Casa Loma: E.J. Lennox's Castle on the Hill

Casa Loma stands on the hill north of downtown Toronto, a stone house of towers, turrets and battlements looking south over the city toward the lake. It looks centuries old. It is not. It was built in the early twentieth century, for one family, and that family lived in it for only about ten years.

The architect

The castle was designed by E.J. Lennox, the Toronto architect behind two of the city's best-known buildings: Old City Hall at Queen and Bay, with its clock tower, and the King Edward Hotel on King Street. Casa Loma was the most personal of his commissions, a romantic castle for one of the richest men in the city.

The owner and the money

Sir Henry Pellatt made his fortune in electricity. The castle's own history says he founded the Toronto Electric Light Company in 1883, that by the time he was thirty it held a monopoly on the city's street lighting, and that in 1902 he and his partners won the rights to build the first Canadian hydro-generating plant at Niagara Falls. In 1911, with a fortune the castle puts at $17 million, he drew up the plans. It took three years and $3.5 million to build.

Pellatt was also a soldier. He was knighted in 1905 for his military service with the Queen's Own Rifles. His wife, Lady Pellatt, was appointed the first Commissioner of the Girl Guides of Canada.

How it was lost

The fortune did not last. In the castle's own words, the one sure source of income, the monopoly on electrical power, vanished when political decisions allowed for public ownership of electricity. His company owed the Home Bank of Canada $1.7 million. During the First World War, Canadians put their money into war bonds rather than houses.

In 1924 the Pellatts moved to their farm in King Township. In 1933 the City of Toronto took ownership of the property for $27,303.45 owed in back taxes.

A public castle

From 1937 the Kiwanis Club of West Toronto ran Casa Loma as a tourist attraction, an arrangement that lasted until 2011. Since then the City of Toronto has remained the sole owner. It is now a visitor attraction and event venue, open to the public with a ticket.

So the building that a single family could not afford to keep became a public one. It survives as Pellatt imagined it, but as something to visit rather than a home.

How this fits a Roamer walk

No Roamer tour visits Casa Loma. It is a separate, ticketed visit on the hill north of downtown, at 1 Austin Terrace, best reached by subway to Dupont station and a short uphill walk; check the castle's own site for hours and prices. The nearest Roamer walk is the Kensington Market and Chinatown walk, eleven stops over about 1.8 kilometres from the Kiever Synagogue to the Art Gallery of Ontario, about 85 minutes at an easy pace. It is a different story, of houses turned into shops and a family house turned into a gallery, and it pairs well with Casa Loma on the same day. For every walk in the city, see the Toronto walking tours guide.