Wondering how to make the most of your Halloween, which happens to fall on Co-Curricular Days this year?
Itching for something a little more inexplicable than your friend’s “dog that sometimes barks for no reason?” Why not spend the day following a path through urban legend and reality, exploring the scariest places in downtown Toronto?
Conveniently enough, you can travel to several of the city’s creepiest places within a few hours, thanks to their placing on the TTC. Last week, we told you some of York students’ scariest stories; this week we’re telling you how to create some of your own.
Start your morning at the Gladstone Hotel, Toronto’s oldest operating hotel (if you have $180 to spare you could even spend the night there). The building has long been rumored to feature concerts from a piano-playing spirit (though he rarely takes requests.)
Head to Queen Station and go north. You’re bound for the Royal Ontario Museum next. Switch trains at Bloor Station and head west.
As a bonus, see if you can spot the remnants of Lower Bay Station when the train starts up. This “ghost station” has been abandoned since the mid-1960s, but can be seen from the front car of the westbound Bloor train, and is supposedly haunted by the legless “Lady in Red.”
No reports of a track fatality exist from the period the station was open, but it was constructed right through a lower-class cemetery — typical of the TTC. A number of workers and passengers have mentioned seeing the crimson-clad spirit over the years.
Exit at Bay Station, and walk to the ROM. The museum isn’t especially famous for its hauntings, but the potential is a no-brainer – especially on the third floor, which houses the decayed remains and cursed tombs of ancient Egyptians. Also dinosaurs, which raises the unavoidable question of dinosaur ghosts. A $16 fee gives access to numerous macabre displays.
Once you’ve spent some time among millennia-old corpses, it’s time to head up to St. Clair West Station, where you’ll find your next two destinations: Casa Loma and the neighbouring Spadina House.
The former is detailed on page seven, but both exude some old-fashioned spookiness. The Spadina House has seen its fair share of possible sightings, and the staff is often willing to converse about them.
Casa Loma was the set for a Goosebumps episode in the 90s — enough to send shivers up the bravest spine.
Finally, a nice way to end the night if you’re with a significant other, you can finish your trip with a romantic lakeside stroll by High Park’s Grenadier Pond. It’s also haunted.
Supposedly named for a mass of grenade-carrying soldiers who broke through the pond’s ice in the early 1800’s (they really must have been running out of names), this is now one of the most well-known soul positions in the city.
Other Haunted Places:
Don Jail – A little out of the way (located east of the downtown core), the Don Jail is nonetheless widely considered Toronto’s most haunted spot. It’s roamed by the spirit of a mean female prisoner, among others.
Old City Hall – The Queen Street landmark is easy to add to your tour, though its most haunted areas aren’t very accessible. If you’re eager for a Nathan Phillips scare, you can do a quick check for Robert Turpin or Arthur Lucas, the last two men hanged in Canada, but they usually hang out (sorry) in Room 33, where they were sentenced.
Keg Mansion – A maid can apparently be seen hanging in the steakhouse’s front foyer some nights, while inside, there is mysterious laughing and apparitions in the women’s washroom mirrors.
Dustin Dyer
Features Editor
