There is a very famous Ghost Story at the University of Toronto. It is re-told on official and unofficial University tours and to new incoming students. I would say that at least 70% of University of Toronto students and staff know this story. It is also often told on tours for tourists to the city of Toronto.
I am a former University of Toronto student and I wrote up this ghost story as it was told to me on a Ghost Tour of Toronto.
It goes as follows: One of the first buildings built at the University of Toronto was the large stone building now known as “University College”. It involved hiring a large number of stone masons and stone artisans due to the many gargoyles that adorn the building.
The ghost story concerns two of the stone masons working on the gargoyles. One, named Reznikoff, was courting a beautiful woman and another stone Mason, named Diablos, was secretly courting her on the side. Diablos felt very smug about his affair with Reznikoff’s girlfriend and so he carved two gargoyles, one to appear like Reznikoff and the other to appear like himself, laughing at Reznikoff.
When another worker found out about the infidelity of Reznikoff’s girlfriend he informed Reznikoff. At first Reznikoff did not believe that his girlfriend could be lying to him and that she was having an affair with Diablos. The worker insisted and pointed to Diablos’ gargoyles and said, “Look Reznikoff, that Gargoyle is laughing at you”
Suddenly Reznikoff realized that Diablos was making a fool out of him and he flew into a rage. He soon found Diablos and a fight started. Diablos ran away and into the University building. He passed through a large, thick wooden door. As he opened the door, Reznikoff threw an axe at him, the door closed and the axe lodged in the door, missing Diablos by a hair’s length. Diablos continued to run into the building, Reznikoff followed him.
Diablos ran up into the building’s unfinished tall tower (about four stories tall). As he reached the top of the tower, he hid behind a door. Reznikoff came through the door and Diablos stepped out, and pushed Reznikoff to his death at the bottom of the tower.
No one knew that Reznikoff had been killed and was laying in the bottom of the tower. People just assumed that in his embarrassment and anger, he had simply disappeared from Toronto, perhaps returned to his native Russia.
The tower was complete and for a long time, the body laid unknown at the bottom of the tower. Many years later the tower had construction work done on it due to a devastating fire to the building. At that time the body was discovered, much to the dismay of the University community who at one time had used the bottom of the tower as a source of well water. The body was brought up from the tower and the remains were buried on the University campus since the identity of the person was not known.
The University President at the time decided to keep the Scull on this desk as a paper weight, finding it an amusing souviner.
Since Reznikoff’s remains were not buried intact, it is said that he started to haunt the university building. On several occasions, he appeared to different students in the library. Each time he appeared, the student was alone and it was late at night.
The Ghost of Reznikoff appeared as a normal person and he would strike up a conversation with the student. He would tell the student the story of Diablos and Reznikoff, and it was only at the end of the story that the student realized they were talking to Reznikoff himself!!
The story became known through out campus and people realized that the body found in the bottom of the tower must belong to Reznikoff. The gargoyles, though covered with some vines, can still be seen today and one is clearly laughing at the other.
Also, the Axe mark is still present on the door. Some students refuse to use this door around exam time citing that it is cursed with bad luck. However, others take the opposite view and touch the axe mark before exams citing that Diablos was very lucky, he just missed his death, and the axe mark is proof of his incredible luck.
For those who go to the University of Toronto, I would imagine this is a fairly well known Urban Ghost Legend. And unless I am gravely (mind the pun) mistaken, it is one of the better known ghost stories in Toronto.
Some of my facts won't be perfectly accurate, but the general notion is there and can be easily researched I'm sure. I'll tell you now that my dates won't be exact.
Sometimes in the 1800's, mid to late, the University of Toronto was in the midst of building its University College. The neo-gothic building is quite imposing and stands at the northern end of King's College Circle.
The workers employed to build it were skilled craftsmen, some of whom were transients. One of these transient craftsmen was a man by the name of Ivan Reznikoff. He was a stonemason by trade and joined the UC workforce after it had started. The foreman (?) of the job, was a fellow named Paul Diablos who was courting the architects daughter. Diablos was well placed to climb up the corporate ladder and was a suitable suitor. However, Ivan also had designs on the young woman but was not as attractive a beau. Financially, nor physically.
Evidently, Ivan Reznikoff was a passionate man and given to drink, for on a November evening he confronted Diablos and the young woman on the grounds of the construction site. Diablos was no doubt, extolling the virtues of his managment of the project and bragging of its grandeur. Ivan Reznikoff surprised them and challenged Diablos. When Diablos rebuked him, Ivan presented an axe and chased Diablos. Paul Diablos ran to the nearest door to enter the University building, which was now nearing completion. The door, in a portico on the western side of the front of the building bears three axe marks where Reznikoff, in a fit of rage sent a message to Paul Diablos as to his intent that evening. Diablos made his way to the top of the tower of UC and was followed by Reznikoff. There the two men scuffled and Ivan Reznikoff, not having all his faculties at their sharpest, fell off the tower to his death. Diablos, wanting to conceal the accident/murder, buried Reznikoff on the spot where he fell.
It wasn't until the early part of the 1900's when UC had a major fire that Ivan Reznikoff's death had been discovered. It had been assumed that being a transient worker, he felt it was time to cash in and move on to find work elsewhere and no one considered otherwise. When the fire was investigated his bones were removed, but his mason's belt and tools were buried in the UC quadrangle where they lie to this day; (believed).
Legend has it that sometime in the recent past, on a cold November night, a student who was returning to his dorm on the quadrangle was appraoched by a scraggly stranger in the building, who asked if he had any liquor on him. The student, assessing the stranger as no threat and friendly invited him to his dorm room because the only drink he had was there. The student turned around to get the drink out of a cupboard. When he turned back the stranger was gone. It is believed that by the students description, he had encountered the ghost of Ivan Reznikoff.
On the face of UC are two grimacing gargoyles said to resemble Paul Diablos and Ivan Reznikoff, possibly carved by Reznikoff himself.
The pub at University College where numerous students go to indulge in their favourite potions, is aptly named Reznikoff's.
-Cloud2K1
