Our friend and colleague author John Robert Columbo writes about the unusual happenings at the old Branch 217 Legion Hall in Etobicoke in his book Haunted Toronto. One of our readers recently inquired about this location:
I was an Air Cadet in Mimico during the mid and late 90's, and we used the legion as a headquarters for fund raising activities. Our officers and staff would often tell us that the legion was haunted by the ghost of the first caretaker, who had lived on the top floor. The floor was no longer in use, and many of them had told stories of seeing lights on the top floor from the outside. One officer also told us a story of a string of Christmas lights lighting up, even though it was unplugged! I've never managed to find out if these happenings actually occurred, or if it was just our staff trying to tell us a few ghost stories.
The legion was located on Royal York Rd. just south of the Queensway. It is no longer in use, and the original (historical) portion of the building is being incorporated into a townhouse development.
Currently we have no reports from this location, but would be very interested in hearing from former staff or patrons of the old legion.
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