Ontario Museum of the Paranormal re-opens as The Haunted Shop

(Ontario, Canada) The Museum of the Paranormal has closed its doors with its wide array of unique artifacts heading back into the vault for the time being.

Stephanie and Daniel Cumerlato, the couple behind the Museum, said it may return in the future but for the time being, they’re putting their energy into launching a new endeavour: The Haunted Shop. Located at 126 Queen St., down the cobble pathway beside the Kenneth Lane Smith Gallery, the Haunted Shop is a smaller version of the gift shop previously housed in the museum. Visitors will still be able to find items relating to the paranormal, such as Tarot cards, pendulums, gemstones, divining rods and more, as well as novelty items such as ghost poop, Harry Houdini action figures and zombie finger puppets.

“It’s the only paranormal-themed gift shop in Canada,” said Stephanie. “We tried to incorporate a lot of the things people liked about our previous shop but were limited because of the space.”


The Cumerlatos had set up shop inside the Old Smithy building on Queen Street last year. The couple had been operating the long-standing ghost tours through Old Town for a number of years before making the decision to take it to the next level. However, when the building owners decided to develop the site into residential units, the Cumerlatos had to move shop.

“We knew they had plans to do it, but it happened a lot quicker than expected,” she said.

For the time being, they’ve reopened as the gift shop, with plans to hopefully reopen the museum in the future. The ghost tours, which celebrates its ninth anniversary this year, will continue to operate out of The Haunted Shop. Cumerlato said having a storefront location for people to get information about the lantern-lit tours has helped business, noting that close to 10,000 people from Niagara and beyond participated in the tours last year.

“It’s helping to bring people into town, people who might not otherwise come here,” she said of the tour, which gets a lot of promotion on the Cumerlatos popular paranormal website www.hauntedhamilton.com.

Fans of the Museum of the Paranormal with a keen eye may be able to pick out some of the artefacts that made it on display in the new shop.

“We wanted to keep some items out, people are really interested in them,” said Stephanie.

The Haunted Shop held its grand opening on Friday. The store will be open in the spring from 1 to 8 p.m. Once summer comes, the operating hours will be extended until 8:30 p.m. For more information about the shop and ghost walks, visit www.thehauntedshop.com.

via niagarathisweek.com