None But Eagles

We visited Casa Loma in Toronto on Monday. I had visited it once before with my family (maybe just my dad and sisters?) when I was young, and all I remembered of it was being scared to climb a spiral metal staircase, and either my dad had to carry me or I wanted him to carry me but he didn’t. I thought I had been mis-remembering but the spiral staircases (there are two!) really do exist and they were still a bit scary.

Casa Loma’s history is a bit bizarre — Sir Henry Pellatt had it built 1911-1914 in the Gothic Revival style and less than 10 years later could no longer afford it or its contents. A planned swimming pool and bowling alleys were never built. I tend to think of Sir Henry as something of an endearing idiot but I guess with the Great Depression and tax increases that might not be the most just of descriptions.

The whole photoset is here.