Craigdarroch Castle Victoria

by Bob Christopher

Title

Craigdarroch Castle Victoria

Artist

Bob Christopher

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

The enchanting Craigdarroch Castle,British Columbia, Canada. A big "Shout Out" and "Thank You" to my friend and fellow photographer Bill Cubitt for taking Vivian and I to this historic site located in Victoria. You can also see Bill Cubitt's gallery on Fine Art America.
From Wikipedia...It was constructed in the late 19th century as a family residence for the wealthy coal baron Robert Dunsmuir and his wife Joan. Robert died in April 1889, 17 months before construction on the castle was completed. His sons Alexander and James took over the role of finishing the home after his death. James also commissioned the construction of Victoria's second "castle": Hatley Castle located in Colwood, British Columbia.[2]
Upon the death of Robert Dunsmuir's widow, Joan, the Craigdarroch estate was sold to land speculator Griffith Hughes for $38,000 who subdivided the estate into building lots.[3] To stimulate sales during a slow real estate market, Griffiths announced that the home would be the subject of a raffle, to be won by one of the purchasers of the residential parcels carved from the estate. The winner, Solomon Cameron, mortgaged the home to finance other speculative ventures which failed, leaving him broke, and in 1919 ownership of the home passed to one of Cameron's creditors, the Bank of Montreal.[3]

The building later served as a military hospital, college, offices, and a conservatory, before it was re-purposed into a historical museum in 1979. The museum is currently owned by the Craigdarroch Castle Historical Museum Society, which is a private non-profit society, and is open to the public. The building is a tourist attraction, and receives 150,000 visitors a year.
The building was designated as a National Historic Site of Canada in 1992.
I hope you like my image...Cheers Bob

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April 7th, 2021

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