 |
| Oak Bay Village, I would like to have walked around this pretty village. |
 |
| Up scale condos on the Inner Harbour |
 |
| World's tallest totem Pole in Beacon Hill Park, Standing 127 feet & 7 inches, 10 minute walk to downtown Inner Harbour. |
 |
| St. Andrews Cathedral |
 |
| Another charming neighborhood near China town |
 |
| We enjoyed the hop on-hop off bus, it gave us an opportunity to see a larger area and neighborhoods.  Truly beautiful neighborhoods. Magnificent gardens and landscape. |
Craigdarroch Castle is a designated National Historic Site, now owned by The Historical Museum Society and is a national treasure. This lavish Victorian era estate later became a Military Hospital, Victoria College, offices for Victoria School Board and Victoria Conservatory for Music. The main walls are brick construction and are faced with sandstone from Dunmuir's own quarry. The Castle had gas lighting as well as electric lighting, central heat and telephones. There are 17 fireplaces and seven chimneys. It took 5 rail cars to ship oak panels from Chicago.
 |
| The castle has one of North America's finest collections of Victorian residential stained and leaded glass windows. Especially chosen to depict Dunmuir's Scottish and English heritage, British Columbia's provincial flower, the dogwood and many other designs. |
 |
Craigharroch Castle was built between 1887-1890 for Robert Dunsmuir, a Scottish immigrant who made his fortune from Vancouver Island coal. This Victorian mansion, built on a hill overlooking the city of Victoria (Craigdarroch means rocky oak place in Gaelic) announced to the world that Robert Dunsmuir was the richest and most important man in Western Canada. Craigdarroch Castle is an example of a 'bonanza castle', massive homes built for men who became wealthy because of the industrial transformation of North America. A conspicuous display of wealth with 30 rooms and 4 floors. I have seen numerous castles and mansions during my travels and this is a treasure with a stunning exterior and impressive Victorian era furnishings. Notice the stone architecture. Very Scottish. Aye! A bit of trivia to mention here; In 1891 it had electricity and 'a burglar alarm system'. These old stone steps have kept the secrets of countless people who have lived in these rooms. Imagine the human drama played out within this walls. |
 |
| The library. The woodwork is Spanish Mahogany. Beautiful detail and craftsmanship. The stained glass in this room depicts Sir Walter Raleigh.  tenacity that launched him up the ladder of success. Floor tiles came from England, the Brussels carpet was an 1885 design, one entrance has a Swiss bear hall stand original to the house, as well as carved wall panels and the matching dining table and chairs. |
 |
| The fourth floor dance hall has windows with a good view of downtown Victoria. Dance cards are displayed on the wall.  attended the Victory Conservatory of Music here for four years and probably played this piano. |
 |
| The wall and ceiling surfaces have been restored to the original colors. The institutional paint was removed and a fine art conservator restored the hand stenciled ceilings. |
 |
| The Dunsmuirs took breakfast in this room with cherry paneling. The radiators are part of the house's original heating system and patented in 1874. A speaking tube, a simple intercom system, original to the house was installed in the second floor hallway and connected to the breakfast room (here), the library, dining room and kitchen on the first floor. |
 |
| The castle has a tower above the fourth floor with a panoramic view of Olympic Mountains of Washington and Juan de Fuca straight. There are 97 stairs from the first floor to reach the tower. |
 |
| In the same vein as Hearst Castle. The roof is tiled with Vermont slate and the terra cotta ridge was originally manufactured in California. The domes are copper. Notice the intricate ironwork. |
 |
| The stained glass window depicts a woman and a swan. The 1898 Steinway piano was gifted from the Dunmuir's eldest son, originally from the house. The hand painted stenciled ceiling is original.  entrance is western red cedar. I loved all the wood used in this mansion, Cherry in the window sashes through out the house, Hawaiian Koa in the drawing room floor, parquetry through out the house combines exotic wood such as walnut, jarra, rosewood, maple, holly and oak. Something you will never have an opportunity to see.  the castle. He commissioned an architect from Portland, Oregon. The oak paneling was fabricated in Chicago.  Paintings depicting American landscapes by Frederick Schafer, along with others, many gold framed, adorned the walls. The quotation in the main hall, "Welcome ever smiles and farewell goes out sighing" is from Shakespeare's play, Trolius and Cressida.  the indoor plumbing. It had a manually operated lift which transported items between floors as well as a dumbwaiter from the kitchen to second and third floor. It had a laundry chute that terminated in the basement laundry. |
 |
| A sad ending of the Dunsmuir Empire. The children and grandchildren squandered their inheritance cavorting in gambling meccas such as Monte Carlo and shacking up with notorious actress, Tallulah Bankhead. The first floor has been fully restored and extremely lavish, filled with objects d'art and furniture of the 19th century with much of it being original to the house. I really loved the wood though out the house and especially the oak paneling and intricate woodwork. The house gave me a sense of the people that lived there 100 years ago. I could almost see them retiring for a game of billiards with cigar and scotch. Really, every room has a sense of history. Some images of the beautiful carpets, silks, brocades, fine china and silver, furniture of mahogany, oak and walnut ( I love woods) still linger in my mind. The 97 steps were somewhat daunting but every step worth it, as you can see I was quite taken with Craigdarroch Castle. One of my lifetime favorites, Little Women, was filmed here (the latest version).  |
No comments:
Post a Comment