The Former Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital Project

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Tunnels, abandoned, old buildings, notices forbidding entrance, neo-gothic architecture, incurable cases, and even the name itself - "psychiatric hospital" - are enough to encourage a spread of rumours and urban legends.

Much nonsense has been attributed to the "ghosts" of the former Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital. Yet, supernatural phenomena do not have any relevance. The lives led by the former patients, both still living and dead, are far more important than the "ghosts." Simply, the buildings are a symbol of human suffering.

The information available on the Internet regarding the former hospital deals exclusively with the supposed haunting of the institution. If you type "Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital" into a search engine such as Google or usually the first web site that appears is that of the Toronto Ghost and Hauntings Research Society.

Still, not being superstitious, I do believe in life after death and it is impossible for me to avoid a chill up the spine from time to time. Whenever I walk around the cottages I cannot help but feel some of the sadness, and maybe even anger, left behind by the former patients and perhaps even staff members.

However, if the grounds are one of the "busiest haunts" in Toronto I am not aware of existence of any known account of any supernatural phenomenon reported by neither the staff nor the patients.

It is not known when the buildings started to be infamously known for their dark site. It is likely that some rumours started to spread during the filming of the Police Academy, which started in 1983. Reportedly, the crew noticed that hospital's beds, furniture, and medical equipment were not removed right away after its closure, and perhaps some speculations arose on their part.

A former Humber College student also suggested that many patients became homeless after the closing of the hospital and that they took refuge in the abandoned cottages. While I have no factual evidence to support this (there isn't a lot of information available after 1979), it is possible due to the fact that many homeless persons inhabited the old buildings and some of them therefore could have been patients at Lakeshore.

Some web sites pointed out that the hospital had little contact with the community, but it does not appear to be true. For example, one source mentions that patients were sometimes invited by the locals to the nearby New Toronto Hotel. Indeed, lack of interaction between the asylum and the nearby neighbourhood would help to explain why the present day Lakeshore community knows so little about the hospital. The lack of valid information has certainly helped to spread the various stories of tortures and experiments being done to the patients. It is known that lobotomy and electroconvulsive shock therapy were a form of treatment in the hospital, along with restrains (today, however, these doubtful psychiatric treatments are still commonly used.) Furthermore, the open grounds of the hospital were restricted to the staff, patients, and visitors, but closed to the public until the early years of the Seventies.

One rumour is particularly interesting because at least is partially supported by historical evidence. The story says that some of the patients committed suicide by deliberately drowning in the lake. Local newspaper, Advertiser, reported in May, 1972, that two female patients, Martha Morais and Nadia Machialovich were found “floating” in the lake. However, it is not known why they committed suicide. This perhaps was not that surprising in the first place: Lakeshore Psychiatric housed a lot of suicidal patients suffering from depression and bipolar disorder, and the lake was nearby.

But there is something positive, nonetheless, about the supernatural tales surrounding the former hospital. They certainly help to preserve the memory of the former patients; as long as these stories exist, the local community will remember that once the buildings witnessed human suffering.