Halloween is right around the corner and if hosting your own Halloween party isn’t exactly your thing, don’t fret! You can celebrate the ghouls and goblins by appointing yourself as a real-life Ghostbuster and checking out some of the best haunted places the GTA has to offer! Thinking Toronto doesn’t have much history in terms of ghosties? Think again! The GTA has more than 200 years of executions, military battles and suicides and makes for some of the perfect places to spend Halloween. Here are some of our favourite haunted locations!

University College
The U of T campus’ most famous ghost, a Russian stone mason named Ivan Reznikoff, may still wander the halls here. He was supposedly murdered by a fellow mason who was cuckolding him, Paul Diabolos, during construction of the College in the 1850s; Diabolos buried the corpse under a stairwell, where it was found after a fire in 1890. Look for the axe mark (which Reznikoff allegedly made during the fight) on the door next to Croft Chapter House.

Royal Ontario Museum
The ROM is said to be haunted by its original director, Dr. Charles Currelly, clad in a nightshirt and wandering through the East Asiatic section. In addition, the now-closed McLaughlin Planetarium next door is rumoured to host a sad little girl spirit who used to sit among the seats, watching the shows with living audience members.

Ontario Legislature (Queen’s Park)
The provincial parliament has at least four resident spooks, and no wonder – the grounds were home to an insane asylum in the mid-nineteenth century. Among the parliamentary phantoms reported wandering the halls have been a melancholy “white lady”, another woman who covers her face with an apron, an angry-looking soldier and – most grisly of all – a “hanging lady” dangling from a hook in an underground tunnel.

The former Runnymede Theatre
This one-time theatre, which was a Chapters bookstore in recent years and is about to become a Shoppers Drug Mart, has a history of haunting. A little girl was killed by a falling sandbag backstage more than a hundred years ago; since then, cold spots, eerie feelings, mild poltergeist activity (e.g. flying or falling books) and the sound of a sobbing child have been reported in the building.

Mackenzie House
Does T.O.’s first mayor, William Lyon Mackenzie, still wander around the house where he died? He’s been spotted here (without his hairpiece) in his old bedroom, along with a phantom woman who once literally slapped the lady of the house. A rocking chair in the basement has been seen rocking by itself; the printing press has been heard operating on its own; and apparitions have been seen (or heard) on the stairs and in the Mackenzie daughters’ bedroom. Reputed to be one of Canada’s most haunted buildings.

Historic Fort York
With its bloody history of War of 1812 battles, how could Fort York not be haunted? Witnesses have reported seeing phantom soldiers in old-fashioned red coats on the grounds after dark, especially near the entrance and the barracks, as well as a mysterious lady spirit who roams the officers’ quarters. Other ghostly activity has allegedly occurred in the blockhouses and around the outer wall.

Osgoode Hall
Osgoode is the headquarters for both the Law Society of Upper Canada and the provincial Supreme Court. It’s also, reportedly, the eternal home of a ghostly woman seen walking along the halls, as well as a chatting group of people in an empty chamber – the doors of which are known to slam by themselves whenever somebody outside the room hears these invisible voices.

Tunnel between York Mills and Sheppard Stations
More than five hundred years ago, the Huron and Iroquois tribes fought each other in the area now known as Hogg’s Hollow. Today, it’s been reported that if you’re in the subway tunnel below where the war occurred, late at night after the last train has left, you may hear ghostly voices reciting an ancient Iroquois prayer for the dead – and also the sounds of wailing, crying and distant battle drums.