Would You Spend A Night At This 'Haunted' Hospital In Penang?
It was a spooky night at No.57 Macalister for 40 brave participants.
By Mei Mei Chu — 14 Apr 2014, 04:47 PM — Updated over 10 years ago
Built in 1915, the Penang Museum was once a maternity hospital. More than 60,000 babies were born there.
It was the place of birth for more than 60,000 babies and is now a museum which is challenging visitors to stay overnight in the 99-year-old building.
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“It started out as the Maternity Hospital of King Edward VII in 1915 and more than 60,000 babies were born here. During the Occupation, the Japanese used it as a naval hospital. When they left, the British came back and used it as their barracks. “Later, it was turned into a hospital again but only till 1955,” Haryany said.
thestar.com.myAfter 1955, the premises served as headquarters of the St John’s Ambulance and Red Crescent Society, and the centre for Penang NGOs before being left vacant. Two years ago, it was turned into the state museum.
thestar.com.myRumour has it that the Penang Museum is haunted. There have been recordings of doors closing on their own, strange flying lights and sounds of heavy breathing.
“There have been all kinds of ghostly tales about this place and museum visitors have often asked if it was haunted. We don’t know for sure but we have CCTV footage of doors closing on their own, chairs suddenly shifting, strange lights flying about and sound of heavy breathing at the mortuary.”
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For years, people have been asking if lost souls still wander the halls of what was once the Maternity Hospital of King Edward VII
“The first question that is usually asked by museum visitors is whether the building is haunted. This is difficult to answer because we ourselves have never spent a night in the museum. It is difficult for us to deny or verify them (the ghost stories). So. we had the idea to create this programme so that visitors can experience it themselves,” she said here last night.
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To answer this difficult question, museum director Haryany Mohamad invited 40 people to spend the night at the spooky museum
In an event dubbed A Night at No. 57 Macalister, the museum’s street address, the group was given a chance to join the first-ever hair-raising slumber party at its premises.
thestar.com.myPenang Museum director Haryany Mohamad said the programme “Overnight Stay at No. 57 Jalan Macalister” would allow participants to experience for themselves staying in a building which has had many scary stories since its establishment in 1915.
newsarawaktribune.comParticipants arrived with their sleeping bags, torch lights and other overnight essentials, and were greeted by museum staff dressed in the white smocks of medical personnel. Even Haryany wore a smock with a red stethoscope hung around her neck.
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40 participants were given a long list of advice to keep themselves safe, such as always keep one piece of clothing on when they take a shower
When you want to go to the toilet, bring a friend. Go alone and you risk returning with two “phantom friends”. When you take a shower, always keep one piece of clothing on. Watch what you say, no bold remarks or claims of bravery, please.
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These were among the long list of advice given by Penang Museum curator Haryany Mohamad to the 40 people who spent a night at the museum last Friday.
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In the building where doctors and nurses once roamed the halls, participants ate their buffet dinner of low-sodium food out of hospital food trays
After the briefing, a buffet dinner was served and participants ate out of the classic dull blue food trays used in hospitals. The menu – steamed fish, vegetable soup and guava – came complete with the standard bland low-sodium preparation.
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When darkness fell, they were divided into small groups to tour the hospital grounds, including the mortuary
Spooky experience: Some of the participants taking a tour around the Penang Museum premises with the staff in medical smocks.
Image via The StarWhen darkness fell, they were split into groups and taken on a tour to various parts of the building including the old mortuary and post-mortem facility which was gutted by fire less than two months before the overnight stay was scheduled to take place.
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“We used the mortuary as a storeroom. Our plan was to allow visitors to enter it and see what’s left of the fixtures in the post-mortem room. So it is unfortunate that the fire broke out. “The authorities are still investigating into the cause of the fire,” Haryany added.
thestar.com.myIf that was not enough to raise some hair, participants then listened to ghost stories and watched CCTV recordings of paranormal activities happening in the very building they were about to sleep in
Participants had a fill of horror movies being showed to them, a ghost story telling session and a sketch of a childbirth in progress acted out by the museum staff.
thestar.com.myEarlier, the two-day-one-night programme saw 40 participants, who wore various hospital costumes and saw re-enactments of childbirth in the delivery room. They also visited the morgue and viewed recordings of scary scenes such as moving chairs, which had occurred earlier in the building.
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The fun does not stop there as participants woke up the next day to a game of treasure hunt
The next morning, the participants awoke safe and sound and took part in a treasure hunt.
thestar.com.myThe 40 participants may have woken up safe and sound, but one participant said she felt someone touching her shoulder at the pantry during the night tour
A participant, who declined to be named, said she felt someone touching her shoulder at the pantry when her group was taken on a tour of the museum. Haryany said they planned to hold more overnight stays at the Penang Museum.
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