Hudson's historic Willow Inn will soon open its doors to the public after shutting down last November.
But before everyone can get back in and enjoy a meal on the waterfront terrace, the new owners are trying to determine if a long rumoured guest is still hanging around.
According to legend, the residence was the local headquarters for the Patriote Movement. One of the servant girls, known as Maud, was a committed Loyalist, and is said to have been caught eavesdropping on a meeting in which Patriote members were discussing the Rebellion of 1837.
To keep her from passing on the information to the Loyalists, Maud was murdered by François-Xavier Desjardins and later buried in the basement. The urban legend says her body is still there, and now her ghost can be seen roaming the halls and causing trouble outside room number 8, the same room where the infamous meeting was held.
In order to decide once and for all if Maud still lives at the Inn, 180 years later, a team of ghost hunters have been brought in to find her.
"Experiences vary from being touched to hearing voices to seeing a shadow" Kane, investigator and Lead Assistant with Ghost Hunters of Ottawa for Scientific Truth (G.H.O.S.T.) told the Andrew Carter show. "So we're just trying to figure out what is real and what is folklore."
G.H.O.S.T. members will be conducting a complete overnight investigation on July 29.
"We're going to go in with our equipment and we're going to try to figure out with our results what we can and cannot catch" Kane said.
Kane said even if the team finds something inside the Willow Inn, there's no guarantee it's Maud because no one knows for sure what ghosts are made of.
In the end we may or may not get a better idea of what is causing the strange experiences some people have had inside the Willow Inn, but we do know the truth is out there.
- Katelyn Thomas contributed to this report