Toronto – A Young City With Old Ghosts

Toronto is a relatively young city, but what it lacks in age, it makes up for in stories that will have your hair standing on end. With ghosts on every corner, Toronto is a hotbed of paranormal activity. From the apparition of the “faceless lady in the red dress” at Lower Bay Station to the spirit of a murdered lighthouse keeper at Gibralter Point Lighthouse, the city locals have learned to tread lightly. And though there are dozens of sites we could talk about, today we will do a deep dive into four of the most haunted places in Toronto: The Keg Mansion, St. Michael’s Hospital, The Christie Mansion, and the Don Jail.

The Keg Mansion

Located at 515 Jarvis Street, this stunning Gothic style heritage building was constructed in 1867. Back then, it was set back from the road and looked onto a huge garden. While it was still used as a residence, it had 26 rooms and 17 fireplaces. It even had a stable and a large carriage house in the back. In 1882, the property was sold to a wealthy businessman named Hart Massey. Yes, the same Massey that would later build one of Toronto’s most popular concert buildings, Massey Hall.

The family lived there for many years and of Massey’s 4 children (Charles, Chester, Lillian, and Walter) it was Lillian who ended up taking over the household and managing family affairs when her siblings moved away. A philanthropist and educator, Lillian was adored by the house staff. Many of them were devastated when she took ill and passed away in her bed in 1915. In fact, one of her maids was so stricken with grief she constructed a noose out of bedding and leaped to her death from the oval vestibule and was found swinging in the foyer. But her spirit is not the only one said to haunt this place.

Others

Though these are the only two people that were documented to have died in the house, the property changed ownership multiple times and has many untold tales. It is rumored there was a small boy who fell down the stairs and died shortly after Lillian and the maid passed away; however, the boy’s identity remains a mystery. From the house’s time serving as a radio station for CFRB, to an art gallery, to a restaurant named Julie’s Mansion, it is unknown how many spirits left this world within those walls.

In 1976, the mansion was sold to The Keg and was renamed the Keg Mansion. Over the years, both the staff and steak-seeking patrons have come forward with hair-raising stories that suggest the property is in fact haunted. There are so many reports, that the restaurant now keeps a log book to record incidents of what can only be described as paranormal activity.

The Boy On The Staircase

Sightings of the little boy on the stairs are the most frequent and are (not surprisingly) mostly reported by children. Families trying to have lunch often struggle to keep their kids in their seats because their little ones want to go play with the little boy on the stairs. There are staff that claim to have seen his ghost as well. Perhaps the most convincing sighting was reported by a couple of evening diners who spotted the child and were mildly annoyed since the restaurant doesn’t allow children at night. They asked staff if the Keg’s policy had changed and when the couple tried to point out where the offending youngster was, all they found was an empty staircase.

More Trouble On The Stairs

The staircase at the Keg Mansion has a wooden banister with wooden spindles. One Saturday evening, in the middle of service, one of the wooden spindles came loose from the third floor and crashed onto the counter top of the bar down below. Though no one was hurt, the bartender and the nearby guests were quite shaken by their brush with death and the incident was recorded in the log book.

The manager had the spindle reinstalled without further incident until exactly one year later when the same spindle wriggled loose from its position and plummeted to the bar below. Could this date or specific spindle have a some significance to the ghost boy’s death?

Is The Women’s Washroom Haunted?

Second to the little boy, many people have claimed to see or sense a woman in the top floor washroom. One guest reported that she walked into the ladies’ room alone, but felt a presence with her, which made her very uncomfortable. She finished up as quickly as she could and when she came out, she saw a woman in a dark, old-fashioned dress standing by the staircase. The mysterious woman looked straight at the guest who said “Hi” and walked passed her to head back downstairs. Still feeling uneasy, the guest asked the host if he had seen the woman in the old-fashioned dress. The host told the guest that there were no female staff in that night and that he had not seated anyone in an old-fashioned dress.

Another report of the mysterious woman came from a guest who walked into the ladies room. She said that a pair of feet were visible from underneath the gap in one of the stalls and that she entered the stall next to it. The toilet beside her flushed and both the stall doors opened at the same time, but the guest was thoroughly terrified when no one came out of the other stall. When she looked inside the other stall she realized she was completely alone.

Other Presence

The Keg Mansion has one other unique feature. There is a blocked off secret tunnel that used to connect the house to the Wellesley Hospital. While she was ill, Lillian’s staff used to transport her back and forth via this tunnel when it was too cold to take her outside. The hospital is long gone, but the tunnel remains. Many supernatural specialists and psychic groups who have visited the mansion have suggested that the presence of other spirits that now haunt the space could have been patience of the hospital who are now using the tunnel to connect with the living. This includes the spirit of a man who spends most of his time in the library and does not appreciate ladies entering. Women who enter the library have reported the feeling of dread and unease and are compelled to leave the room. This includes the female staff.

St. Michael’s Hospital

St. Michael’s Hospital, located in the center of Toronto at 30 Bond St, was established by the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1892. It was a teaching hospital back then, as it continues to be today. The nun’s primary goal was to take care of the sick and poor of Toronto’s inner city and started out with a bed capacity of 26, with 6 doctors and 4 nurses on staff. Over the years, the hospital has grown immensely, with four wings and an emergency room that take up an entire city block and a bed capacity of 463. That’s a lot of people coming and going throughout history, though some have decided to stay. Permanently.

Sister Vincenza

Sister Vincenza graduated from St. Michael’s nursing program in 1922 and devoted her life to the health and care of newborn babies. She was the head of obstetrics until 1956 and passed away two years later. In her 28 year career, she cared for over 60,000 babies, and had oversight over 18,000 nurses, who affectionately called her “Vinnie”. Under Vinnie’s leadership, St. Michael’s maintained an infant mortality ratio of 10/1000 (far below the national average of 38/1000). She ran a tight ship and even put the doctors in their place, but she was a caring woman with a sense of humor and was adored by staff and patients alike. Apparently, not even death could interfere with Sister Vinnie’s calling to provide care.

Her ghostly figure has been reported to haunt the 7^th floor of the Cardinal Carter wing (formerly obstetrics) by numerous. Sister Vinnie is known to rearrange medication carts, turn lights on and off, and sit by a patient’s bed in the middle of the night, always appearing as “faceless” and dressed in white. Some have felt her touch their arm and many patients said that she offered them a blanket. Instead of feeling terrified, most people found her to be comforting. The nursing staff have been asked on numerous occasions “Who was that lovely woman in my room last night?” The answer is always the same. “No one was in your room.”

But the strange occurrences at St. Michael’s Hospital don’t end with Vinnie. The following stories were all reported by hospital staff over the last 10 years.

Other Haunting Phenomena in the Cardinal Carter Wing

One day, while working in the MSICU, the nurses were waiting on an admission to come in, so they proactively prepared the bed and cardiac monitor. They set the monitor in standby mode and, with no patient hooked up to it, the machine began chirping out the sounds of a heart beat. The RN was freaked out, but assumed that the equipment must have malfunctioned, playing back the recorded heartbeat of the previous patient. Later, when she was speaking with an engineer who came to examine the equipment, she learned that it was not possible for the equipment to record and that the sounds of a heart rhythm could only come from the machine being hooked up to a patient or a simulator.

On another evening, a porter was working an overnight shift. He had just returned from the morgue and took a break in the MSICU/CVICU waiting room. Feeling solemn about the day he had just had, he turned on the t.v. to try to take his mind off of it. With all of the doors closed and no one else in the room, the porter took a seat, but did not have a chance to rest. Within moments of him settling in, the faucet in a nearby sink turned on full blast. The staff member reported that he was paralyzed by fear and could not work up the courage to move for about 10 minutes, the faucet gushing the entire time. Once he was able to collect himself, he got up, turned the faucet and the t.v. off and left the haunted room.

The IT Department

One Saturday, a member of the IT department came in to replace a computer in the Medical Media Center. He was alone and this area of the hospital had been padlocked. He had finished his work without incident, but on his way out he realized he forgot something and had to turn back. As he reached his forgotten item, he claims to have heard a bunch of papers being shuffled. When he turned around to see who was there, he said that something walked through him. The employee went cold with goosebumps and the air was knocked out of his chest. He was so frightened he ran out of the building and refused to return to that section of the hospital alone again, claiming that it was haunted.

The Bond Wing

It was 10pm when a nurse and her colleague were working in the Bond Wing. The nurse left her desk to use the facilities at the far end of the hall and once she came out she heard a voice calling her name repeatedly. Thinking it was her colleague, she said “hold on” and returned back to their office as soon as she could. When she got there she asked her colleague what she needed. The colleague was confused and said that she never called her.

Other creepy things in the Bond Wing include the mysterious manipulation of electricity. For example, there is a call bell in an unused gym that goes off at random times. Engineers have been called to repair it; however, no one has been able to identify the technical issue. The elevators in this wing are known to move up and down on their own throughout the night. There are even reports of a disembodied male laughing in the Fracture Clinic as computers are turned on and off. Staff believe it is the spirit of a morgue attendant who died on the job who haunts this wing.

The Christie Mansion

While Mr. Christie was famous for making “good cookies”, the mansion he built has a far less savory reputation. William Mellis Christie immigrated to Toronto from Scotland in 1848. Still a teenager, he got his start working in a bakery on Yonge Street. All of Christie’s hard work and ambition payed off and within a few years he started his own company. By the time he was 30 he ran a staff of 5 people, and by his 44^th birthday he owned a factory the size of a city block and had become one of the most famous businessmen in Canada.

The Christie mansion was built in a high profile area on 100 Wellesley St. W, across from the provincial legislature at Queen’s park. He lived there with his wife, Mary Jane, his daughters (Mary Jane, Anne Elizabeth, and Fanny Laura) and his sons (James, William, and Robert). Sadly, a virus claimed the lives of the two older boys, and when Mr. Christie passed away from bone cancer in 1900, the home was left to his last surviving son, Robert. This is where our wholesome tale of baked goods turns a little sour.

Robert Christie

While raising his own family in the Christie home, Robert was having an affair. With no time to go sneaking around, Robert thought it would be best to have his lover move into the mansion, unbeknownst to his wife and children. The home had a secret room (now known as “Room 29”) behind the wooden paneling of the library. It was fully furnished with its own bedroom and bathroom; however, there was no kitchen, so Robert had to have food brought to her by a trusted servant.

The mistress stayed in her relatively small quarters day in and day out, waiting for her lover to pay her a visit. As the years went by, Robert came to her room less and less often. Isolated, depressed, and jealous of the Christie family, the mistress eventually went mad and hung herself in one of her rooms. She was discovered by the staff member who was bringing her dinner. When Robert was alerted to the news, he asked his trusted servant to help him remove the body and bury her in secret.

Wracked with guilt, Robert Christie’s health rapidly declined and he was diagnosed with cancer. He sold his father’s company to Nabisco and died a few years later. The mansion was converted into a school and is now known as Regis College – the Jesuit School of Theology.

As rumour has it, the ghost of Robert’s mistress still haunts the property. Though no one has reported seeing her spectral image, the doors in Room 29 are said to open and close on their own. There have also been reports of the doors in room 29 locking themselves and trapping students inside.

The Don Jail

Construction of the Don Jail started in 1858 but wasn’t completed until 1864. When it first opened it was referred to as a “Palace for Prisoners” because of it’s focus on reform and the wellness and living conditions of it’s prisoners, but it’s reputation would rapidly decline and it was eventually closed in 1977.

Overcrowding

Originally, the East wing was designed to house 276 prisoners. Before the building was shut down, it’s official rated capacity had been updated to 550, but on average, the wing was known to house 620 at any given time. Since the Don was also supposed to be a short-term jail (30-90 days), visitor facilities, space to exercise, lawyer meeting rooms, laundry facilities, and even showers were grossly inadequate to handle the number of inmates. Even the courts took notice of the poor conditions and judges would credit the prisoners 3 days for every 1 day spent in this facility in pre-trial, shortening their overall sentence.

Escape

The most famous escapes (yes – there were two) were both carried out by he Boyd Gang, named for their leader, Edwin Boyd. After robbing six banks, Boyd was brought to the Don where he met Lennie Jackson, Willy Jackson, and Steve Suchan. The gang’s first escape was in November of 1951 and was made successful because of a saw that Lennie Jackson smuggled into the jail. It had been hidden in his prosthetic leg.

While the gang was free, Lennie Jackson and Steve Suchan were pulled over by police. Suchan shot both officers, killing one of them and wounding the other. The men were captured shortly after the incident, both charged with murder, and returned back to the Don jail, where they were reunited with Willy Jackson who had been re-captured earlier. Edwin Boyd was the last to be found, but he too was arrested and brought back to the Don.

In September of the following year, all four men escaped again, launching the largest manhunt in Canadian history. The search lasted 10 days and the Boyd gang were once again captured and brought back to the Don. Edwin Boyd and Willy Jackson were eventually moved to another jail facility, but Lennie Jackson and Steve Suchan were put on death row, the murder of the police officer coming back to haunt them.

The Death Penalty

Before the death penalty could be abolished in Canada, 34 men were hung at the Don jail. In the early days, prisoners who were sentenced to death were hanged on an outdoor scaffold in the yard. The hanging of Fred Lee Rice in 1905 drew such a crowd (including people watching from neighboring rooftops) that an indoor washroom had to be converted to the new hanging room. In 1908, John Boyd was the first to drop from the indoor gallows. Both Ronald Turpin and Arthur Lucas were the last in 1962.

Other Deaths

In the time the Don was in operation, there were 70 murders and an unknown number of prisoner suicides. It is no wonder that the Don Jail is one of Toronto’s most haunted places. The body count climbed even after the jail was closed. In 2007, the human remains of 15 executed prisoners were discovered on the jail’s grounds during an archaeological investigation. Once the bodies were identified, they were given a proper burial in the St. James cemetery.

Haunting

The jail is said to be haunted by a number of spirits. One of them was a female inmate who hung herself in her own cell. Guards working the midnight shift claim to have seen her apparition floating in the jail’s main rotunda.

To take a virtual tour of this creepy facility, check out this youtube video:

More Blog Posts on Haunted Places:

Lavinia Fisher’s Southern Hospitality was Killer – Published Dec 1, 2019

The Cecil Hotel – A Magnet For Murder, Suicide, And Tragedy – Published Jul 1, 2019

What Happened at Murder Castle? – Published May 1, 2019

References: https://www.blogto.com/city/2016/10/12_haunted_places_to_get_spooked_at_in_toronto/ https://indie88.com/the-most-haunted-spots-in-toronto-to-spook-yourself-this-halloween/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keg_Mansion https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wn7z9w/i-work-in-a-haunted-steakhouse https://www.stmichaelshospital.com/pdf/archives-hospital-ghost-stories.pdf http://www.stmichaelshospital.com/media/detail.php?source=hospital_news/2012/20121025_hn http://www.infiltration.org/hotels-stmike.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Michael%27s_Hospital_(Toronto) http://www.torontoghosts.org/index.php/the-city-of-toronto/public-buildings/77-the-christie-mansion http://thisiscanadiana.com/blogposts/2018/10/31/the-ghost-of-christie-mansion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Jail