Trafalgar Castle School - Yearbook (Whitby, Ontario Canada)

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Chapter Two Building the Sheriff ' s Castle According to an old legend, jealousy con- tributed in part to the building of Trafalgar Castle. Sheriff Reynolds and John Ham Perry, the Registrar of Ontario County, were rivals who constantly tried to outdo each other when- ever the opportunity arose. It is said when the Prince of Wales visited Whitby in 1860, the two men raced their carriages to the harbor, the winner being the one to convey the prince to the boat for Toronto. Perry won the race and managed to squeeze his carriage into line ahead of Reynolds and the carriage prepared for the prince by the town council. In the summer of 1857 while Reynolds was on a visit to England, Perry built himself a magnificent residence in the Italianate style, which became the talk of the town. It had stained glass windows, silver door handles and hinges, and the first gas lights ever seen in Whitby. When Reynolds returned to see Perry ' s castle he was said to be so jealous that he set out to build his own castle on an even grander scale. Sheriff Reynolds chose Toronto architect Joseph Sheard to build Trafalgar Castle, and A. W. Cron of Whitby as the general contrac- tor. Mr. Sheard had erected many fine buildings in Toronto, now all demolished, and was mayor of that city in 1871-72. Several other contractors were obtained from Toronto and Whitby for the masonry, stone work and carpentry. As many as 70 men at a time were employed in building Trafalgar Castle but no accidents or quarrels were reported because the sheriff had forbidden the use of liquor on the premises. The cost of Trafalgar Castle was an astounding $70,000. By com- parison, a bank building of the same period cost $6, 000 and a substantial home, $2, 000. Trafalgar Castle was built in the Eliza- bethan style, with battlements, turretted towers, and even secret chambers--all the attributes of a real English castle. It is inter- esting to note that Sir Henry Pellatt, whose Casa Loma in Toronto is better known, was born in the year that Trafalgar Castle was begun. The castle stands today much as when it was built, except for the removal of the ser- vants ' wing, and the additions constructed in later years. Two large stone lions flank the front entrance which is crowned with the sheriff ' s coat of arms cut in stone. Entering through the main door, one finds a small vestibule with large bronze lamps in the form of Indians on each side of the doors to the main hall. In the sheriff ' s time a fountain was lo- cated here, supplied with water from a reser- voir in the attic. The oak doors to the main hall and the front rooms are set with hand- painted glass imported from England, in a pattern of yellow roses, with a Canadian beaver over the main door. The main hall is 105 feet long, leading from the entrance to the grand staircase. To the left of the front door was the sheriff ' s office and library, now the board room of the Ontario Ladies ' College. The original carved book- cases are still there along with the white marble fireplace imported from Italy. Across the hall is the reception room, used as a par- lor in the sheriff ' s time. Further down the hall on the left is the massive drawing room, now the study hall, with its magnificent bay window. Here the glittering receptions of a century ago were held for important visitors. Some of the finest white marble fireplaces of Trafalgar Castle are in this room, carved by Johnathan Wolfenden, a Whitby marble dealer and importer. Opposite the drawing room are the dining room and breakfast parlor, now known as the Common Room, where the college students may relax and meet friends. These rooms were once separated by sliding doors. A butler ' s room and armoury were located in the rooms now used as offices by the Ontario Ladies ' College. The ceilings of the main hall and adjoining rooms are ornamented with moulded plaster, each room being lit by a gaslight chandelier. Along the main hall are niches for statuary, most of which are now empty. Only two of the original white marble statues of little girls remain in their places. Also in the main hall are four oak chairs and two benches, the last of the original furnishings of Trafalgar Castle. G. P. Walter Co. of Bowmanville made the furniture, with the carving being done by a Mr. Maille of Oshawa. On the benches and two of the chairs are carved the sheriff ' s coat of arms consisting of a stag and scallop shell. Another piece of furniture, an octagonal table in the upper hall, is believed to have been the sheriff ' s poker table, and still contains some of his wooden chips. Carpeting for all the rooms was cut to size in England and transpor- ted across the Atlantic Ocean in sailing vessels. At the end of the main hall is the grand staircase of carved oak. At the head of this staircase is the stained glass window which has been an attraction to visitors since the Castle was built. Divided into four parts, the great window bears the coats of arms of England, Ireland, Scotland and Canada, and in the centre, the arms of the Reynolds and Armstrong families. Reynolds ' arms, with the lion, stag and scallop shell bear the motto Jus Meum Tuebor (I will look after my right). The Armstrong motto is Vie et Armis. Adjacent to the coats of arms are the monograms of the Sheriff (NOR) and Mrs. Reynolds (FER). Embossed in the frosted glass at the base of the window are heads re- presenting Queen Elizabeth I and other English monarchs. The monograms OLC below the Reynolds arms were added after the Ontario Ladies ' College was established. The cost of the glass alone for the window was $640. Above the staircase was a great chandelier and pendant weighing 500 pounds. Several years ago the plaster began to loosen and it was re- moved for the sake of safety.

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of the activities of Whitby, acting as a judge at the running of the Queen ' s Plate at a local race track in 1870, as a Warden of St, John ' s Anglican Church, and as a director of the Port Whitby and Port Perry Railway. After the for- mation of the Ontario Ladies ' College in 1874, he served as one of its first directors. A story is told that when the Whitby and Port Perry Railway was suffering financial reverses. Sheriff Reynolds was ordered to seize one of the locomotives. He and his deputy set up a barricade of ties on the tracks near the college road, but the company had heard of his plan and informed the engineer. When he reached the barricade, the engineer stoked up his engine and smashed through the ties, send- ing the sheriff and his deputy running for their lives. Sheriff Reynolds married twice, having 12 children by each wife. In 1834 he married his first wife, Hannah M. Eyre, and after her death he married Frances Eliza Armstrong, daughter of a member of Parliament, in 1852, Of his 24 children, 13 died young. His eldest son, George Nelson Reynolds, served him as deputy sheriff, and laid the cornerstone of Trafalgar Castle. In January 1881, after suffering from ' paralysis for three years, Sheriff Reynolds died, a few days before his 67th birthday. He was buried in the St. John ' s cemetery at Port Whitby, in a grave marked by a tall stone column. Although long since dead, Reynolds left his home, Trafalgar Castle, as a monument to his imagination and creative energy. Nelson G. Reynolds Trafalgar Castle in the 1860s, the original college building. (Photo courtesy of Ontario Archives)

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Whitby. At each side of the corridor adjacent to the conservatory were gentlemen ' s and ladies ' sitting rooms. Large oak folding doors were turned back to make these rooms and the hall into a grand ballroom. The remainder of the floor was devoted to bedrooms, some of which opened onto an iron balcony on the north side of the building over the bay window in the drawing room. These rooms are now sleeping quarters for the ladies ' college students. On the third floor were numerous bedrooms and water reservoirs, and a large billiard room at the end of the hall opening onto a bal- cony over the conservatory. A ladder leads to the roof where a fine view of Whitby and the surrounding country can be seen. In the basement were located the hot and cold air furnaces and large wine and beer cellars, all now sacrificed to modern renova- tions. The wing to the south of the main building, which was demolished in 1894 to build Frances Hall, contained a kitchen, laun- dry, scullery, larder, store room and pantry on the first floor. The second floor contained a nursery, governess ' s room, gymnasium, servants ' rooms, bath rooms and water closets. In the basement was a vegetable cellar. The entire castle was lit with gas manu- factured in a gas house adjacent to the build- ing, and carried through a half-mile of pipes inside the castle. The 73 rooms of Trafalgar Castle were serviced with hot, cold and foul air flues constructed through the towers, and all the main rooms had fireplaces. Thirty- seven bells were installed in the rooms to call servants. The flagstaff tower, where Frances Hall meets the original castle is the source of many legends. It is said that the sheriff hid from his creditors in a secret chamber be- tween the first and second floors, and that a tunnel once ran from the base of the tower across the fields to Lake Ontario. The secret chamber was discovered by some students in Dr. Farewell ' s time and was padlocked for many years afterwards. It was removed several years ago when the base of the tower was remodelled. No conclusive proof has been found for the existence of the tunnel, although there are stories that it was discovered during the building of Highway 401, 30 years ago. It is also said that during the 1950 ' s, a tractor plowing a field south of the college mysterious- ly fell into a gaping hole which opened up under it. The corner stone of Trafalgar Castle, in- scribed NCR, 1859 was located over the south door of the flagstaff tower but was placed on the corner of the tower after the recent renovations. The newspapers of the 1860s praised the castle as the largest private detached mansion on the continent and proudly listed the vast amount of materials used to build it. Among these were 165 cords of rubble stone, 1, 500 square feet of rock face plinth, 2, 500 cubic feet of Ohio free stone, cut, moulded and rubbed; 125, 000 white bricks, 430, 000 red bricks, 1, 500 barrels of reached lime, 1,200 cubic yards of sand, and 275, 000 feet of lum- ber seasoned on the property for a year before building commenced. Trafalgar Castle took three years to build and was ready for occupancy in 1862. To landscape the grounds. Sheriff Reynolds trans- planted about 100 trees from the north part of Whitby Township at a cost of $464. Some of these trees cost $16 to $20 apiece. The castle was the showplace of Whitby during its brief ownership by the sheriff and was the centre of the social life of the Town of Whitby. The sheriff was to be host to a prince and prime minister and countless local dignitaries before he was forced by financial troubles to abandon Trafalgar Castle for a more modest home elsewhere in town. However, he did not lose his interest in the castle, for he served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Ontario Ladies ' College till his death, and visited his former home on many occasions. The grand staircase and window.