Eaton Hall

After Sir John Craig passed away in 1922, Lady Eaton, set her sights on building a retirement home on land they had purchased outside Toronto.  She secured the services of Canadian architects Peter Allward and George Gouinlock to design a country estate in 1932. 

Her new home, Eaton Hall, completed in 1938, sat on a hill in King City, 44 kilometres north of Toronto.  Patterned in the style of a French chateau, the 33,000 square foot mansion sat on a 700 acre parcel of land.  Stones from the nearby Humber River graced its walls.  The total price tag for the 72 room mansion was $380, 581. 

In the 1930's and 1940's, members of the Toronto Hunt Club, later the North York Hunt Club, would meet at Eaton Hall, go riding on the adjacent Pellatt estate, and then reconvene at Eaton Hall for tea.  During the Second World War, from 1944 to 1946, the estate was used by the Canadian Navy as a convalescent home.  After Lady Eaton's death in 1970, the mansion was purchased by Seneca College.  In 1991, the estate became a public hotel and conference centre.

Note:  For more information, read Eaton Hall:  Pride of King Township (https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/eaton-hall-pride-of-king/9781626199347-item.html).

Eaton Hall circa 1940 courtesy http://www.torontoghosts.org/index.php?/20080817233/South-Central-Ontario/King-City-Eaton-Hall.html.