Casa Loma

Our second day in Toronto was a pretty rainy one so it was perfect for a visit to Casa Loma. It was built as a private residence for Henry Pellet after he made fortunes on investing in railway and new technology. 

The castle has 98 rooms (many of which were not completed because Henry unfortunately went bankrupt and sold the castle many years later).

The Doors to the Castle

The most beautiful room in my personal opinion

The boiler room that was in the secret tunnel

The underground tunnel led from the main castle to the garage & stables across the street. Why not walk outside you might ask? Obsessed with new technology, Henry was trying to build sonar with the help of the government. They used the underground passageway to transport materials between buildings without being detected!

Garage and Stables

Not to be confused with the actual castle. This is a view of the garage and stables (where the underground tunnel led to). 

Model-T collection

Henry loved cars (new technology, seeing a theme?) and had a huge collection including a few versions of the Model T.

Stables

The most beautiful stables I had ever seen. The bricks were laid in a particular style of herringbone so that the horses' hooves wouldn't slip when wet. (not sure how the design helped prevent that, but I bought it).

Horse stall

Each horse had their own name plate, and water and hay troughs.

Chauncey one of the ornate garages

Old Ford

Ok, I have to stop and tell you this hilarious story about Henry and his obsession with cars. So one day, Henry bought some brand new car he wanted to show off and took his whole family in it to downtown Toronto. But when they got there, he realized he didn't know how to stop the car! (I don't remember exactly why, but it had some new technology that he wasn't yet familiar with). So he drove in circles around downtown yelling at the townspeople to stack a pile of hay for him to crash into! Eventually they did, and he in fact had to crash into a barrel of hay to stop the car. HA!

The library

The swanky room

Ok, I don't actually remember what this room was called or used for, but I've named it the swanky room.

Climbing the towers

If you wanted to get to the highest part of the castle, the two towers, you had to climb these super narrow spiral staircases. 

View of the Tower

Upon going up many flights of floor and very narrow spiral staircases, we climbed to the top of each tower. This photo was taken from the top of one looking at the other.

Downtown Toronto

The view of the city from the top of one of the towers.

Again, very narrow passageways

My fave

I love this photo because it captures so much about the castle. The view of downtown, the old style of the tower window, and the duress of graffiti that the castle endured throughout its life post-Henry.

We spent probably two hours here on a rainy day and it was such a great way to spend our time. They also have an escape game you can sign up for where you try to escape the castle with a bunch of clues at night. How fun would that be! Maybe next time..