Qualla: Casa Loma

Casa Loma: Introduction

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lucastphotography, CC BY 4.0. The oven was large enough to roast an entire ox. The basement held bowling lanes, a swimming pool, and a shooting range -- none of which were ever finished. Two secret passages hid behind the walls of the ground-floor study, and an underground tunnel ran 800 feet to the stables. Casa Loma, the 98-room Gothic Revival castle perched on an escarpment above midtown Toronto, was the fever dream of Sir Henry Pellatt, a financier who poured $3.5 million into constructing the largest private residence in Canada, only to be driven from it by taxes less than ten years later.

Read more: Casa Loma on Qualla

Image: Lucastphotography | CC BY 4.0

Casa Loma: A Castle Born of Ambition

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0. Henry Pellatt purchased 25 lots on Davenport Hill in 1903, then commissioned E. J. Lennox -- the architect behind Old City Hall and other Toronto landmarks -- to design something unprecedented. Construction began in 1911 with the massive stables and the Hunting Lodge, a two-store...

Read more: Casa Loma on Qualla

Image: Dennis G. Jarvis | CC BY-SA 2.0

Casa Loma: Fortune Lost on the Hill

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lafc0105, CC0. Pellatt's downfall came swiftly. During the postwar depression, the City of Toronto raised Casa Loma's property taxes from $600 per year to $1,000 per month. Already strained, Pellatt auctioned off $1.5 million in art and $250,000 in furnishings before abandoning the mansion in 1...

Read more: Casa Loma on Qualla

Image: Lafc0105 | CC0

Casa Loma: The Soldier Who Built a Castle

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Nhl4hamilton (Rick Cordeiro), Public domain. Pellatt was more than a financier with extravagant taste. He joined the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada as a common rifleman and rose through the ranks to commanding officer, eventually earning a knighthood for his dedication to the regiment. He later served as honorary colonel and ...

Read more: Casa Loma on Qualla

Image: Nhl4hamilton (Rick Cordeiro) | Public domain

Casa Loma: Hollywood's Favorite Castle

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit K man21 at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. Casa Loma's Gothic turrets and grand interiors have made it one of Canada's most filmed locations. It doubled as Wayne Manor in the DC series Titans, stood in for sinister mansions in Guillermo del Toro's Crimson Peak and the thriller Ready or Not, and appeared in X-Men, Chicago,...

Read more: Casa Loma on Qualla

Image: K man21 at English Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

Casa Loma: A Castle Reborn

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Priscilla Jordão from São Paulo, Brasil, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Kiwanis Club of Casa Loma managed the property for 74 years, from 1937 to 2011, opening it as a public museum. A 15-year, $33-million exterior restoration ran from 1997 to 2012. In 2014, Liberty Entertainment Group took over under a new long-term lease, investing $7.4 million...

Read more: Casa Loma on Qualla

Image: Priscilla Jordão from São Paulo, Brasil | CC BY-SA 2.0