Casa Loma (improper Spanish for "Hill House") is a

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

-style mansion and garden in midtown

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada, that is now a

historic house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that has been transformed into a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a ...

and landmark. It was constructed from 1911 to 1914 as a residence for financier Sir Henry Pellatt. The architect was E. J. Lennox, who designed several other city landmarks. Casa Loma sits at an elevation of above sea level, above

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border sp ...

. Due to its unique architectural character in Toronto, Casa Loma has been a popular filming location for movies and television. It is also a popular venue for wedding ceremonies, and Casa Loma can be rented in the evenings after the museum closes to the public.

History

In 1903, financier

Henry Pellatt Major-General Sir Henry Mill Pellatt, CVO (January 6, 1859 – March 8, 1939) was a Canadian financier and soldier. He is notable for his role in bringing hydro-electricity to Toronto for the first time, and also for his large château in Toron ...

purchased 25 lots from developers Kertland and Rolf. Pellatt commissioned architect E. J. Lennox to design Casa Loma, with construction beginning in 1911, starting with the massive stables, potting shed and Hunting Lodge (a.k.a. coach-house) a few hundred feet north of the main building. The Hunting Lodge is a two-storey house with servants' quarters. As soon as the stable complex was completed, Pellatt sold his summer house in Scarborough (burned down in the 1920s but the Lennox designed groundskeeper's home at 2 Courcelette Road remains) to his son and moved to the Hunting Lodge. The stables were used as a construction site for the mansion (and also served as the quarters for the male servants), with some of the machinery still remaining in the rooms under the stables. The house cost about $3.5 million and took 299 workers three years to build. Due to the start of World War I, construction was halted. At 98 rooms covering 64,700 square feet (6,011 m²), it was the largest private residence in Canada. Notable amenities included an

elevator An elevator or lift is a cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or decks of a building, vessel, or other structure. They ...

, an

oven upA double oven A ceramic oven An oven is a tool which is used to expose materials to a hot environment. Ovens contain a hollow chamber and provide a means of heating the chamber in a controlled way. In use since antiquity, they have been use ...

large enough to cook an ox, two vertical passages for

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks' ...

s, a central vacuum, two

secret passage Secret passages, also commonly referred to as hidden passages or secret tunnels, are hidden routes used for stealthy travel, escape, or movement of people and goods. They are sometimes inside buildings leading to secret rooms. Others allow peop ...

s in Pellatt's ground-floor office, a pool, and three

bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...

lanes in the basement (the last two were never completed). Most of the third floor was left unfinished, and today serves as the Regimental Museum for The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada. Pellatt joined the Regiment as a

Rifleman A rifleman is an infantry soldier armed with a rifled long gun. Although the rifleman role had its origin with 16th century hand cannoneers and 17th century musketeers, the term originated in the 18th century with the introduction of the ri ...

and rose through the ranks to become the

Commanding Officer The commanding officer (CO) or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latitu ...

. He was knighted for his dedication to the Regiment. Pellatt later served as the Honorary Colonel and was promoted to Major-General upon retirement. During the depression that followed the war, the City of Toronto increased Casa Loma's property taxes from $600 per year to $1,000 a month, and Pellatt, already experiencing financial difficulties, auctioned off $1.5 million in art and $250,000 in furnishings. Pellatt was able to enjoy life in the mansion for less than ten years, leaving in 1923. In the late 1920s, investors operated Casa Loma for a short time as a luxury hotel. During

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholi ...

, it became a popular nightspot for wealthy Americans. The Orange Blossoms, later known as Glen Gray and the

Casa Loma Orchestra The Casa Loma Orchestra was an American dance band active from 1929 to 1963. Until the rapid multiplication in the number of swing bands from 1935 on, the Casa Loma Orchestra was one of the top North American dance bands. With the decline of the b ...

, played there for eight months in 1927–1928. Shortly thereafter, they went on a tour of North America and became a major

swing era The swing era (also frequently referred to as the big band era) was the period (1933–1947) when big band swing music was the most popular music in the United States. Though this was its most popular period, the music had actually been arou ...

dance band. Lieutenant-Governor Dr

The city seized Casa Loma in 1924 for unpaid taxes, and for years, the building was left vacant. In the 1930s,

CFRB CFRB (1010 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is owned by Bell Media and carries a News/Talk radio format. Its studios and offices are in the Entertainment District at 250 Richmond Street West. CFRB is a ...

broadcaster Claire Wallace spent a night at Casa Loma to gather material for a story about

ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to re ...

s and supernatural phenomena, and she later broadcast an appeal to save the building from demolition. Her broadcast was heard by the vice-president of a local

Kiwanis Club Kiwanis International ( ) is an international service club founded in 1915 in Detroit, Michigan. It is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States, and is found in more than 80 nations and geographic areas. Since 1987, the organizatio ...

, and subsequently Casa Loma was leased in 1937 by the Kiwanis Club of West Toronto, later the Kiwanis Club of Casa Loma (KCCL), which began operating the mansion under a sole-source contract as a tourist destination. During World War II, the stables were used to conceal research and production of

sonar Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances (ranging), communicate with or detect objects on o ...

, and for construction of sonar devices (known as ASDIC) for

U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare ro ...

detection, according to a book about the "castle". The area was closed, behind an "Under Repairs" sign. The suggestion that the stables were under renovation allowed workers of the secret facility to come and go without suspicion. Casa Loma is often claimed to be the location of Station M that manufactured covert devices for agents, claiming that the book ''Inside Camp X'' provides this information. In 2015, however, author Lynn Philip Hodgson rejected this in an interview with the ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and par ...

''. "Nobody knows where Station M was. You won't read where it was in any book." Gooderham & Worts dinner and dance, Casa Loma (12328906855)

KCCL managed Casa Loma for 74 years, until 2011. Its tenure was not without controversy, with Pellatt's great-grandniece Trelawny Howell starting a campaign for an open-tender lease process in 2005, and the organization disputing her relationship with Pellatt in 2010. A 2006 advisory committee led by former MPP Ron Kanter, and its subsequent reports, recommended that the city turn the mansion's management over to a new "Casa Loma Trust". However, a city manager's report in 2008 recommended extending the city's lease with KCCL for 20 years, and in July 2008, it was renewed. Meanwhile, from 1997 until 2012, the mansion underwent a 15-year, $33-million exterior restoration largely funded by the city, which also created a new board of trustees in 2008, including seven KCCL members and seven city appointees. The city's renewed management agreement included a stipulation that KCCL would use the mansion's net revenues to help pay for upgrades; however, the organization used the fund to cover operating shortfalls instead, and there was only $335,000 in the account by 2011, rather than the $1.5-million originally projected. As a result, in 2011, the city temporarily resumed management of Casa Loma and began welcoming bids from the private sector in its search for a new operator. In January 2014, the city entered a new long-term lease and operating agreement with Liberty Entertainment Group, led by President and CEO Nick Di Donato, which agreed to spend $7.4 million to continue the mansion's upgrades. The company's plans also included a fine dining facility. The restaurant, Blueblood Steakhouse, opened in summer 2017. Due to

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quick ...

, tour operations closed as of March 13, 2020 and reopened in September 2020.

Architecture

Sir Henry imported artisans from Europe to design much of the furniture and other features of the mansion. Casa Loma has five acres of gardens. A

tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...

connects Casa Loma to the Hunting Lodge and to the stables (garage, potting shed, stalls,

carriage room The Carriage Room was a strip club in Portland, Oregon, in the United States. The bar and restaurant closed in 1988. Description and history The bar and restaurant operated for eighteen years at 1000 Southwest Broadway, underneath the Broadway ...

and

tack TACK is a group of archaea acronym for Thaumarchaeota (now Nitrososphaerota), Aigarchaeota, Crenarchaeota (now Thermoproteota), and Korarchaeota, the first groups discovered. They are found in different environments ranging from acidophilic ...

rooms).

Oak Room

The Oak Room (originally called the Napoleon Drawing Room) is the most decorated room in the house, and was used for formal occasions. It is encased in wood panels in the style of

Grinling Gibbons Grinling Gibbons (4 April 1648 – 3 August 1721) was an Anglo-Dutch sculptor and wood carver known for his work in England, including Windsor Castle and Hampton Court Palace, St Paul's Cathedral and other London churches, Petworth House and othe ...

, which took three artisans three years to carve. The highly ornamented plaster ceiling was made by Italian craftsmen, and was enhanced by the use of indirect lighting in the ceiling. Among other fixtures, the room featured a high

Louis XVI style Louis XVI style, also called ''Louis Seize'', is a style of architecture, furniture, decoration and art which developed in France during the 19-year reign of Louis XVI (1774–1793), just before the French Revolution. It saw the final phase of t ...

faux-gilt carved light standard with 24 bulbs.

Other rooms

Other rooms in Casa Loma include The Conservatory, a room that showcases plant life. The Conservatory also includes a fountain at one end of the room. The Round Room is designed to fit beneath the mansion's tower; this room is notable for its doors and windows, which curve to follow the shape of the room.

Main floor

*Billiards Room *The Conservatory *Dining Room *Great Hall *Library *Oak Room *Peacock Alley *Sir Henry's Study *Serving Room *Smoking Room

Second floor

Lady Pellatt's Suite, Casa Loma, Toronto, Canada

*Sir Henry's Suite *Sir Henry's Bathroom *Lady Pellatt's Suite *Lady Pellatt's Bathroom *Girl Guides Exhibit *Guest Suite *Windsor Room *Round Room

Third floor

* The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada Regimental Museum *Stairs to Towers *The Kiwanis Room *The Garden Room *Servant's Room *The Austin Room

Basement

*Gift Shop (Bowling lanes and shooting range - never completed) *Castle Café (Gymnasium - never completed) *Swimming Pool (Never completed) *Wine Cellar *Tunnel to Hunting Lodge and Stables

Stables

DSC09026 - 1924 Dodge Model D2 Touring Sedan (36823715580)

*Garage *Potting Shed *Standing Stalls with horses' names and box stalls *Carriage Room *Tack Rooms *Hunting Lodge

Exterior

* Gardens * Parking lots

Exhibits

Girl Guide exhibit

The Girl Guide Exhibit was opened on the second floor of Casa Loma in 1973. The relationship between the Girl Guides and Casa Loma extends back to Lady Pellatt, who frequently invited the

Girl Guides Girl Guides (known as Girl Scouts in the United States and some other countries) is a worldwide movement, originally and largely still designed for girls and women only. The movement began in 1909 when girls requested to join the then-grassroot ...

to her home. Their first visit was in 1913, when 250 girls and their leaders toured the conservatories and stables, climbed the circular staircase to the top turret and then were served tea in the Palm Room. In March 1914, Lady Pellatt watched the Guides' annual fête from her bedroom window as she was too ill to leave her room. Rallies became an annual event at the house. Guides also skated on the house's

curling Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns slidi ...

rink in winter. Girl Guiding events have continued in recent years, including the 75th anniversary and the 100th anniversary celebrations of Guiding in Canada were held at Casa Loma.

Vintage car exhibition

, the garage and carriage room feature an exhibition of vintage cars from the early 1900s. File:1910 Maxwell Model Q2.jpg, 1910 Maxwell Model Q Standard File:1910 Maxwell Model Q Standard.jpg, 1910 Maxwell Model Q Standard File:1922 Ford Model T Woody.jpg, 1922

Ford Model T The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by Ford Motor Company from October 1, 1908, to May 26, 1927. It is generally regarded as the first affordable automobile, which made car travel available to middle-class Americans. The relati ...

Woody File:Ford Model T 1924-1925.jpg, 1924-1925

Touring File:1929 Ford Model A.jpg, 1929 Ford Model A

Location

Casa Loma is located on Austin Terrace at Spadina Road, on an

escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''esca ...

(Davenport Hill) above Davenport Road. Davenport runs along the bottom of the escarpment, which was the shoreline of

Lake Iroquois Lake Iroquois can refer to: * Lake Iroquois (South Dakota) * Lake Iroquois (Vermont) in Vermont in the United States * Lake Iroquois, Illinois in Iroquois County in Illinois in the United States *Glacial Lake Iroquois Glacial Lake Iroquois was a ...

, the predecessor of

(coordinates ). Casa Loma affords views down the escarpment and Spadina Avenue into the heart of Toronto. The stables are located at 330 Walmer Road and the Hunting Lodge at 328 Walmer Road. Casa Loma is served by

St. Clair West Station St. Clair West is a subway station on Line 1 Yonge–University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It spans the block north of St. Clair Avenue West to Heath Street, between Bathurst Street and Tweedsmuir Avenue. The station serves the local communit ...

and

Dupont Station Dupont is a subway station on Line 1 Yonge–University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located on Spadina Road at Dupont Street in The Annex neighbourhood of the city. Wi-Fi service is available at this station. History The station ope ...

on the Yonge-University line of the

Toronto subway The Toronto subway is a rapid transit system serving Toronto and the neighbouring city of Vaughan in Ontario, Canada, operated by the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC). It is a multimodal rail network consisting of three heavy-capacity rail ...

Film location

Casa Loma is a popular location for use in film and television. It has served as a location for movies such as ''

X-Men The X-Men are a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, first appearing in Uncanny X-Men, ''The X-Men'' #1 by artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby and writer/editor Stan Lee in 1963. Although initially cancelled in ...

'', '' Strange Brew'', ''

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

'', '' The Tuxedo'', '' Scott Pilgrim vs. the World'', ''

Warehouse 13 ''Warehouse 13'' is an American science fiction television series that originally ran from July 7, 2009, to May 19, 2014, on the Syfy network, and was executive produced by Jack Kenny and David Simkins for Universal Cable Productions. Describ ...

'', ''

Crimson Peak ''Crimson Peak'' is a 2015 gothic romance film directed by Guillermo del Toro and written by del Toro and Matthew Robbins. The film stars Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain, Charlie Hunnam, and Jim Beaver. The story, set in Edwar ...

'', '' Twitches'', '' Twitches Too'', '' The Pacifier'', and ''

Titans In Greek mythology, the Titans ( grc, οἱ Τῑτᾶνες, ''hoi Tītânes'', , ''ho Tītân'') were the pre-Olympian gods. According to the ''Theogony'' of Hesiod, they were the twelve children of the primordial parents Uranus (Sky) and Gai ...

'' where it stands in for Wayne Manor. Comic books and children's novels that have used it include the Scott Pilgrim series and Eric Wilson's murder mystery ''The Lost Treasure of Casa Loma''. It was also temporarily transformed into

Hogwarts Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry () is a fictional Scotland, Scottish boarding school of Magic in Harry Potter, magic for students aged eleven to eighteen, and is the primary setting for the first six books in J. K. Rowling's ''Harry Pot ...

for the release of ''

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'' is a fantasy novel written by British author J. K. Rowling and the seventh and final novel of the main ''Harry Potter'' series. It was released on 21 July 2007 in the United Kingdom by Bloomsbury Publ ...

'' as well as The Beast's Castle for Disney's 2017 live action ''Beauty and The Beast'' remake of the 1991 animated film. In the

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French- ...

show ''

Being Erica ''Being Erica'' is a Canadian comedy-drama television series that aired on CBC from January 5, 2009, to December 12, 2011. Created by Jana Sinyor, the series was originally announced by the CBC as ''The Session'', but was later retitled ''Bein ...

'', the episode "Mi Casa, Su Casa Loma" features Casa Loma prominently as the place where main character Erica Strange works. It also served in the film adaptation of R.L. Stine's ''

Goosebumps ''Goosebumps'' is a series of children's horror fiction novels by American author R. L. Stine, published by Scholastic Publishing. The protagonists in these stories are tweens or young teens who find themselves in scary circumstances usually ...

'' series ''A Night In Terror Tower''. Casa Loma also features prominently in the biography-documentary of Sir Henry Pellatt, ''The Pellatt Newsreel: the Man who Built Casa Loma'', which was nominated for a 2009 Gemini for Best Biography Documentary. TV show ''

Hemlock Grove ''Hemlock Grove'' is a 2012 Horror-thriller debut novel by American author Brian McGreevy. The book was released on March 27, 2012 through Farrar, Straus and Giroux and is set in the fictional town of Hemlock Grove, Pennsylvania. A graphic nove ...

'' was also filmed there as well as '' The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones'' and related ''

Shadowhunters ''Shadowhunters'', also known as ''Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments'', is an American supernatural drama television series developed by Ed Decter, based on the book series ''The Mortal Instruments'' written by Cassandra Clare. It premiered ...

'' Exterior shots of the building were used in the Gothic TV show ''

Strange Paradise ''Strange Paradise'' is a Canadian occult-supernatural soap opera of 195 episodes, initially launched in syndication in the United States on September 8, 1969, and later broadcast on CBC Television from October 20, 1969, to July 22, 1970. The pr ...

''. It is also the filming location of the 2016 TV film '' The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again'', where scenes at Dr. Frank N. Furter's castle and the movie theatre where the audience participated were filmed.

Ivy Levan Ivy Rose Levan (born January 20, 1987) is an American singer, songwriter, model and actress from Bentonville, Arkansas. At 16, Levan moved to Los Angeles to pursue a music career, eventually signing to Cherrytree Records and Interscope Records. ...

's performance of the song " Science Fiction Double Feature" was filmed at Casa Loma (a movie theatre marquee was placed at the front entrance of the castle for filming). Queer as Folk is a United States / Canada television co-production, produced by Showtim
Rocky Horror Picture Show filming at Casa Loma
/ref> In 2018, Casa Loma served as a filming location for the 2019 American

black comedy Black comedy, also known as dark comedy, morbid humor, or gallows humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally considered serious or painful to disc ...

thriller Thriller may refer to: * Thriller (genre), a broad genre of literature, film and television ** Thriller film, a film genre under the general thriller genre Comics * ''Thriller'' (DC Comics), a comic book series published 1983–84 by DC Comics i ...

'' Ready or Not''.

References

External links

*
BlueBlood Steakhouse at Casa Loma

Casa Loma Trust
{{Toronto landmarks Houses in Toronto Castles in Canada Scouting and Guiding in Canada Gothic Revival architecture in Toronto Scottish baronial architecture in Canada E. J. Lennox buildings Museums in Toronto Historic house museums in Ontario Tourist attractions in Toronto Queen's Own Rifles of Canada City of Toronto Heritage Properties Public venues with a theatre organ