The Dunsmuir Saga

After telling a coworker that I had visited Craigdarroch Castle she showed up with the book, The Dunsmuir Saga by Terry Reksten. To tell the truth I wasn’t really interested in learning anymore about the family or reading the book, but, I took the book home. While flipping through it I did become interested in two family members: Elinor Dunsmuir (1887-1938) and Dola Dunsmuir (1903-1966). Both were daughters of James Dunsmuir (1851-1920) who was the son of Robert Dunsmuir (1825-1889) who built Craigdarroch. Elinor liked to dress in men’s clothes and smoke cigars. She was also probably the smartest and best read in the family. From the book: “She found female friends who shared her preferences, women who favoured tweed jackets and jodhpurs, and who, like Elinor, wore their hair cut short and blunt.” Sounds like a character you would want to get to know.

Dola was the youngest of James’ daughters and she was smitten with and had a 40 year friendship with Tallulah Bankhead (1902 – 1968). The book describes their relationship as “In the topsy-turvy, day for night world in which Tallulah spun, Dola was the pale moon revolving around her.” Bankhead had a long career, but, for the culturally challenged like me, I think of her as the Black Widow villainess ("Batman, dahling...") in Batman and her appearance on an I Love Lucy episode (dinner scene).

Royal BC Museum, Victoria

Sunday, after a nice breakfast at Abigail’s Hotel, we walked over to the Royal BC Museum . The museum is located at 675 Belleville Street, almost at the harbor’s edge and between the Parliament Buildings and the Empress Hotel. We had heard that this was a definite-not-to-miss place and we’ll have to agree that it was pretty special. 

First, where did the “royal” come from in its name? In 1987 following the museum’s 100th birthday, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, gave it the new name directly from Queen Elizabeth II. Don’t forget that Canada is in the Commonwealth of Nations that each has Elizabeth II as their monarch. 

We started in the Natural History Gallery and were immediately wowed by the exhibits. Note the woolly mammoth exhibit has real ice! I think after wandering around there we finally know our Thuja plicata (western red cedar) from our Tsuga heterophylla (western hemlock) from our Pseudotsuga menzieisii (Douglas fir). 

Next was the Ocean Station exhibit, which was pretty cool. Kids were running around playing with everything and it certainly satisfies them, but there’s a lot for adults too. (I felt a little bad for elbowing out a little kid to look through the microscope, but it had to be done since she was hogging it.) The exhibit was cleverly designed to feel like you were in an underwater exploration vessel. 

Next on the list was the First Peoples Gallery which again, was well done. Usually Northwest Native American exhibits always leave me cold (for example, the Seattle Art Museum’s never has worked for us) but here it was very interesting. Maybe because here it’s done through an anthropological lenses and it’s not in an art museum. I found I was reading about different aspects of First Peoples’ life and was truly interested and thought wow, some of this stuff is beautiful, without be told explicitly: this is art.

After an interesting IMAX movie break and lunch at the nice café in the museum, we tackled the Modern History Gallery. Again, it was interesting for sure and well executed, but it felt a little like a strange cross between Disney and Westworld (Remember that movie? Here’s the trailer to jog your memory). I kept expecting Yul Brynner to start chasing us through the streets of the small faux town.

Art Gallery of Greater Victoria

Left: Don Jean-Louis - Silver Works. Right: Emily Carr - "Odds and Ends" (1939)

On the way back from Craigdarroch we stopped at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. The gallery is about a 10 minute walk from the castle and is located at 1040 Moss Street. On coming to the front of the gallery you might be taken aback by the fact that a very modern looking structure has grown out of a Victorian mansion – like very unlikely Siamese twins. The Spencer Mansion was built in 1889 and was donated by Miss Sarah Spencer in 1951 to become the Art Gallery. As the collection grew new exhibition spaces were added between 1955 and 1978.

Exhibit-wise there were a couple of things going on: an exhibit by Don Jean-Louis called Silver Works, an exhibit called Lot in Life which explored activities we do to survive, Lab 8.3: Reconstitution by Nicholas and Sheila Pye – a video installation representing a modern triptych, and an exhibit called Emily Carr and her Contemporaries. Emily Carr (1871 - 1945) was one of Canada’s most beloved artists. She was also the mentor of Myfanwy Pavelic (1916 – 2007) best known for her portrait paintings. Both Carr and Pavelic were Victoria-born and Victoria is rightfully very proud of them.

A quote from the Lot in Life exhibit by Baron Grocott (1940 - ), a Labour Party Politician in the United Kingdom: “I have long been of the opinion that if work were such a splendid thing the rich would have kept more of it to themselves.”

Craigdarroch Castle, Victoria

The first thing we did after checking into Abigail’s Hotel in Victoria was to head off to Craigdarroch Castle located at 1050 Joan Crescent Road. It’s about 20-30 minute walk from the hotel. We actually stopped on the way and had Thai food at a place that I don’t recall, but it is located next to a nice little bakery called Bubby Rose’s Bakery and Café at 1022 Cook St. We stopped at the café on the way back for coffee and snacks and it was good. 

The castle, how was it? It was interesting. We don’t turn down the opportunity to snoop around a castle when it arises. However, the castle didn’t really seemed to have that much “people history” and really is more interesting as an example of a Victorian-era house of the late 19th century. Houses of this period, built by rich industrialists, are sometimes referred to as “bonanza castles”. This bonanza castle was built between 1887 and 1890 for the Scottish immigrant turned coal baron Robert Dunsmuir (1825 – 1889), but he died before it was completed and he never lived there. His widow Joan lived there for 18 years and then after her death it was sold. Some of the items today in the house were purchased back from the big garage sale after Mrs. Dunsmuir’s death and others are of the same time period. The castle then went through a series of different uses in the 20th century. 

It’s interesting to note that much of the castle’s components (design, paneling, stained glass, etc.) came from the US. Might one infer that Dunsmuir wanted to show his American counterparts that he too could have good American craftsmanship? Craigdarroch means “rocky, oak place” in the Gaelic language which we think describes the site of that the castle is situated on. The castle used to sit on 28 acres. Today it is down to 1.75 acres and his hemmed in by a mix of housing, some nice and some not so nice. Old Dunny must be sighing.

Abigail’s Hotel, Victoria

For our first foray outside the country in a while we choose something nearby: Victoria, BC. We took a one night Clipper Vacation and had a good time. We hit two museums (Royal BC Museum and the Art Gallery of Greater Victory) and one castle (Craigdarroch) and in general had a relaxing weekend.

The hotel included in the Clipper Vacation package was Abigail’s Hotel on 906 McClure Street. It’s about a 10 minute walk from where the clipper docks in Victoria. It’s a distance you can easily walk with a backpack or a small amount of luggage. We stayed in the hotel’s “coach house” and were happy. The Sunday breakfast was great and enough to keep you going all day.