Toronto, Ontario is an amazing city. There is so much to see and after a week, we barely scratched the surface. But one thing we did see was Casa Loma. We walked thinking "it's not that far". After a three mile walk, we came upon these stairs. These are the Baldwin Steps named for the original owner of the land that they are on. They lead from the street through a lovely little park to Casa Loma. For the record, there are a lot of Baldwin Steps to climb.
Back to Casa Loma. It's truly a castle. It has four floors (including a basement), 98 rooms and 200,000 square feet! It was constructed from 1911 - 1914. At the cost of $3.5M, it took 299 workers all three years to build.
Front view of Casa Loma. So who built this thing? Sir Henry Pellatt. Henry was born in Kingston, Ontario in 1859. He joined his father's stock brokerage firm in 1882. Through investments in the railway and hydro-electric industries, he became quite wealthy. The front door is right behind John. What was that like, coming home after a shopping trip and walking through that front door and into this enormous house?
This fountain is in front of the house. In the photo with John above, I'm standing in front of the fountain and taking the photo. So the fountain is in a small garden area in front of the house.
Another view of the castle from the side. Legislator Adam Beck must not have liked Sir Henry very much. By leading the anti-rich sentiment, he was able to appropriate Henry's hydro-electric power company from him (hydro-power should be free for everyone!). Henry then invested in an aircraft manufacturing business, which was also appropriated by Beck and the government as part of the war effort. By 1923, all sources of income were gone and his other investments were not doing well. Sir Henry and Lady Mary were forced to sell.
They were only two people living in this enormous house. When you walk in, on the first floor is the great hall. The Great Hall was inspired by the gothic revival style with a 65-foot ceiling featuring exposed beams meant to resemble medieval castles and cathedrals. The Great Hall was the reception area for the Pellatts' grand parties. In the bay window in the back, you can see a Wurlitzer Organ with quite a history. The original organ arrived just in time for it to be auctioned off in 1924. The organ you see is from Toronto's Shea's Hippodrome Theatre, established in 1914. The rink-organ classics of Canadian hockey were played on this organ at the Maple Leaf Gardens. Connecting to the pipes on the wall above the Oak room, its acoustics are so pristine that a whisper from the Great Hall can be heard perfectly within the organ chambers.
The large carved mahogany fireplace dates to the 17th century. It comes from an old English home that was being demolished around the time Sir Henry was building his castle. Above the mantel is a portrait of Sir Henry Pellatt in his military uniform. He was a staunch supporter of the Queen's Own Rifles Regiment and eventually went on to command it. At the far right end of the great hall is the Oak Room.
The Oak Room, generally named the Napoleon Drawing Room, in keeping with the Victorian tradition of a quote "Withdrawing Room", where an intimate selection of guests could gather after a dinner party. Designed to impress, it contained some of the finest examples of art, furnishings and decorative accessories that the Pellatts owned, as well as lavish carved paneling and ornate plaster detailing. The dark oak wood panels are covered from floor to ceiling with beautiful and intricate carvings of leaves, flowers and fruit like berries and grapes. This custom oak paneling took three years to produce by the London firm Martyn and Company. They finished panels were so exquisite that they were exhibited at the Musee Des Beaux-Arts in Montreal before installation at Casa Loma. The Oak room is used differently today than in Sir Henry's time and is the home of the award-winning Blueblood Steakhouse.
You can see that the Oak Room is huge so when they say an "intimate" gathering, that must have still be a lot of people.
Now this is the room for me. The Library. It was built to house 10,000 books (holy moly!), the 23 glass paneled cabinets were a challenge to fill. In their 10 years at the castle, the Pellatts collected around 713 books about history, gardening, and the military. Decorated in the French empire style, armchairs, desks and sculptures filled the room in the fashion of Victorian "Clutter". The room functions more as a welcoming family room and an invitation for conversation. It is evident that the Pellatts wanted to create a space for intellectual through. I wonder if I could have filled it with books that I've read. Clearly, the "clutter" has been removed but I bet it was a nice room to read and relax in.
The intricate geometric carved plasterwork on the ceiling is inspired by English long galleries: rooms that were dedicated walking and gazing at art works. In the middle of these geometric patterns you will see the Pellatt coat of arms and a split coat coat of arms, denoting Lady Mary and Sir Henry's union.
The Dining Room is where the Pellatts would host formal dinner parties with up to 100 guests. It features carvings bearing fruit in wood paneling with Corinthian columns. The elaborate plasterwork on the ceiling features a large oval panel embellished with plaster moldings that signify daffodils, narcissus, roses and daisies. The ceiling molding conceals a new form of technology called recessed lighting. When turned on, it creates a beautiful glowing dome above the dining room. Pellatt was one of the first people in Canada to have this type of lighting. Attached to the dining room is an alcove called the dining nook. In Sir Henry's time, the nook was reserved for a small orchestra that would play music to accompany dinner parties. This photo makes it hard to believe that 100 people could fit in here. But the room was really big.
This was my favorite room, the Conservatory. The Conservatory was originally named the "Palm Room". This room represents the Pellatts' love for gardening. During the winter months, the Pellatts often enjoyed afternoon tea here. he raised flowerbeds, called "ferneries" flank either side of the room and are heated using steam pipes that kept the Pellatts' prize orchids and chrysanthemums warm throughout the year. They are faced with marble from Bancroft, Ontario while the floors feature Italian marble.
The bronze doors were inspired by an Italian villa and cost nearly $10,000 each in its time.
The ceiling has a stained-glass dome. Backlit by 600 lightbulbs so that the details of the dome could be appreciated all day. The cost was $12,000. It's a beautiful room. I'd like to have sat in here during a rain storm!
This is called a serving room. This room was originally used as a breakfast room or for quiet dinners. Also, when they hosted large dinner parties, it became a staging area where kitchen staff brought prepared dishes for wait staff to carry into the dining room.
On the left, a door leads to the original kitchen. Casa Loma's modern kitchens are located in the same place today. To the right of the door, there's an early 20th century telephone. At a time when the entire city of Toronto had probably 200 phones, Casa Loma had about 50.
This is called "Peacock Alley". It's the hallway to the immediate left when you walk into the house. It leads to all the rooms described above. About halfway down on the left is a little cubby where there was an elevator. This elevator was the first elevator in a private house in Canada. It was fabricated in approximately 1910, prior to the castle's completion. Sir Henry had it installed with Lady Pellatt's comforts in mind. Lady Pellatt had begun to suffer from congestive heart failure and the staircase was sometimes too much for her. The Elevator's interiors are mahogany lined featuring neo-classical detailing, creating another lovely little Edwardian Room. In the hallway, back in the day there would have been chairs interspersed along the walls.
This is Sir Henry's study. The walls are clad in walnut and the marble fireplace boasts a carving of the Greco-Roman hero Hercules on the mantel. Flanking the fireplace are two narrow doors leading to hidden staircases, on the left leading to the sleeping quarters and on the right to the basement level where Sir Henry's vault and the main electrical systems of the castle could easily be accessed. I love the idea of a secret stairway. We took the stair way up.
This Edwardian businessman's office originally featured a desk that was an exact copy of Napoleon's writing desk. Today, Sir Henry's writing desk from the library, made of light walnut wood, sits in the study. On the desk is a beautiful cast iron black lamp that features a wyvern, a mythological flying dragon with a long tail ending in an arrow shaped tip. In 1924, when the Pellatts were forced to leave this house, Sir Henry was so attached to this lamp, he decided to keep it.
Here's a closer look at the stairs. It led up to a small landing where another short set of stairs went to the servants quarters. A second short set of stairs led to the second floor rooms.
So far on this main floor we've seen the conservatory, the dining room, the serving room, the library, the great hall, the oak room and the study.
This is the terrace, which was also part of a restaurant.
Look at beautiful gardens. So many cool places to go and relax.
This was pretty amazing. That's downtown Toronto. I'm sure it didn't look like that when the Pellatts lived here but still, it's quite breathtaking.
This staircase was specifically for the servants. It's called the Maid's staircase. It goes from the second to the third floor.
This is Lady Mary's suite of rooms. That's right, I said rooms (plural!). Lady Mary had a much larger suite than her husband, it included a bedroom, a very large sitting room, a solarium, a bathroom and a wardrobe. It was a private area where she could entertain friends and family.
By all accounts Mary Pellatt was a shy woman, although she was strong and supposedly had quite a good sense of humor. She seemed a very good match for her husband. Lady Mary was widely known as an authority on art and objects d'art. She maintained a very large collection of wedgwood pottery. Reflecting this interest, her bedroom is painted a pale blue with white highlights - a colour scheme inspired by classic wedgwood ware. Mary was 16, two years older than Henry when they married in 1882. The couple shared a love for art, and nature, the two were often pictured enjoying time outside together. That door leads to the terrace with that magnificent view.
This was her bathroom. I'm not sure what the porcelain next to the tub against the left wall is for. A bidet maybe?
This is Lady Mary's sitting room. A completely separate room from the bedroom. And as if that wasn't enough space for one person, she also had a solarium.
This room is called a solarium, or "Place of Light", where Lady Mary would host intimate teas with her closest friends. The windows of this room face south and catch the light all day long. Laid across the length of the solarium is a hand knotted Milani Persian rug dating to the early 1900's. Depicted are camels, cows, sheep, and ducks, tended to by women bearing the fruits of their labor. The rug tells the story of Iranian agriculture. At the back of the room is a painted satinwood buffet that once belonged to Lady Mary's neighbor and friend, Lady Flora Eaton. Flora married Sir John C. Eaton of Eaton's Department Store Fame, and the two lived in an estate on top of Spadina Hill, near the Pellatts. The buffet doors have nymph-like women painted in the art nouveau style which piqued the interest of many Edwardians.
Sir Henry's room was a little more subdued. That is a tiger skin on the floor. And it has the tiger head. How many times did he trip over that in the middle of the night? This is the bedroom of Sir Henry's suite which reflects Edwardian ideals of manliness. It includes a wooden four poster bed from the 17th century, walls paneled in rich dark wood, a tiger skin rug on the floor and a carved lion on the fireplace. As with other fireplaces in Casa Loma, this fireplace was imported from a demolished 18th century British home. On the ceiling are delicate depictions of blueberry and blackberry sprigs carved into the plasterwork reflecting Sir Henry's patriotism and love of all things Canadian. Sir Henry's suite also includes a bathroom and a large closet. He and Lady had separate living and sleeping spaces, though the suites connected. In the Edwardian era if you were rich enough, you had your own bedroom and living space, a luxury unavailable to many people in Toronto during the period.
One of the things I lived about Sir Henry's room is that when these doors were open, it overlooked the great hall.
If you were a guest at this house, you too, would have your own suite of rooms! That's just asking for guests to stay longer than they need to. The Pellatts had five guest suites on the second floor of Casa Loma. This room is decorated in what is know as "Chinoiserie" style, with a bedroom, a bathroom, a closet and a sitting area. Chinoiserie style is a method of interior design that dates to the 17th century when Europeans became interested in Asian Art. The large red lacquered cabinet-desk was made in China in the early 20th century. The inside of its open doors shows gilt paintings of flowers and birds. The walls of this suite are covered with stenciled images in gold paint of Phoenixes and foo dogs, Chinese lions that guard Buddhist temples from harmful spirits or people.
In addition your own bathroom, you'd also have your own sitting room.
This guest room was called the Windsor room. The Windsor Room was named after the royal family of England, the Windsors. Sir Henry hoped that this room would one day serve as a guest room for visiting royalty. The bed, made of walnut, is highly unique dating back to the 19th century. It is elaborately carved in the Venetian style. Originally a rich brown walnut with a clear coat, it was lacquered white with gold gilt in the 1970's. The four posts of the bed feature carved cherubs and dolphins, an ancient Roman symbol for the goddess of love, Venus. The 19th century gilt framed settee and three chairs reflect elements of the Louis XV style. Sold in the 1924 auction for $95 each, they were reacquired by Casa Loma in 1992.
I liked this little nook in the Windsor room. You could sit here and look out while you have your tea.
The Round Room. This room is perfectly round because it fits into the base of the Norman Tower. The doors are curved to fit the shape of the room. Like the serving room on the first floor, the style was inspired by the late 18th century architect Robert Adam. The exquisite neo-classical plasterwork details of floral swags, urns pilasters and soft yellow color characterized Adam's style. The four Louis XV style chairs and three-fold screen were part of a parlor suite. Dating from the 19th century, the set was upholstered in D'Aubusson Tapestry, a very valuable silk tapestry fabric produced in France.
Yet another sitting room. This one was right next to the round room.
On the third floor of the house there was a museum of the Queen's Own Rifles, a regiment that Sir Henry was part of. The servants rooms were there as well.
See that big tall turret? That's a Norman Tower. You can go all the way up there! You get to it from the third floor. There's a door off the hallway that leads into an attic like space. Then there's a circular stairway to up a little higher. Once you've climbed that, you're almost there! We started to go up there but it was very claustrophobic and narrow. It started to get busy so we gave up.
There's also a basement that we did not have a chance to visit. The basement had a wine cellar, a swimming pool and a bowling alley. Those last two items were never completed. Now there's a cafe and a gift shop down there along with the vault that was mentioned earlier. The secret staircase from Sir Henry's study led to the vault. There was also a tunnel down there that led to the stables which houses an antique car exhibit.
The end of World War One brought forth inflation, but not for companies or land, two of Sir Henry's main sources of income. In fear of losing his Knighthood, Sir Henry did not want to declare bankruptcy and instead, signed over his assets to an investment company. A five-day auction was then held in the conservatory, where the Pellatts sold their most valued possessions. That had to be humiliating.
Now the castle is a museum, restaurant and event venue. I'm just glad it wasn't torn down. It's an amazing place to visit.
