Paranormal Toronto a Cabbagetown Mystery

As this is the beginning of the year, perhaps this should have been written in late October. After the mythical Santa Clause has come and gone, who doesn’t like to venture into the paranormal. Is there nothing as good as a haunting or ghost story on a cold winters night? I have been thinking about this all day, although the events depicted occurred many years ago. As I have told these stories many times in the past. Others can corroborate what I am about to disclose, as they too had very similar experiences.

These anecdotes are not time-specific. I have not been to this area for years now, yet I still think that it has some relevance. In my opinion, this is one of Toronto’s most haunted locations. You will not find this location in guidebooks- at least the last time I looked, which are supposed to highlight some of the cities, provinces, countries’ most terrifying places. Sometimes I think that these impressions are created to allow authors to sell to tourists and bolster the local business association. Capitalism at its finest.

The Ghost Walks

These guides base their results on tales being told retold in the oral tradition. Not ever experiencing it for themselves. While others need an old location and will conjure up a narrative and let your imagination be the real guide, as they take you on one of those now very popular ghost walks.

I have to admit that I enjoy a macabre ghost walk and love being regaled by stories of haunting from a time long gone. One thing I have noticed that although I have taken a few of these walks, two in Toronto and one in Kingston, I have yet to see or feel the cold shadow of such a revenant.

Psalm from the Past

This is different. This is an authentic account of when I worked at the Winchester Street Theater in the heart of Cabbagetown in Old Toronto. The building is a refurbished church. Formerly the Gerrard St Methodist church (1878-1925,) it later merged with St Enochs presbyterian in 1925 and functioned as community beacon until 1970. Here we have two primary ingredients for a haunting. First, we have a church, always an ideal location, and secondly, we have a theatre. Combined, it should create a “spooktopia,” and in my opinion, it does. Being a converted place of worship, the building had many sections that are worth mentioning.

Not Alone in the Balcony

I don’t remember the show itself, it was a rental. This is where a group would rent the space and perform their own productions. At the time, I was working as “the house” technician. I was watching the show for the fourth or fifth time from the balcony. In this particular production, they brought their own technicians. I was just around in the event that something went wrong, and lock up at the end of the night. By this time, I was no stranger to the edifice, we all knew that the place was a cornucopia of energy, not of this world.

Sitting in the balcony, this show was not very good, and I must have nodded off. I did not make it a habit of this, but it was terrible, and I was bored. There was no telling how long I was in a semi-unconscious state, but I definitely was. (I am getting goose flesh as I recount these events.)The technicians are in front of me looking down at the performance, the balcony is reasonably spacious. I felt a rush of cold air that woke me immediately. I looked up quickly, and in the faint light, I could see a couple of people not more than three feet away from me.

The trick of the eye

How they got up here, I have no idea as the balcony door was closed. The two walked along the balcony silently, and I noticed something very peculiar. Their dress,  was not the modern-day style as we know it today. It was much closer to the attire that would have adorned someone that lived during the Victorian era. Stunned, I could not believe my eyes. I looked on in amazement and confusion and only half with fear. The two did not rush, they simply walked at an average pace and looked back to me as they disappeared through an always locked door. I tried to convince myself that this was not possible, how can two people vanish through a locked door? Was this a dream? No, I was awakened by the breeze and watched the event unfold before my eyes for at least ten seconds.

Let’s Hold hands and mop

This may have been my closest encounter, but we all knew that the converted church had many more secrets than this one. In the evening, I would ask some of the school’s students if they had witnessed anything like this. I usually came on duty around 5 p.m., and they would leave around 9 p.m. They, too, had experienced some very odd sensation on the stairway leading to the balcony and near the professional offices and board room. They mentioned that in these areas of the building that they never separated and always worked in pairs. Fearing what they were feeling would manifest itself.

Professional Validation?

The custodian at the time was a fellow about my age,-mid to late twenties. He, as it turned out, was a member of a Wicca coven. As pseudo colleague, we would chat. On one occasion, I mentioned the very odd sensations within the building. One day he brought in a spiritualist to “appraise the energy.” The findings were of no surprise to anyone. Four locations exhibited paranormal activity.

The stairs near the balcony where the cleaners would not venture into unless in pairs. The locked room at the far end of the balcony door, where I experienced the apparitions moving through. And the top of the foyer steps leading up into the balcony. Here it was said that a small child could be seen, often there was a lit candle in that area to add some warmth to the young girl’s spirit. Not to be forgotten, as if you could, is downstairs near the dressing room.

Cue for the Theater

One night while we were cueing the lights for a show, we got slightly behind, and the Lighting Designer asked if she could stay beyond her scheduled time. It was a long day, I had had enough. Being a friend, I granted her request. I went around the building, checked all of the doors, ensured her that they were locked, and insisted that she exit through a specific door. I armed to the building and left while she continued to cue her show.

The next day we had an early start. I asked her how the evening went. She recounted her night.
“I didn’t stay much more than 30 minutes after your left,” she said. “I went down to focus the floor lights; every time I would take a step, I could here another step follow me. I focused four of the lights, and I had to leave. It was if something was stalking me. I had to go.” We continued working that day and into the evening, and both left the theater together.

Going So soon?

Often I was the last person left in the theater. I would try to lock the surrounding portals while artists and other technicians were still in the vicinity. I would almost run through the routine, I did not want to be left alone in this place. This worked sometimes, most often I was left in a well-lit theater forced to find my way down into the bowels of this shrine. During the day, it was unwelcoming, at night that turned into foreboding. Here you could say I was the victim of my own imagination. In light of all the uncomprehensible occurrences, you may be right. I never encountered anything more than an H.P. Lovecraft story circulating within my head.

Its a “wrap.”

During my duration at the Winchester St. Theater, items would go missing and magically reappear. It was starting to become familiar, yet no less frightening. All those that worked there were aware of it. Some did not mention it, while others did not recognize it- at least that is what they would say. My time at the Winchester St was coming to an end, not before this last odd situation presented itself.

 We were shooting a music video, and the day shoot was ending, it was a “wrap.” The video crew were dismantling gear; I scooted around quickly to close and check the doors while the theatre was still full of people. 

The Ups and Downs of show business

Trucks full, we exchanged pleasantries, and I noticed something dangling from the ceiling. I pulled out the uplift- it was new (uplift is an elevating platform.) I checked to make sure It had a full battery, placed it into position and proceed to ascend the platform. Removing the dangling cable, nothing odd here. So I thought. I could not descend, with no way down, stranded 14 feet in the air. I checked all the components and gauges while stranded above the ground. The systems were working, but still, I could not descend. Stuck, in an empty haunted theatre with the moonlight cascading images on the floor from the stained glass windows and no exit in sight.

Twenty minutes elapsed, and time past slowly. Concerned, I hoped and waited. Fortunately, one of the crew forgot something. Together we troubleshoot the device. After much searching, we found that the stop switch was engaged, prohibiting the device to return to the ground. With the switch in this position, it should not have been able to rise either. Soon after, I was on to another contract and left “The Winch” behind me.

Truly a Haunted location

I know much of what you may have read seems unbelievable. Unlike many of the ghost walks and guides, these are actual accounts that I personally witnessed over my time at the theatre. From these experiences, I would suggest that this is one of the most haunted locations in the city of Toronto. If you ever find yourself looking for an opportunity to be confronted by an apparition or perhaps face your own fears, this old Cabbage town location should be a destination. While there, remember to bring a candle and place it at the top of the foyer stairs as the young child will thank you for it.

Scared Yet?

Are you a ghost hunter or someone curious about these supernatural entities, please let us know what type of experiences you have encountered. Perhaps you think what I have said is just the product of an overactive imagination-delusions- I would like to hear that too. Or maybe, you also have been to the Winchester Street Theater and have experienced something similar. I would love to listen to that too. So please leave your comments in the section below.

After all, it is Your Vacation, Your Escape. 

VTE