Toronto may be Canada’s biggest, brightest city, but behind the glass towers and bustling streets lies a darker history—one of ghosts, tragic tales, and restless spirits that refuse to leave. For those curious enough to explore this eerie side of the city, The Haunted Walk of Toronto offers an unforgettable experience led by guides who blend history, horror, and theatrical flair under the flicker of lantern light.
One of those guides is Kayle Crone, a seasoned storyteller who has spent three years leading visitors through the city’s shadowy past. Draped in a long black cloak, she shares ghostly accounts and little-known historical details that make the tour both spine-chilling and surprisingly educational. Her most popular route begins at the Hockey Hall of Fame—a landmark that, long before housing the legends of the ice, was home to the Bank of Montreal in 1885.
Crone recounts eerie reports from the building’s banking days: doors opening by themselves, lights flickering without reason, and employees too frightened to use the second-floor women’s washroom. After the Hall of Fame opened in 1993, visitors began spotting a woman with long dark hair gliding through the walls—a figure believed to be Dorothea Mae Elliott, a bank teller who tragically took her own life in that very washroom in 1953.
The tour continues through the heart of downtown, winding toward Courthouse Square Park—once the site of public executions in the 1800s. It was here, Crone claims, that she saw her first ghost. Standing beneath the old courthouse (now home to the Terroni restaurant on Adelaide Street), she spotted the faint silhouette of a woman in a second-floor window before the figure slowly faded into nothing. Staff at Terroni have told similar tales, describing paintings that flip themselves and shadows darting up stairways, as if the building’s past refuses to stay buried.
But no haunted tour of Toronto would be complete without a visit to Mackenzie House, the final home of the city’s fiery first mayor, William Lyon Mackenzie. The grand Bond Street home, now a museum, is said to be haunted not only by Mackenzie himself but also by a far more sinister female spirit. Crone recounts the chilling story of a caretaker’s wife, Mrs. Edmund, who lived there in the 1950s and woke repeatedly to find a ghostly woman floating above her bed. One night, after daring to make eye contact, the specter reached out—then slapped her across the face. The Edmunds moved out shortly after.
For Crone, every night on the haunted walk is a performance. An actor by trade and lifelong horror enthusiast, she says the role combines her love of theatre and the supernatural. Her aim isn’t just to terrify guests but to enchant them—giving them a haunting memory to carry home.
“As strange as it sounds,” Crone laughs, “I get to make people scream and smile at the same time. That’s the magic of Toronto’s ghosts—they make history unforgettable.”