employees who spend the most time in the house had not experienced anything unusual.
Can You Visit?
Yes. The Firkins House is on 1905 Street inside Fort Edmonton Park, in Edmonton, Alberta, and is open to visitors during the park's regular season. The City of Edmonton has featured the house in its “Eerie Edmonton” roundup, and the park has included it in seasonal evening events.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did anyone actually die inside the Firkins House?
No documented death has been traced to the house itself. Park research found only one death linked to a former resident, which happened decades later in a car accident elsewhere in Edmonton.
Is the haunted ventriloquist doll story true?
There is no evidence for it. Fort Edmonton Park staff attribute the doll and the book of magic to a dramatized segment on the TV series Creepy Canada.
Who built the Firkins House?
It is associated with Dr. Ashley M. Firkins, a dentist who moved to Edmonton from Chicago with his wife in 1912.
Sources
- The Firkins Ghost Buster – Edify Edmonton
- Eerie Edmonton – City of Edmonton
- Fort Edmonton Park – Wikipedia
- Creepy Canada – Wikipedia
As an Amazon Associate, this site earns from qualifying purchases.
