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The most famous castle in North America stands as either a beautiful landmark at the north end of Spadina Avenue, or in some peoples' opinion, a huge eyesore at the south end of Spadina Road.
Either way, Sir Henry Pellat's castle is as grand as any Europe has to offer, and is a tremendous tourist draw. I have always thought that the "Castle on the Hill" was one of the more inspirational sites in Toronto, and I guess that is backed up by the number of weddings and events held there, but is it haunted? Apparently not.
Sir Henry and his wife never truly lived in the castle, as the Pellats went bankrupt building the place. Still, when I was a kid growing up not far from this imposing edifice, rumour had it that the elevators had "minds of their own" and that Sir Henry had been seen in his indoor gardens and at his desk. There were also reports that when the building lay unoccupied, it was the scene of ritualistic rapes and murders. All of these claims seem unfounded, even though the one area left unmended by the Kiwanis Club (which took the place over in order to refurbish it and run it as a tourist attraction) does have a distinctly "creepy" feeling, as do the long underground tunnels leading from the castle to the garages.
We don't list our 'criteria' for a reportable story (to avoid possible hoaxers sending in bogus stories) but we can say that all the Casa Loma ghost reports to date have been unsubstantiated using pir guidelines thus far.
Sadly, it seems that our city's castle, to quote John Colombo, lacks a ghost to call it's own.
Granted, one thing we've learned over the past years is that one should never say never and if there's enough reports and they do meet our standards, we will put it up post haste!
UPDATE: April 1st, 2003 It looks like, after some study, that we do have a couple of corrections to make to some folks that have asked about Casa Loma.
Although we still do not have a "firm" ghost report from the site, we do need to recognize a couple of facts...
It seems that the FIRST Lady Pellat did in fact die within the walls of Casa Loma and it's deeds were in her name. She and Sir Henry really spent their way out of financial stability leading to the castle being handed back over to the city after her death.
The confusion comes from the fact that there was a second Lady Pellat (who was the granddaughter of William Hamilton Merritt of Oak Hill fame) that survived the auctioning of the building and it's assets by the city thus, indeed, we now have one confirmed passing of someone intimately related to the castle.
Also, contrary to other reports, the tunnel between the castle and the stable/garage was indeed on occasion used by horses as well as people. Sir Henry was not happy about not being able to gain proprietary access to the local streets and not wishing to allow his prized horses to be "on display" to the masses amongst other reasons, occasionally used the tunnel to transport horses from site to site for a ride... so the occasional report we've had about horses IN the tunnel that we, mistakenly said was not probable is indeed, probable. We apologise for this mistake.
Still, as said above, we do not YET have a good, relate-able report on this imposing place but with our new information (gleaned from Austin Seton Thompson's book, Spadina:
a Story of Old Toronto) we are now re-looking into some of the past reports sent in to us a little more closely.
Update January 2008
One of our readers adds:
Hi there, as a relative of Lady Mary Pellatt, I thought I should let you know that the info on your site about Lady Mary dying in Casa Loma is incorrect. Sir Henry and Lady Mary left Casa Loma and were living around St. Clair and Heath Street in North Toronto at the time of her death. So no Pellatt's died at the castle, although their son Reg did live in the 'Hunting Lodge" across from Casa Loma and Sir Henry's coffin did rest there for a day or two before his funeral - although I have never heard of any Pellatt or other ghosts at the castle.
Lady Mary died in the home they bought when they left Casa Loma on Spadina Gardens from a heart attack. Lady Mary had diabetes and had been unwell for years, and the stress (and some said shame) of having to move out of Casa Loma was likely not a help. Joan the curtor at Casa Loma would know this, and knows me as I've donated some items to them.
I have found Lady Mary Pellatt's death certificate. Lady Mary and Sir Henry moved out of Casa Loma and were living at 3 Spadina Gdns, Toronto. Her date of death was April 15th, 1924, I believe they were out of Casa Loma about a year at this point, but I maybe wrong on the exact date they left, although it was widely said Lady Mary died of embarrassment at being forced to leave and have their items auctioned away.
Our thanks for this information.
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