With its lawns converted into a parking lot and its conservatory amputated, the historic mansion at 515 Jarvis Street still cuts a distinctive, if diminished, figure. Built in 1868 by dry-goods magnate Arthur McMaster, it was later purchased by philanthropist Hart Massey and is now the home of The Keg Mansion steak house. Yet, intriguing evidence of its previous inhabitants may endure inside its baronial trappings: this mansion is said to be one of the city’s most haunted buildings.

On a sunny afternoon last fall, Tap Alakorpi, then The Keg’s general manager, shared its occult tales with the ghost-hunting team of Michelle Desrochers and Patrick Cross, and myself. Along with the mansion’s expected chilling drafts and wilfully flickering lights, visitors complained about toilets that spontaneously flushed and toilet paper dispensers that rattled in empty stalls. The apparition of a small boy has been seen by both guests and staff. “One of our dishwashers told me, his eyes as big as saucers, about coming upon him on the second-floor landing in a sailor suit,” said Alakorpi. “Not long ago, a little girl was very upset when she saw him, too.” A cleaner refused to return to the mansion after allegedly being pushed down the stairs. Another manager, who set off the burglar alarms while locking up, was outside attempting to explain to police when asked to identify the person at the empty building’s upstairs window. Could it have been an apparition of the maid who reportedly hanged herself in grief after Lillian Massey died in 1915? “I believe people relating these events are honest,” said Alakorpi, “though all I’ve experienced is the odd chill.”

With Desrochers and Cross, he was speaking to the firmly converted. They’re at The Keg to collect footage for a TV series with the working title Canada’s Most Haunted. At 48, and slight of build with grey-brown hair and a wispy moustache, Cross found his after-hours passion for ghost hunting taking possession of his day job as a freelance producer. When CTV Travel, a digital cable station, launched Creepy Canada in 2002, and when YTV launched Ghost Trackers in 2005, both asked Cross to be their parapsychology consultant. Today about half the features he files for such news outlets as Citytv, CBC and Global are about the paranormal. Des­rochers, a statuesque and striking woman of 42, describes herself as a “sensitive.”

Now, from The Keg’s stairway, she suddenly announces, “I get a strong male presence standing here with arms folded in pride.” When I ask how she knows, she replies, “It’s mostly a feeling. I read energy.”

Cross says he experiences the same male presence but in a more visual way. “I see movie clips of events as they once happened across my mind’s eye.”

“This one’s a pipe smoker,” adds Des­rochers. “I can smell it.”

“Ghosts retain the same habits and personalities they had in life,” explains Cross. “I have a recording of one who’s falling-down drunk. In another, a spirit is saying ‘out of breath.’ What can that possibly mean to someone who’s already dead?” When he holds out a compass, its needle swings erratically. “It should point north and stay there, but ghosts are made of positive and negative ions and attract anything magnetic.”

On the mansion’s third floor, used for storage, we sit around an oval table. Cross lights a white candle and we place one finger each on an overturned drinking glass. He intones, “We open this circle in positive light.”

Addressing the male presence, Desrochers asks, “Are you Mr. McMaster, the original owner? If yes, move the glass toward me.” The glass swooshes toward her with startling speed. “If you’ve already crossed into the light, then go to Patrick.” The glass zips to Patrick. “Are you here in visitation because you love this house?” Another swoosh, causing me to wonder, Shouldn’t the dead be a little more reluctant to share their secrets? Working on intuition, Cross asks, “Did the maid who hanged herself have help? Was it against her will? Is her name Mary?” Yes, yes, yes. When the candle blows out, Desrochers exclaims, “Patrick got the maid’s story right!” She asks the male spirit, “Can you move this table using my energy?” As the glass maniacally circles its top, the table slides slightly.