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Odd shoe superstition revived at lieutenant governor's residence in Halifax

Canadian Press Article online since April 13rd 2009, 23:00
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HALIFAX, N.S. - As the manager of one of the most ambitious renovation projects Halifax has seen in decades, Ron Jeppesen doesn't come across as a man who lends much time to superstition.
But on Tuesday, with a $5.9-million refit of the lieutenant-governor's official residence almost complete, Jeppesen was on his knees, placing a lady's shoe inside an unfinished wall.
The odd rite, part of a centuries-old tradition, was a historic repeat of what some superstitious workmen had done when the imposing Georgian mansion was being built between 1800 and 1805.
"Theoretically, it keeps evil spirits from coming in the house," Jeppesen said in an interview as a table saw whirred in another cavernous room.
"We're not so interested in warding off evil spirits, but we thought there should be a continuance of (the tradition)."
Jeppesen said his crew had so far found at least eight women's shoes from the early 1800s behind the lath and plaster walls of the stately home, known as Government House.
The soft-spoken manager said the strange finds prompted him to look to Google for an explanation.
That's where he learned about so-called concealment shoes, a custom popular in Britain and later in North America until the 1930s.
He said the roots of the ritual can be traced to the 1400s, when human bodies were sometimes placed under new dwellings to keep menacing ghosts at bay.
"That ceased when bodies became scarce or the smell became too much," he said with a laugh as the pungent smell of fresh paint and freshly cut wood hung in the air.
"They started using shoes because shoes take on the form of the foot ... so a lot of the person's spirit is in the shoe."
On Tuesday, Jeppesen led reporters through a tangle of scaffolding as he carefully placed eight used shoes in various cavities on all four floors of the mansion. Each was wrapped in a Mylar bag, containing a laminated note explaining why it was placed there.
The footwear was mostly donated by employees of the provincial Infrastructure Renewal Department, but one shoe came from the home's future resident, Lt.-Gov. Mayann Francis.
Elizabeth Semmelhack, curator of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, said June Swann, a curator at the Northhampton Museum in England, is credited with unravelling much of the mystery around concealment shoes.
Throughout Europe, placing various types of talismans inside walls has long been a common practice, Semmelhack said. But the use of footwear seems to be a particularly British custom that peaked in the 19th century.
Immigrants brought the ritual to North America, where concealed shoes often show up in old homes in Ontario and along the Eastern Seaboard.
"It has to do with getting a house, when it's being constructed, having it put its best foot forward," Semmelhack said in an interview.
Typically, well-worn women's and children's shoes are used, and they rarely turn up in pairs.
"Shoes, unlike other aspects of clothing, can suggest the human body in the way that a crumpled dress can't," Semmelhack said. "It's also a vessel. ... It could be that it's there to capture something, some essence, some spirit."
As well, the hidden shoes are almost always placed in areas where the inside meets the outside, including windows, doors, fireplaces and chimneys.
That was the case when workers started renovating the Halifax residence.
The stone structure on Barrington Street, which once boasted 23 wood-burning fireplaces, is the oldest vice-regal residence on the continent.
The original building had no indoor plumbing and was lit by whale-oil lamps. It has been continually occupied since Governor Sir John Wentworth moved in with his family in 1805.
As a result, the renovation that started in late 2006 marked the first time the dwelling has undergone a complete overhaul, Jeppesen said.
The original budget for the project was $3.3 million. By the time it's finished in October, the total cost will reach $5.9 million.
Aside from the shoes, Jeppesen said his crew had found ancient newspapers, postcards, invitations, cutlery and hundreds of tiny bones, left in the walls by determined rodents stealing scraps from the kitchen.
The original shoes found in the walls have been removed and are being catalogued. They will be returned to Government House where they will be put on permanent display.
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