At the turn of the 20th century, Toronto was booming. Mining in northern Ontario, shipping on the Great Lakes, and a huge new financial sector led to rapid growth both in the city and in the money found there. With that came a new elite class, one that could make its money locally in addition to bringing it over from Britain.
Two such people were Albert William Austin and Henry Pellatt. They would help to shape Toronto – and indeed all of Canada – both through industry and via their great homes: Spadina House and Casa Loma.
For visitors to Toronto, Casa Loma is almost certainly on the radar. It sits north of downtown, and while today it is totally surrounded by the city, at the time of its construction it would have been outside of Toronto with farmland between. Sitting at the top of Davenport Hill, it can be seen from quite a distance away, at least from the south. Spadina House, on the other hand, is relatively unknown to visitors, and even to many locals, despite the fact that it is directly next door to Casa Loma. And while it keeps more limited hours, it is absolutely worth visiting both – probably in a single day if timing works – to get a more rounded picture of what life was like for Toronto’s elite when these great houses were in use.
Albert Austin was born in Toronto in 1857, the son of banker and businessman James Austin. James founded Dominion Bank (now TD Bank), and in 1866, purchased what is now Spadina House to hold his growing family. (For the record, Spadina the street in Toronto is pronounced Spa-DYE-na, while the house, which takes its name from a native word for “uphill” is pronounced Spa-DEE-na.) When James passed away in 1897, the house became Albert’s. Albert, now himself chairman of Dominion Bank, had it enlarged to what it is now.
Albert Austin was an avid golfer, even representing Canada in the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis. That, however, was not such an incredible feat since, as my tour guide in the house tells our group, that Olympics was the first in North America and struggled attracting athletes, so offered anyone who could pay their own way entry. (Albert finished second to last.) But he was such a fan that he had a course constructed adjacent to his home. That will be important in a moment.
After some additions, Spadina House ended up being a nice cozy 55 rooms across three floors and a basement, with roughly 40 acres remaining of the original 200 in the estate. Today, the house and six acres immediately surrounding it make up the Spadina Museum, which is available to visit via a free tour.
The home is furnished and decorated as it would have been in its heyday, the 1910s and 1920s, when Albert Austin and his family lived there. It includes memorabilia from the family, original furnishings provided by Austin’s daughter Kathleen when she donated the home to the city to become a museum, and plenty of photographs. It is significantly larger than it appears from the outside – I mean, 55 rooms is a lot – and has some spaces, like a three room kitchen suite, that are truly fascinating.
The tour talks about some of the quirks of being wealthy in Toronto in that period. Besides golf, the family had a gardening hobby, and built a conservatory attached to the living room. But it has a trap door in it, so that the gardening staff could actually maintain the plants, something nobody in the Austin family could be bothered to do, without being seen going through the home. But hey, their plants won all sorts of awards, so it paid off!
Remember the Austin golf course? In 1903, the family sold it to another wealthy member of Toronto society. Henry Pellatt was born in 1859, and made his fortune in electricity and real estate. Among the wealthiest men in Ontario around the turn of the century, he needed a home that would show his status, and the land the golf course sat on was perfect for his project. Of course, his needed to be larger than that of his neighbors, the Austins, and in 1914, Casa Loma was completed.
The castle – that is really what it is – has a whopping 98 rooms across about 65,000 square feet, and was the largest residence in all of Canada when it was built. It had about half the telephones in the city of Toronto when it was completed. Needless to say, building, furnishing, and maintaining such a residence was a financial burden even to someone as wealthy as Pellatt, and when the Great Depression hit, he could no longer afford to both keep the home and maintain a lavish lifestyle. He chose the lifestyle and moved out of Casa Loma in 1923.
The house had a period as a hotel, then as a rundown shell, before reopening as a museum. It also doubles as a film location, with a huge exhibit on the iconic movies shot here at least in part, and scenes playing on video. You might recognize Casa Loma as the Xavier School in X-Men, or as a backdrop in Chicago. Or countless others, some of which shot in the house and some in the other buildings on the estate or even in the tunnels connecting them.
Today, Casa Loma is part mansion, part museum, and part entertainment hub. For me, the historical mansion is the most interesting part. It is opulent, with features inside that match the castle sort of exterior. Some furnishings are original, while others are period pieces that have been acquired.
Many rooms, however, are either unfinished, or function today as anything but living spaces. The third floor, for instance, is a museum to the Queen’s Own Rifles, a Canadian military unit Henry Pellatt commanded, and for which he was knighted. (Remember that back then, many of these units were militia-based, and that wealthy patrons were given commands in return for sponsoring the costs.)
The two towers of Casa Loma, both of which can be climbed, even host themed escape rooms. So while this seems like an awesome concept and one I’d love to come back for, it is hard to know what they may or may not have been envisioned to be under Pellatt.
A tunnel connects the main house to the guest house/hunting lodge. When walking this route, I pass by the boiler. Casa Loma used more coal per year than the Titanic would have, and again shows the ease with which the house would have totally bankrupted the family during the Depression.
It can take as little as 90 minutes to fully explore Casa Loma, or as much as 3-4 hours if one reads all the signage, wants to visit the entirety of the museum spaces, and desires to walk the grounds. Food at the two cafes is even reasonably good – and not ridiculously overpriced for a tourist destination.
Two houses sitting side by side on Toronto’s Davenport Hill. Casa Loma and the Spadina House both tell part of a story of how the elite of a newly important city would have lived in the early 20th century. After visiting, I can’t imagine myself living in either place, or having a lifestyle that would warrant a similar abode. But it is fun to think about, so long as I don’t have to worry about heating or cleaning them!
Thank you to Destination Toronto for generously providing me with a Toronto VIP pass that allowed for my admission to Casa Loma.
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