Discover Toronto's history as told through its plaques

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Casa Loma

Photo by the City of Toronto - Posted September, 2011

Photo and transcription by contributor Wayne Adam - Posted September, 2011

Photo Source - Wikipedia

Attached to this eastbound St. Clair Avenue West transit shelter at Spadina Avenue is this City of Toronto plaque. Here's what it says:

Coordinates: 43.684672 -79.410776

Casa Loma was thought to be pretentious, confused and not a "real" castle. It did not "fit in" with Toronto, and, in addition to the Norman and Scottish style of its towers, there were English, Irish, Italian and Rhenish architectural influences. One criticism cites Casa Loma's architecture as a protest against the ugliness of the Industrial Age. Another states that it reflects the 18th century movement of Gothic Imagination, which grew from academics and architects who rejected the style of "perfection" found in Greek and Roman architecture. Gothic literature, such as Walpole's The "Castle of Otronto", strongly affected gothic architecture, it evoked sentiments of the time: a pervading sense of fear, melodrama, high romance, the exotic, supernatural horror and irrationality. In this regard, Casa Loma is not fake, but a true work of fiction.

Related webpages
Casa Loma

More Toronto buildings designed by E.J. Lennox
House of Industry
The King Edward Hotel
Massey-Harris Company
Mount Pleasant Cemetery
"Old" City Hall
Queen City Yacht Club
Standard Woollen Mills Building

More
Residential buildings

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