Toronto Necropolis & Crematorium

Not far from where I live is one of Toronto's most fascinating cemeteries, the Toronto Necropolis & Crematorium. As Heidi Hagenlocher notes here, "In 1825 the first non-sectarian cemetery, Potter's Field, was started at the corner of Yonge and Bloor Streets. With only four acres it was quite small compared to some of the ones around today. In 1855 the cemetery was closed because the city decided the cemetery was in the wrong place so around 900 caskets were removed. It took from 1855-1881 to remove them all and bury them in another cemetery.

"A lot of the caskets from Potter's Field were moved to Toronto Necropolis Cemetery which is now the oldest non-sectarian cemetery in Toronto. Twenty kilometres of land makes up Toronto Necropolis which can be found in Old Cabbagetown, across from the Riverdale Farm."

It is rumoured that they continue to find the occasional casket up in Yorkville whenever they are excavating for a new building. I wonder how many lost spirits still wander around up there among the stores, clubs and condos looking for their restmates.

I didn't have to look for very long to find an account of a haunting at the Necropolis.

Says photographer Charles Bodi about his experience inside the Necropolis chapel: "A few unusual and strange things happened during the shoot. At one point, I noticed out of the corner of my eye an old lady sitting on one of the benches. When I turned to look there was nobody there. Also, at certain moments I felt a breeze; the kind of breeze or movement of air one feels when someone passes by close, accept there was nobody passing by me. Some weird things happening in some of the shots too. Most obviously in this one; just to the right of the centre near the bottom of the picture, there is what appears to be a woman in a short white dress carrying something. When I was taking these shots there was nobody there. Well at least I was under the impression that there was nobody there. I think that I was so involved with adjusting my camera settings, that I just did not notice people walking by."

Uhhhh-huh.

St. Michael's Hospital

Several years ago I had a near-death experience of my own, during which I was hospitalized at St. Michael's Hospital and diagnosed with Hypokalemic Periodic Paralysis. While it was clear that the hospital was understaffed and under-resourced, the care I received there was exceptional and the diagnosis cleared up many personal mysteries that dated back to my childhood.

A Catholic hospital founded in 1892 by the Sisters of St. Joseph to care for the sick and the poor of Toronto's inner city, St. Michael's Hospital should probably be teeming with ghosts. Only one is ever mentioned by name--Sister Vincenza or 'Vinnie', who haunts one of the wards on the 7th floor.

Patients and staff alike have reported sightings of the black-clad faceless sister, who died in the 1950s. An altogether benign spirit, she has been known to walk the halls, turn lights on and off, and even pull blankets up over those drowsing in their beds. In her own strange way, she carries on the long tradition of care and compassion that is the hallmark of St. Mike's, and that has shepherded the people of Toronto through tragedy, disease and death for more than a hundred years.

H.P. Lovecraft: The Toronto Connection

The Great Cthulhu
Originally uploaded by dd_toronto.

On a slightly different topic, my Xbox 666 arrived on Tuesday, prompting me to reminisce about some of my favourite horror-themed video games of the past year.

My very favourite game of 2005, Resident Evil 4, is not available for the Xbox but is well worth playing on every other console. It is very likely to be named Game of the Year, and it deserves every accolade that has come its way.

Several of my other favourites this year are available for the Xbox but are unfortunately not compatible with the new console: sadly, these include Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly, Doom III, Psychonauts and Indigo Prophecy.

However, the brilliant Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth - based on the writings of H.P. Lovecraft - is playable on the new system, and I have resumed it with a vengeance.

In my idle moments I had wondered if Lovecraft had ever come to Toronto (he was a notorious homebody, so it seemed unlikely) or if he had ever had dealings with anyone in Canada. A few clicks of the mouse revealed the following:

"In many ways the true creator of the Cthulhu Mythos was N. J. O'Neill of Toronto. Writing in 'The Eyrie' for March 1930, he noticed a resemblance between HPL's Cthulhu and Robert E. Howard's Atlantean sorceror Kathulos. Up until this time his use of the mythological apparatus of 'Yog-Sothothery' had been limited to The Call of Cthulhu, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, and The Dunwich Horror....Now Lovecraft saw the advantages of cross-referencing references to stories by others of his correspondents, as well as encouraging others to make reference to his own dark pantheon...Soon more overt borrowings from Lovecraft appeared under (August) Derleth's byline, often shared with his collaborator Mark Schorer.

"...By having others cite his pantheon...he created an illusion of an underground myth that lent an air of verisimilitude to his stories....By adhering to a strict realism in all aspects of the story except for the phenomenon itself, Lovecraft hoped to achieve the illusion of a momentary suspension of the natural laws of time and space that galled him so much."

While not an exceptional writer, Lovecraft nevertheless was a brilliant dark fantasist, one who developed some remarkable ideas and introduced some spectacular entities and disturbing concepts to the genre of gothic American horror. To find out more, be sure to visit the H.P. Lovecraft Archive, and the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society - a group of RPG gamers whose explorations of the Cthulhu Mythos have led them to create many clever roleplaying adventures as well as a whole host of Lovecraft-themed CDs, t-shirts, prop documents, fonts and even a superb 45-minute 'silent-film' adaptation of The Call of Cthulhu. (Now on DVD - makes a great stocking stuffer!)

Mackenzie House

Mackenzie House
Originally uploaded by dd_toronto.

Probably the most famously haunted house in Toronto is the gloomy Greek-revival cracker-box Mackenzie House on Bond Street, where William Lyon Mackenzie - feisty newspaper editor, Upper Canada Rebellion leader and Toronto's first mayor - lived for about two years before his death in 1861. Unfortunately, the record speaks for itself: Mackenzie House is more haunted by hype than by actual spirits. Most of the incidents predate 1960 and are your basic bland catalogue of noises, voices and glimpses. Interestingly, they coincide with flagging interest in the house/museum by tourists and with increasing financial woes. (Funny, that.) However, the many stories were persuasive enough to prompt an exorcism by an Anglican archdeacon in late 1960 (mind you, with a reporter in tow). The current staff pay the appropriate "maybe/maybe not" lip service to the house's reputation but it's pretty clear that it's an old house doing what old houses do. Cold spots, flickering lights, creaky stairs and sudden slamming windows lead inevitably to one terrifying conclusion: it's reno time. That said, one account from a young visitor is brief but surprisingly vivid, and worth checking out. (Scroll down to the July 2004 update.) Maybe there's something to it after all...?

The Keg Mansion

The Keg Mansion
Originally uploaded by dd_toronto.

One of the best known haunted houses in Toronto is the old McMaster mansion (home of Lord William McMaster, founder of McMaster University in Hamilton), subsequently the old Massey mansion (home to manufacturing magnate and arts patron Hart Massey -- of Massey-Harris, Massey-Ferguson, Hart House, Massey College and Massey Hall, and whose family included Governor General Vincent Massey and actor Raymond Massey), now the Keg Mansion, a mid-scale grill and steakhouse. Hart Massey amassed a great deal of wealth as an industrialist and then, as his ambitious overworked sons died one right after the other, he was stricken with remorse at the folly of his pursuit of wealth, and the effects of industrialization on the city's less fortunate. At his death, he donated millions -- “for the poor, the sick and those who tend them," as his will stated, "for the young who are willing... to develop their minds.”

The transformation of their home into a steak-and-cake restaurant has apparently done little to quiet the spirits of the former residents. Numerous waiters, hostesses and patrons have encountered the ghosts of young children and domestic staff from bygone times, and more than one person has felt the presence of someone -- possibly Hart Massey's lonely daughter Lillian -- in the women's washroom on the second floor. One interesting fact: The mansion "has a secret tunnel that connects it to Wellesley Hospital, when the Massey family used it to transport their son for treatment." Which son? Possibly 'sensitive and frail' Fred Victor, for whom the Fred Victor Mission is named.

McLaughlin Planetarium

McLaughlin Planetarium
Originally uploaded by dd_toronto.

"Staffers in the McLaughlin Planetarium building have reported seeing a mysterious lost girl wandering the darkened aisles of the planetarium during star shows (before the theatre closed down in 1995.)

"Some speculate that the child lived in one of the grand houses that once stood on the McLaughlin site. They suppose that she died early on in that house - perhaps of cholera - while her spirit continued to inhabit the site where the planetarium was later built.

"Nicknamed 'Celeste', her presence is felt to this day. When the building became the Children's Own Museum, toys left out, organized by staff locking up at the end of the day were found disturbed - noticeably misplaced the next morning.

"Reportedly, staff and visitors who know of Celeste had later tried to leave toys out for her to play with overnight."

- "Haunted City", Peter McMahon - Discovery Canada's Daily Planet

Note: Numerous individuals and organizations have tried to persuade the Royal Ontario Museum to reopen the McLaughlin Planetarium - to no avail. It was recently announced that the Planetarium is soon to be demolished, and that plans are being developed to erect offices and condominiums on the site.

Halloween Night...

Toronto seems an unlikely place to seek out the restless dead. It's well and widely known as a 'world-class city' - with tall new buildings, clean streets, a relatively low crime rate and (for Canada) temperate weather. Though it was founded more than two hundred years ago, Toronto seems much younger, much more modern. Few of its homes and buildings date back to before 1850. While it has been the site of rebellions, riots, murders, executions, disasters, epidemics, poverty and hardship, it has come away relatively unscathed. Pleasant and predictable. A bit bland, a bit dull. A bit safe.

But there are Ghosts in Toronto. As one of the oldest cities in Canada, it has some of the most haunted sites in the country - rich in history, steeped in legend...and rife with inexplicable paranormal phenomena. Houses, hospitals, museums, schools and colleges, restaurants, theatres, apartments and condominiums, jails and government buildings and even department stores.

Come with me, and together we will seek out the spirits that make Toronto their home. We will consider their sightings, share their stories and hope that they one day find peace.