Feeling like you are a slave to the grind?
Come on with me and live it up at the Castle.
No, not Cinderellas or anything to do with Mr.Disney. This is a real story about a real prince of a man who built a beautiful home for his Princess.
If you are not a Castle person there are tons of other things to do for fun around here. Check it out. Weather and dates permitting.
Coal baron Robert Dunsmuir was the wealthiest and most influential man of his time in British Columbia. He died in 1889, just months before his majestic Craigdarroch Castle was completed. He left the entire estate, including all of his business holdings, to his wife Joan, who resided at Craigdarroch until her death in 1908.
After Robert Dunsmuir died in 1889--never having lived in the castle on his 28-acre property overlooking Victoria--his sons James and Alex, found they had inherited nothing from the man they had worked for nothing over 20 years on the promise that one day, the business would be theirs.
It took the brothers ten years to get their mother to go along with their desire to manage aspects of their fathers holdings. Once that was accomplished, Alex Dunsmuir finally married against his mothers wishes, his live-in companion for 20 years, Josephine Wallace. He died on their honeymoon in New York in 1900.
Brother James took control, at a time when James Dunsmuir was also Premier of British Columbia. Alex Dunsmuir's mother and Edna Hopper, daughter of John Wallace, sued to gain shares of the Alex Dunsmuir estate. The rift between James Dunsmuir and his mother lasted until her death in 1908. He cried at her burial. A quarrel taken to the grave. A tragedy. Mr. James went on to build his own castle but we wont be visiting it this weekend.
Joan Dunsmuir left her Estate, including Craigdarroch Castle, to her five surviving daughters, one son-in-law and three of her grandchildren. The contents of the Castle were sold during a three-day auction. Can you imagine? I wish I had been there. Shiny things galore.
The Castle briefly served as a military hospital after World War One, then became home for Victoria College from 1921 to 1946 by which time enrollment reached 600. Purchasers of the property back in 1929, the Victoria School Board took over use of the over-crowded facilities until 1968. Formed by James K. Nesbitt in the late 1959s, the Society for the Preservation & Maintenance of Craigdarroch Castle joined with the Victoria Conservatory of Music, formed in 1964, co-lease the Castle until 1979.
The City of Victoria and the renamed Craigdarroch Castle Historical Museum Society have since converted the facility in a museum to appear the way it was when Joan Dunsmuir took up residence in 1890. Its a designated National Heritage Site.
I love this Castle.
I love standing on the stairways and gazing through stained glass windows.
I love to think of what it would be like to live in such style.
The woodwork! The finishings! The lavishly appointed rooms and volumnious Victorian Furniture.
It is 87 stairs to the top of the tower for the best views of Victoria. of the SAn Juans and the Mountains.
OH I am a woman out of time. And circumstance.
There is a grande event at the castle this weekend.
See you there.
Leave the Carelane to it's own ministrations.
It will still be there on Monday!
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Craigdarroch Castle
1050 Joan Crescent
Victoria, British Columbia
Phone: (250) 592-5323
Fax: (250) 592-1099
Website: http://www.thecastle.ca
