Posts Tagged castles

Photo Credit: Laura Waldie

So is the buzz of last weekend’s Royal wedding still with you? Are you still in awe over the dresses worn by Kate or her show-stopping sister, Pippa? Well let me tell you about a new exhibit and upcoming fashion show happening at Baden, Ontario’s Castle Kilbride which will make the Royal wedding fashions an awful lot less spectacular! (more…)

Photo Credit: Toronto Public Library Archives

In our next instalment in The Great Canadian Architects series, we head back to Toronto where many great architects produced a number of beautiful buildings, many of which are municipal, provincial or national heritage sites. As promised from my story on Casa Loma, this feature will look at the works of Edward James Lennox who built over 70 buildings in the city of Toronto ranging in style from Richardson Romanesque, Neo-Classical, Gothic Revival and Beaux Arts. However, Lennox is most remembered for bringing the Richardson Romanesque style to life and helped develop the growth of Canada’s largest city.  (more…)

McIntosh Castle in Kingston, Ontario

It’s always nice hearing from readers who have questions about my posts or if they are looking for specific information to something….and even when they are setting me straight on something! I got a great email from Judi in Kingston in response to my Casa Loma story telling me there was a castle I didn’t mention. So in this post, I will tell you a little bit about this castle which is also a perfect stepping off point to launch a new series dedicated to Canadian architects who have built some of this country’s most beautiful public and private buildings. The first architects to be profiled are John Power, and his son Joseph, who built many impressive dwellings in nineteenth and early twentieth century Kingston, Ontario.   (more…)

Photo Credit: Laura Waldie

Of all the Canadian Castle owners, one of the most complex individuals was Sir Allan Napier McNab, the owner of Dundurn Castle in Hamilton, Ontario. He had a very eclectic and varied career from being a carpenter, actor, railroad tycoon, real estate investor, military officer, a Baron, and Prime Minister of the Province of Canada. He was a man of dual personalities in many ways. On the one hand, he displayed such dizzying wealth and power, yet was constantly trying to keep two steps ahead of his creditors and he died virtually penniless. He was considered a very compassionate and kind employer to his domestic staff for the time, yet he was not above breaking the law or imposing threats on people to get what he wanted in the business world. He was lauded by many business associates as being a fine example of a new and golden age dawning in the Province of Canada’s entrepreneurial world, yet many Boards and Committees he sat on would scheme endlessly to find ways to be rid of him. In spite of all this, however, McNab left a remarkable piece of architectural history that not only reflects the development of the City of Hamilton, but also of a young nation in the making.  (more…)

Photo Credit: Laura Waldie

If you love a good story about a person’s rise from rags to riches yet never loses their kindness and compassion for others, then the third instalment of the “Canadian Castles” series is for you. Nestled in the heart of Baden Ontario, is a stunning Italianate home that was built in 1877 for James Livingston, a flax and linseed oil industrialist whose empire stretched as far west as Manitoba and south into the United States. On the home’s exterior, Livingston had been criticised for its “plainness” yet, on the inside, it boasted one of the finest collections of ceiling paintings and handcrafted local furniture anywhere in Canada. Considered the “Jewel of Wilmot Township”, Castle Kilbride was the Livingston family home for four generations and represented a little piece of Scotland that was so dear to James Livingston.   (more…)

Photo Credit: Brandon Godfrey

School is back in session this week for hundreds of thousands of young students across Canada which includes university students. This is a perfect segueway into our next instalment of “Canadian Castles”. Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia is one such place that will see thousands of students on its campus this week to begin classes. Considered to be one of the most beautiful campuses in the country for its location as well as its splendid architecture, Royal Roads started out in a much different way. It is the former home of James Dunsmuir; coal baron, BC Premier and Lieutenant Governor. Not to be outdone on any level by his father Robert, James set out to build the finest Edwardian mansion of its time in western Canada; Hatley Castle.  (more…)

Photo Credit: OurBC

I bet when you think of Canadian built heritage and industrial history, a castle is not the first thing that comes to mind. However, Canada does have a number of “castles” that acted as stately homes. In fact, some of these Canadian castles are so grand that they equal, perhaps even surpass, their British and European counterparts in both design and elegance. These castles, as with many stately homes across Canada, had been built by industrialists as a testament to their power and wealth during the Victorian and Edwardian periods. For many, when that power and wealth faded, the families were forced to sell these homes. Fortunately, they have all been saved and are now spectacular museums or public institutions that have earned Canadian National Historic Site status. In the first part of our series on “Canadian Castles”, we’ll go out west to Victoria, British Columbia and feature the first of two castles built by the Dunsmuir family: Craigdarroch Castle. (more…)