The Mackenzie House Ghosts and the 1960 TV Exorcism

Mackenzie House stands at 82 Bond Street in downtown Toronto. The townhouse was bought in 1858 for William Lyon Mackenzie. He was Toronto's first mayor, a newspaper editor and leader of the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion. He died in the house in August 1861. A century later it was on its way to becoming a museum.

In 1956 Mr. and Mrs. Charles Edmunds moved into a small apartment on an upper floor. They heard footsteps on the wooden stairway when the house was empty. Mrs. Edmunds said she saw two figures several times, a short gentleman in a frock coat and a woman with long, dark, brown hair. Later accounts described the man as bald with side-whiskers, much like Mackenzie himself.

Then came the night at the bed. Mrs. Edmunds was woken by a soft touch on the shoulder. A pale woman with a narrow face was bending over her, looking her in the eye, then vanished. A few weeks later the figure returned, drew back its hand, slapped her hard in the face and vanished again. One account says the slap left three welt marks, another says two.

The Edmunds' son and daughter-in-law were woken at night by music from the parlour piano. Mackenzie's antique press, locked and unused in the basement, gave out a rumbling, clanking noise late at night. Plants were found overwatered. Mud was smeared across the window curtains. In 1960 a second couple, Mr. and Mrs. Alex Dobban, moved out, complaining of the same disturbances.

In 1960 the Toronto Telegram ran the story. That June, by most accounts, CBC aired a special. Archdeacon John Walker of the Church of the Holy Trinity went through the house with Telegram reporter Aubrey Wice, blessing the rooms and exorcising them of "any lingering spirits." CBC reportedly deleted the footage the next year. When the house was donated to the city, the inventory of its contents ended with two words. "One ghost."

On 25 June 1960 the Toronto Daily Star ran a headline. "Ghost Ghastly Hoax Typewriter Squeaks." The Mackenzie Homestead Foundation, which was restoring the house, admitted to the paper that the story was a hoax, supposedly made up with another Toronto daily to draw tourists. The Star found no evidence of a second frightened couple. Alex Dobban was quoted: "There's nothing to it."

The story would not die. In March 1961 Bob Edmunds, son of the former caretakers, appeared on CBC's Toronto File alongside author Richard S. Lambert. In 1962 the Globe and Mail repeated every detail. That year restoration carpenters reportedly found a hangman's noose dangling from a stairway. Later came taps and toilets turning on by themselves in 1966, and piano music heard by a cleaner in 1973.

Paranormal groups visiting in 2003 and 2011 found no paranormal evidence. Two groups blamed the streetcar on Dundas Street East for the clanking and the footsteps. Writer Ann McDougall concluded the haunting was "a deliberate hoax, engineered for publicity." The museum's own program officer rejected the marketing theory. "Some people believe that that exorcism got rid of what was here. Others say the ghosts are still here, but maybe they're more peaceful now."

John Robert Colombo called it "the most celebrated haunted house in Metropolitan Toronto and perhaps in all of Canada." Today it is a City of Toronto museum, and a regular stop on the city's ghost tours.