Ghostlore from a city formerly known as York, eh?
Written: Jul 06 '03 (Updated Jul 14 '03)
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Pros: Good guide for locating haunted sites in Toronto, some cases covered go into detail
Cons: Occasionally digresses into some of Toronto's other facets of weird folklore
The Bottom Line: This book makes an intriguing guide to Toronto's haunted sites, regardless of whether the reader intends to go there or not.
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| adriennefoster's Full Review: Haunted Toronto Books |
Lately, Toronto has been receiving international notoriety for the passing SARS epidemic. The World Health Organization has lifted its travel advisory against it, yet people are still reticent to go there. It will be interesting to see how this scare affects Canada's largest city in the future, but bets are on the recent hysteria will probably earn a place in books like Haunted Toronto in years to come, just as past epidemics have. With this book, Author John Robert Colombo isolates his search for Canada's ghosts, the weird, and macabre in Toronto. It makes an intriguing guide to this old North American city's haunted sites, whether one intends to go there or not.
Colombo covers 66 different accounts of Toronto's paranormal-related folklore and categorizes them into six parts, depending on which section of the city they're in and dividing them by the South, Central (west of Yonge Street), Central (east of Yonge Street), east, west, and north. He then breaks each of the cases out by specific location, prefacing each one with data that includes the name of the site; its locale, which may include its exact location; the time period the story took place; the author's sources; and, if open to the public, some details about its availability. Quite a few black and white photos and pen and ink drawings intersperse with the text to illustrate the locations or people in the stories.
At the Hockey Hall of Fame, lights turn on and off by themselves. Back in the days when the structure accommodated the Bank of Montreal, women employees refused to use their upstairs restroom where they kept hearing unexplained noises. Dorothy, a popular female employee, had committed suicide there in 1953.
An elderly woman in gray has been seen at St. Mary Magdalene Church on Manning Avenue, watching the late Organist Healy Willan practice in the evening when he was alone in the building. She disappeared when he once approached her, but he eventually grew fond of his appreciative audience and freely spoke of her. Many believe she was a former parishioner of the church.
At Historic Fort York, some guides and maintenance people claim they watch full regiments lowering and raising flags in full ceremony. Sentries in British uniforms are seen at their posts, while American soldiers stand at attention. A former kitchen worker claims she saw a soldier looking out from a window in the big block house when she knew no one was there.
One of the disappointing approaches as to how Colombo handles the material for this 1996 book is how he inserts cases that aren't about hauntings at all. For instance, there is a story on the sighting of a metrosaurus--a Loch Ness-type of monster--in Lake Ontario. Casa Loma and the Police Museum have had no reports of ghosts, yet he includes them because many people could easily believe they would.
The most annoying case Colombo strays to is that of James "The Amazing" Randi, who grew up in Toronto. Why is it so important to some skeptics to disprove the paranormal to others? Does it hurt them if some of us enjoy a ghost story or search out a place we believe haunted? If he has no interest, then obviously he should find other pursuits. This attitude of persuading others who disagree with him to change their minds is little different than those who believe everyone in the whole world must either be Muslim or WASPs. There are more important things to spend time and energy on than this old argument.
Fortunately, Colombo's digressions are few and hauntings dominate to appease those who want ghost stories. The contents do suffer from some copyediting lapses, such as the case previously cited about the Hockey Hall of Fame. First he claims Dorothy worked at the Bank of Montreal in the early 1900s, then reports that she shot herself in the restroom in 1953. 1953 hardly qualifies as the early 1900s, so which is it? This volume's overall problem apparently stems from a lack of strong editorial judgment.
The biggest complaint about this collection really has nothing to do with Colombo's skills as an author at all, but that of the craftsmanship of this trade paperback. The graphic design is attractive enough and the cover is a thicker quality card stock that should be more durable than most. However the amount of "hot" glue binding the spine to the cover was applied too sparingly and by all appearances at a lower temperature than it should have been. The cover is separating from the contents of the book and some pages are coming loose.
Be that as it may, with Colombo's numerous books out on Canadian paranormal folklore along with his many public speaking appearances, he seems to be his country's national authority on the subject. These stories are cases he located and researched himself. Some are more detailed than others, but none are really what one could consider in-depth investigation. They're meant purely for the reader's entertainment. With that intention in mind, Colombo is above average in fulfilling his goal.
Travelers using this guide need to keep in mind that this material was originally released in 1996, so contact info and operating hours may have altered since then. Please verify data before visiting.
Haunted Toronto is a good guide for anyone interested in seeing the ghostly sites or learning the ghost folklore of one of North America's older and major cities. It gives a different perspective on what appears to be an amazing metropolis. Now that the SARS advisory has been lifted, referring to this book for its sightseeing suggestions should make a definite change of pace.
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This review is shackled to gracef's on Chicago's Street Guide to the Supernatural: A Guide to Haunted & Legendary Places in & Near the Windy City, "Super-average Supernatural Tour of Chicago," for the Three-Legged Write-Off.
The First Official Three-Legged Write-Off is an event pairing two members of the Epinions Community running side-by-side to offer tandem reviews. It's fun and supports the spirit of working together toward a common goal: providing consumers and Epinions with a wealth of information that you can find nowhere else. To read the entries from the other contestants, visit http://home.earthlink.net/~epskids/team.html
Recommended:
Yes
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