Old City Hall - Photo by M. Didier |
Built in the late 1890s, and once the head seat of the Municipality of Toronto and County of York, this building now serves the city as its municipal courts. The city's departments were moved to the modern buildings just west of this ornate building with (for Toronto,) rather unique architecture.
What's in this old building that interests us? Easy! Stories reverberate of all types of different ghostly activity. The rear staircase has a poltergeist that seems to enjoy tugging at judges' robes as well as walking up and down the stairs where its footsteps can still be heard.
The cellars acted at one time as a holding centre for prisoners and the moans of the incarcerated have been heard as well. The Northwest attic is also a spot where a presence is felt, but no one is quite sure what it is.
Courtroom 33 is said to be haunted by the spirits of the last men condemned to hang in Canada. This is where the spirits are said to be the strongest and it is almost a tradition for someone in the press to attempt to spend the night on Halloween. In John Robert Colombo's book Haunted Toronto, he tells of a pair of stout reporters that almost managed to spend the night but gave in by 4am. The reporters told of "cool fogs" and weird noises that left them, at times, glued to the floor.