Forever Knight War 15: Casa Loma

War 15 honours the twentieth anniversary of the first Forever Knight War; and it therefore concludes with a magnificent celebration. This is held at Casa Loma—one of the most frequently used locations for scenes in the series.

Casa Loma was built in the early twentieth century by a Toronto multimillionaire, Sir Henry Pellatt. Because of its battlements, halls, and secret passages, it is often advertised as “Canada’s castle”. However, it would be more accurate to call it an extravagant, enormous mansion in the neo-Gothic style. Building it effectively bankrupted Pellatt; and the building is now the property of the City of Toronto. It is leased to the Kiwanis Club, which runs it as a tourist attraction, hospitality venue, and film site.

The name “Casa Loma” means Hill House, which is very appropriate. Although the main entrance on the north side comes in on the level, to the south there is a steep hill running down to Davenport Road. This is part of an escarpment that marks the lake level in the ice age, and runs right across downtown Toronto. (In fact, it’s the same hill where Schanke crashed Nick’s car in “Dark Knight”, though that occurred a few streets to the east.) The Baldwin Steps are a public stairway that runs up the hill from the road below.

Links

Tour of Casa Loma (with floor plans)
Casa Loma website
Photos of Casa Loma in Wikimedia Commons
Baldwin Steps (Wikipedia article)

Map

Street map of the area around Casa Loma.

Photo Gallery

Exterior:

The main entrance.

Roof and battlements;
view to the south.

Exterior detail.

Interior:

The Great Hall.

The Conservatory.

The Round Room.

The Oak Room.

Lady Pellatt’s Suite.

The Guest Suite.

The second floor hallway.

Servant’s room.

The secret passageway.

Under the roof.

The photographs of Casa Loma all come from Wikimedia Commons. The picture of Casa Loma in winter is in the public domain. The picture of the main entrance was taken by Deror avi. The picture of the roof was taken by Niels Elgaard Larsen, and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license. The two pictures of exterior details were taken by Saharalipour, and are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. The picture of the Great Hall and the underroof were taken by Laslovarga and are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. The pictures of the Conservatory, Round Room, Oak Room, Lady Pellatt’s suite, and Guest Suite were taken by Steven V. Rose and licensed under either the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license or the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States license. The picture of the second floor hallway was taken by John Vetterli and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license. The pictures of the servant’s room and secret staircase were taken by Michael Barera and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.