While Craigdarroch Castle is a splendid example of a Victorian “bonanza castle,” it has many stories to tell from its several lives. One era should not be overlooked in favour of another.
More of the historic structure’s stories should be told, and plans being drawn up by the Craigdarroch Castle Historical Museum Society should accomplish that.
The dilemma of restoring and maintaining a historic building is this — history isn’t one frozen moment in time, it accumulates in layers. Which layer do you preserve and which do you strip away?
The castle was built by the Dunsmuir family in the late 19th century on a 28-acre estate overlooking Victoria. It was more than a home — it was a statement.
Robert Dunsmuir came to Vancouver Island from Scotland in 1851 to work for the Hudson’s Bay Company as an indentured coal miner for $5 a week. Ruthless and harshly anti-union, he became the richest man in B. C., in sole control of an empire worth about $400 million in today’s dollars. Craigdarroch Castle was built to ensure that everyone knew of his wealth and importance.
Dunsmuir never lived in his castle. He died in 1889, the year before the castle was completed, but his family occupied the mansion for the next 18 years, generating an abundant supply of stories of the rich-and-famous genre.
After the death of Dunsmuir’s widow, Joan, in 1908, the estate was sold to a real estate speculator who subdivided the property, creating 144 residential lots.
To stimulate sales, the castle was offered as a raffle prize to be won by one of the lot purchasers. The man who won the castle mortgaged it to finance other ventures, but those ventures failed, and the Bank of Montreal took ownership of the castle.
From 1919 to 1921, Craigdarroch was a military hospital for wounded soldiers returning from the First World War. More stories.
From 1921 to 1946, the castle was occupied by Victoria College. Alumni include noted pharmacologist Frances Oldham Kelsey, whose research resulted in the banning of the pregnancy drug thalidomide in the U.S. and many other countries.
Still living in the U.S. at the age of 100, Kelsey has been awarded many honours, including the Distinguished Federal Civilian Service medal, the highest recognition the U.S. bestows on civilians.
Others who walked Craigdarroch’s halls when it was Victoria College include historian and journalist Pierre Berton and Haida Gwaii artist Bill Reid.
The next era might not produce many lively stories, but the castle still had an important function — it housed the offices of the Victoria School Board from 1946 to 1968. The school board had bought the building from the Bank of Montreal in 1929.
The castle was home to the Victoria Conservatory of Music from 1969 to 1979. You can still see the gouges in the floor from the endspikes of cellos, artifacts from another layer of history.
When the castle became a museum in 1979, the work began on restoring it to its original splendour. That work continues with the plans announced this week by the museum society, and which include restoring the kitchen, now occupied by the gift shop, and dedicating a room to the castle’s role as a military hospital.
While the opulence of the Dunsmuir era rightly dominates the atmosphere at Craigdarroch, the other stages in the life of the castle have worthwhile stories to tell. They chronicle important events and significant people, and remind us that the history of a place is not some disconnected, static moment in the past.
The $2-million estimate for the Craigdarroch improvements seems modest at a time when a project doesn’t seem important unless it costs hundreds of millions of dollars, but the value of the work on this heritage treasure goes far beyond its price.
