Casa Loma

There is a landmark which most Torontonians know about; it's called Casa (aka Castle) Loma (CL). It was built by Major-General Sir Henry Mill Pellatt, (Jan. 6, 1859 - Mar. 8, 1939) was a well-known Canadian financier and soldier and for his role in bringing hydro-electricity to Toronto for the first time.

In 1903 Pellatt purchased 25 lots from developers Kertland and Rolf. Pellatt commissioned Canadian architect E.J. Lennox to design (CL) with construction beginning in 1911, starting with the massive stables, potting shed and Hunting Lodge (a.k.a. coach-house) a few hundred feet north of the main building.

The Hunting Lodge is a two storey 4,380 square foot house with servant's quarters. As soon as the stable complex was completed, Pellatt sold his summer house in Scarborough to his son and moved to the Hunting Lodge. The stables were used as a construction site for the castle (and also served as the quarters for the men servants), with some of the machinery still remaining in the rooms under the stables.

The house cost approximately $3.5 million ($75.79 million today) and took a team of 300 workers three years to build from start to finish. During the Second World War, CL was used to conceal research on sonar and for construction of sonar devices (known as ASDIC) for U-boat detection. Some of the unique features CL has are: an oven large enough to cook an ox, two secrete passages, three never completed bowling alleys and ghosts.

Michelle Desrochers, is one of the directors at Burlington Ghost Walks which is a division of Canada's Most Haunted Research. It is a legitimate research organization and registered company going into their ninth year, she said. "The staff members have always known it (CL being haunted). They kept it quite for a very long time." Since the world wide interest in haunting, they have decided to come forward and tell the world the place is truly haunted.

In most cases paranormal groups approach the haunted sites. "They basically approached us. We never made any inquiries about it. We were very surprised to get a phone call. We just completed an article for Toronto Life which is a very prestigious magazine in Toronto. We were honoured and thrilled all at once when CL approached us. It's a very, very historical phenomenal place. Lady in White is an example of the paranormal which occurs at CL. We don't know too much about her only that she looks very serious, looking very stern. A few people have her on film but never sent any pictures into CMH. There's a man in the tunnel. We have voice recordings of him", she said.

Once in the tunnel last October, with three other members, she heard and felt something from beyond this world. I could feel something cold from the side of my face and heard a huge "why?" she stated.

The next day she went down alone. She asked the darkness, hoping to get a response from the spirit, "so you don't like the idea of cameras", she asked. "Why, why?" were the sounds she heard again. She said that she has the voice on recording.

"We got a lot of evidence out of there. Last week a woman got a photo of a spirit woman sitting on the bed in Lady Mary's (Pellatt) Room. It was fantastic because you could see a major distortion and you could see the bun on her head and she was a heavy set woman - just like Lady Mary. It was just amazing."

Ghost and spirits haunt everything from the poorest of places to the richest of properties. They never discriminate and neither does Things That Go Bump In a Canadian Night.

Casa Loma

(The Spirits of Casa Loma.)