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This is a side entrance to the historic Hatley Castle, on the Royal Roads University grounds just outside of Victoria, B.C., Canada.
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by Marilyn Wilson

Title

Welcome Home

Artist

Marilyn Wilson

Medium

Photograph

Description

This is a side entrance to the historic Hatley Castle, on the Royal Roads University grounds just outside of Victoria, B.C., Canada.
From www.hatleycastle.com:
"James Dunsmuir commissioned Samuel Maclure, a Victorian architect, to design the �Castle�, and Messrs. Brett and Hall, landscape artists of Boston, Massachusetts, to plan the gardens and surroundings. Local stone, trimmed by Valdez and Saturna Island sandstone was used in the building�s construction. Its impressive exterior is matched only by the lavishness of the interior appointments; oak and rosewood panelled rooms, baronial fireplace, teak floors, and specially made lighting fixtures. James is quoted as saying: �Money doesn�t matter, just build what I want.�

The building is 200 feet long and 86 feet wide; the turret is 82 feet high. The wall surrounding the estate, also built of local stone, cost over $75,000; the Conservatory, costing a like amount, was at one time filled with white orchids imported from India; a large banana tree grew in the centre under the dome. The rooms of the house were filled with flowers from the Conservatory throughout the year. Ten kilometres of road interlaced the estate, and a hundred men were employed in the gardens. There were a number of other buildings on the estate to provide for the needs of the large household, but many of these have now been demolished: the vast refrigeration plant; the cow stables; the slaughter house and smoke house; the three silos, each of 100 ton capacity; the reserve water tank to the south of Belmont Drive; the old stable near the bridge to the east of the present fields; to say nothing of the Chinatown to accommodate 80 to 120 gardeners. There remain, however, the model dairy and the stables, which were of solid brick and concrete construction. The �Castle� was completed in 1908, and the Dunsmuir family took up residence in that year."

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October 22nd, 2013