Beyond the Game: Toronto’s Casa Loma

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - SiriusXM and Atlas Obscura

This episode explores Casa Loma, Toronto’s iconic castle, through the rise and fall of its original owner, Sir Henry Pellatt. Once a symbol of wealth and ambition, the castle now serves as a public tourist attraction.

Key takeaways

• Pellatt's fortune collapsed due to war-era economic shifts and public ownership of electricity.
• The castle's grand design reflected his desire to create a true aristocratic estate in Canada.
• Despite his downfall, Pellatt was respected, dying with full military honors.

Transcript preview

This episode is presented by Hilton. Hilton for the stay. Hilton helps travelers feel confident in where they stay by delivering care, ease, and personalization. And this summer, they're helping us explore cool and unusual stories from host cities during the biggest tournament in the world. own city of Toronto. So, Caseloma, it's our castle on the hill. It's like the fanciest building in Toronto, or maybe Drake's house. Anyway, I have actually lived here in Toronto on and off for about 20 years and every time I thought about going to this place, my feeling was, eh. It's one of those things where, you know, when you live really close to a tourist attraction, you can always go later. I just took it for granted. But also, if I'm honest, I wasn't expecting much. I knew the basic story. There was a very rich man who tried to build a modern day castle, but before he had the chance to totally finish it, he lost all his money, lost his castle, and today people go there for like an afternoon of sightseeing. So when I thought of this place, I kind of pictured like a 20th century McMansion and like was not interested. And yet, I'm assuming that because we're here talking today, something must have changed. Okay, I don't know how much you want me to lift the curtain, but you forced me to go. That's like what happened. But you know, once you suggested it, I figured I really should see this place at least one time. It's like at the top of every visit Toronto list. Yeah. So you're welcome, actually. So I wrote the Casa Loma Com's team and asked if I could take a look. And that's how I ended up getting my own private tour of the place. Wow. You're extra welcome. So, you. So, you're of exciting. I ended up going one beautiful spring day a few weeks ago, early morning, and having now been, I have to say I got some things right about Casa Loma, but I also got a lot wrong. I'm Ella Fetter, this is Alice Obscura. And I'm Johanna Mayer, senior producer of the show. And today we share the story of Casa Loma and the spectacular fall of its would be king. So it sounds like the way that you described it earlier. Casa Loma is a pretty classic riches to rags story. Not rags to riches, riches to rags. This is like people's second favorite type of story. I think people like it better than a rags to riches story. I think that tell us is a lot about one's personality, which they prefer. Yeah, this is a richest-rag story, and it's the reason we get to enjoy this place today, because a very rich man, the man who used to own it. Doesn't live there anymore. Mm-mm. His name was Henry Pellet, and I want to take us back to a time before the fall. 1999, Henry was 50 years old. He was like a short man with a round face and a thick statement mustache, and he had been knighted. So he was Sir Henry Pellet. for his, he did work commanding the Queen's Own Rifles, which was a regiment of part-time soldiers, very proud of this, often wearing his dark green military uniform. So 1999 he has his knighthood, he's married to a woman who, by all accounts he actually loved, and he was one of the richest men in Canada. I've seen estimates that he owned a quarter of our country's economy. How did he make all his money? when he joined his dad's stockbrokerage. And then Henry went on to make money on like everything. Over the years he invested in railroads, breweries, mining, a mogul. Yes, one of his most important investments, or at least most important for the public, was electricity. Toronto at the turn of the century, it was still transitioning from, you know, your classic Victorian type city with horse-drawn carriages and gas lamps, to the kind of modern electric everything we have today. And Henry and his business partners, they played a big part in bringing electricity to Toronto. His company's installed electric street lamps, but