Casa Loma: Millionaires, Medievalism, and Modernity in Toronto's Gilded Age

E.J. Lennox designed Casa Loma for Sir Henry Pellatt and Mary, Lady Pellatt as an enormous castellated mansion that overlooked the booming metropolis of Toronto. It was a statement of Canada's association with empire and a British legacy. The book charts the history of Casa Loma from its purchase in 1903 to its sale and transformation into an entertainment venue. It includes unpublished archival images and documentation of the house's visual and material culture.

Format: Hardback
Length: 336 pages
Publication date: 31 October 2023
Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press

E.J. Lennox, a renowned architect, created Casa Loma as an immense castle-like mansion for Sir Henry Pellatt and Mary, Lady Pellatt, overlooking the bustling city of Toronto. This Canadian landmark is the subject of the first scholarly book dedicated to it, Casa Loma, which places the famous "house on the hill" within the architectural, urban, and cultural history of Toronto. Casa Loma was not just a grand residence for the self-proclaimed "Lord Toronto," but also a symbol of Canada's connection with the empire, a celebration of the country's British heritage. During and after the Pellatts' occupancy, Casa Loma became a prominent landmark, and it has since permeated the city's iconography and collective memory. The reception of Casa Loma, which Torontonians have both loved and despised, reflects many of the city's major aspirations and anxieties about itself as a modern metropolis.

This book spans ten chapters, tracing the history of Casa Loma from the acquisition of the estate atop Davenport Ridge in 1903 and its construction from 1906 to its sale and the dispersal of its contents in 1924, its subsequent life as a hotel, and finally its transformation into one of the city's major entertainment venues. Casa Loma sheds light on a wealth of previously unpublished archival images and documentation of the house's visual and material culture, weaving together a rich account of the design, use, and life of this unique building throughout the twentieth century.

Dimension: 229 x 229 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780228014560