Craigdarroch Castle

This article is about the Canadian mansion. For the Scottish house, see Craigdarroch.

Coordinates: 48°25′21″N 123°20′37″W / 48.422585°N 123.343704°W / 48.422585; -123.343704

Craigdarroch Castle
Location in British Columbia
Established	1890 (construction), 1979 (museum)
Location	1050 Joan Crescent Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Type	historic house museum (Victorian era)
Visitor figures	150,000 per year
Public transit access	Victoria Regional Transit System #11 and #14 bus
Website	www.craigdarrochcastle.com
National Historic Site of Canada
Official name: Craigdarroch National Historic Site of Canada
Designated:	1992

Craigdarroch Castle in Victoria, British Columbia, is a historic, Victorian-era Châteauesque mansion. The mansion was designated a National Historic Site of Canada due to its landmark status in Victoria.^[1]

Description

Craigdarroch Castle has 39 rooms and over 20,000 square feet (1,900 m²). It was constructed in the 1890s as a family residence for the wealthy coal baron Robert Dunsmuir and his wife Joan. Robert died in April 1889, more than a year before construction on the castle was completed. His sons Alexander and James took over the role of finishing the castle after his death. The initial architect of the castle, Warren Heywood Williams, also died before completion of the castle. His work was taken over by his associate, Arthur L. Smith, in 1890. James Dunsmuir also commissioned the construction of Victoria's second castle; Hatley Castle located in Colwood, British Columbia.^[2]

Craigdarroch Castle is believed to have cost as much as $500,000 when it was built, and included granite from British Columbia, tile from San Francisco, and an oak staircase prefabricated in Chicago.^[3] When originally constructed Craigdarroch stood in grounds comprising 27 acres (110,000 m²) of formal gardens in Victoria's Rockland neighbourhood.^[4]

Upon the death of Robert Dunsmuir's widow, Joan, the Craigdarroch estate was sold to land speculator Griffith Hughes for $38,000 who subdivided the estate into buildings lots. ^[5] To stimulate sales during a slow real estate market, Griffiths announced that the castle would be the subject of a raffle, to be won by one of the purchasers of the residential parcels carved from the estate. The winner, Solomon Cameron, mortgaged the castle to finance other speculative ventures which failed, leaving him broke, and in 1919 ownership of the castle passed to one of Cameron's creditors, the Bank of Montreal.^[6]

The four-story Craigdarroch Castle still has lavish furnishings from the 1890s and is known for its stained-glass and intricate woodwork. The Castle is currently owned by the Craigdarroch Castle Historical Museum Society, which is a private non-profit society, and is open to the public. The castle is a tourist attraction, and receives 150,000 visitors a year.

The Institute for stained glass in Canada has documented the stained glass at Craigdarroch Castle ^[7]

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  Craigdarroch Castle (Victoria BC) stained glass windows

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  Craigdarroch Castle (Victoria BC) stained glass windows

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  Billiards room on an upper floor

Movie location

The castle has been used in such films as Little Women (1994), Spooky House (2000) and Cats & Dogs (2001).

Theatre venue

Since 2000, the castle has hosted a series of site-specific theatrical productions, including The Fall of the House of Usher, H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, a Sherlock Holmes adaptation, a revue of Shakespearean love scenes, I Might Be Edgar Allan Poe, The Mysterious Mr Love, The Coming of Mr. Pine, The Great Love of Queen Victoria, and The Picture of Dorian Gray in 2008. An original adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was slated for 2009. The Importance of Being Earnest was shown in 2010.

Occupation

Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada Plaque in front of the castle.

The home had six main eras of occupation:

• The Dunsmuir era (1890-1908)
• The Military Hospital Era (1919-1921)
• Victoria College Era (1921-1946)
• Victoria School Board Office Era (1946-1968)
• Victoria Conservatory of Music Era (1969-1979)
• Museum Era (1979-Present)^[8]

References

1. ^ Craigdarroch Castle. Canadian Register of Historic Places. Retrieved 30 October 2011.
2. ^ http://www.hatleycastle.com/ Hatley Castle Website
3. ^ Segger, Martin and Franklin, Douglas, Victoria; A Primer for Regional History in Architecture, Victoria; Heritage Architectural Guides, p. 285
4. ^ Segger and Franklin, p. 287
5. ^ Reksten, Terry, The Dunsmuir Saga, Vancouver; Douglas & McIntyre, 1991, p. 200.
6. ^ Reksten, p. 200
7. ^ stained glass at Craigdarroch Castle http://stainedglasscanada.ca/site.php?site=209
8. ^ http://www.craigdarrochcastle.com/pdf/history.pdf

External links

• http://www.craigdarrochcastle.com/