Famous Toronto brewery has a long history of hauntings

A famous Toronto brewery has been dealing with an ever-increasing number of ghost sightings.

Steam Whistle Brewing, known for its Czech-style pilsner in vibrant green bottles, has been calling the famous John Street Roundhouse home for the last couple of decades.

The roundhouse itself, built a century ago by the Canadian Pacific Railway company, was a massive complex that housed trains for repairs before passing through Union Station.

While Steam Whistle inherited both the square footage and industrial aesthetic of the facility, it also has allegedly come with a few likely departed previous tenants.

Since 2008, workers inside the building have kept a logbook for ghostly encounters, citing instances of televisions and lights flickering, sensations of being shoved, and even full-on apparitions.

[The John Street Roundhouse under Steam Whistle operations. Photo, Steam Whistle Brewing]

YourcitywithIN.com reached out to Steam Whistle to get a better understanding of these hauntings and their history in the roundhouse long before they brewed their first batch.

“Our haunting logbook dates back to the early days of Steam Whistle’s time at the John Street Roundhouse. It was started by Nancy Goodchild, the former secretary of the building, after so many staff began sharing stories of strange incidents and unexplained occurrences,” a representative told yourcitywithIN.com via email. “Steam Whistle broke ground at
The Roundhouse in 1999, after the site had sat abandoned for years, and reports of unusual happenings started almost immediately.”

Officials with Steam Whistle credit the persistence of these alleged hauntings to the fact that, in terms of infrastructure, the roundhouse’s bones remain, for the most part, intact, as only minor renovations were implemented when the brewery took over.

As for where these hauntings occur, representatives state that these spirits don’t discriminate, as they have been seen throughout various parts of the facility.

[Downtown sights from the John Street Roundhouse. Photo, Steam Whistle Brewing]

“The upper offices, Pilsner Hall, and the space behind the old brew tanks are all known hot spots for strange occurrences. From cold drafts with no clear source to the unmistakable sound of footsteps when no one’s around, many members of the Roundhouse team have a story to tell.”

The most frequent occurrence to date takes place in the offices, as no matter how many times the facility’s manual locks are set to be unlocked, they are often found to be opposite after being left for only a few moments.

When it comes to reports of electronics in the facility fluctuating, officials state that it may be just a byproduct of the grid left over from the roundhouse — yet they are not ruling out a possible poltergeist.

As for where these potential ghouls came from, officials cited that during its decades in operation as a repair facility, the roundhouse stacked up quite the body count via industrial accidents, leading to a few likely workers sticking around to see the new century.

When confronted with the possibility that all of this potential interference from the other side may impact their beer, Steam Whistle officials responded, “We like to think our Pilsner is spirited, just not in that way! But given how long these walls have stood, it’s fair to say a little bit of the Roundhouse’s history (and mystery) might make its way into every batch.”