Situated on the Davenport Hill, 460 feet above sea level, Casa Loma is one of the most beautiful landmarks of Toronto, Canada.
The house was built by Sir Henry Mill Pellatt in 1911 in the Gothic Revival style. The designer of the house was the architect E. J. Lennox who designed many other landmarks for the city. This architectural marvel stores unique historical memories and today is one of the most popular tourist attraction because of its ghost stories and Hollywood connections.
The first parts that Lennox designed were the Hunting Lodge, the stables and the sheds for pottery. The two-storey Hunting Lodge includes quarters for the servants, and it is 4, 380 square foot. Lennox used the stables as a construction site for the house, and in the rooms, under the stables, there are still some parts of the machinery that were used during the building.
It was finished in 1914, and 300 people were working on the construction. At that time, Casa Loma was the largest private residence in the country which contains 98 rooms. Today, the third floor of the residence is used as a museum (the Regimental Museum for the Queen’s Rifles of Canada) because it was left unfinished.
After WWI, Casa Loma’s property taxes increased to $1, 000 a month and for that reason, Pellatt, who was experiencing financial difficulties, auctioned $1.5 million in art and $250, 000 in furnishings. He stayed at the residence until 1923. After Pellatt had left, the house was used as a hotel, and it became a popular r place for wealthy Americans during the Prohibition.
In 1933, due to back taxes, the city wanted to demolish the residence because it was run down. However, in 1937 it was rented by the Kiwanis Club of Casa Loma which operated it as a tourist attraction. This Club managed the residence until 2011, and from 1997 to 2012 the interior of the house was mostly restored by the city.
The Oak Room is the most decorated room in the house which was mostly used for formal occasions.
It has wooden panels in the style of the woodcarver Grinling Gibbons, while artisans from Italy made the plaster ceiling. It is also very popular for its gardens, and it has an underground tunnel which connects the building to the Hunting Lodge. This magnificent castle served as a filming location for the X-Men movies and was temporary transformed into Hogwarts for the film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.