Scott Paterson
Hatley Castle
Hatley Park is located on traditional territory of the region’s First Nations people. The land is within the area defined by the 1850 Douglas Treaty with the Teechamitsa people. Today, the Songhees, Esquimalt, Scia’new and T’Sou-ke First Nations may have members who are descendants of the Teechamitsa.
The history of the site is one of transition. In the late nineteenth century, Englishman Roland Stuart operated a farm named Hatley Park on the land. He also tapped the springs for a water supply business.
In 1906, coal baron James Dunsmuir, former premier and lieutenant governor of British Columbia, bought the property with his wife Laura. The formal gardens and Hatley Castle, a 40-room mansion designed by noted architect Samuel Maclure, were completed three years later.
The surviving Dunsmuir daughters sold the estate to the Government of Canada in the late thirties. Shortly after that sale, the government established a training college for the Royal Canadian Navy. The college had several names during its 55-year history. In 1968, it was re-named Royal Roads Military College and given a mandate to educate and train officers for the Canadian Forces. Roads is the historical name for a naval anchorage. Waters south-east of Hatley Park are named Royal Roads.
The federal government closed the military college in 1995. The Government of British Columbia leased the site to establish Royal Roads University that same year and the first programs were launched by university in the fall of that year.
Today Hatley Park is considered one of the finest examples of an intact Edwardian estate. In 2001 the federal government designated Hatley Park a National Historic Site.
Hatley Castle
Hatley Park is located on traditional territory of the region’s First Nations people. The land is within the area defined by the 1850 Douglas Treaty with the Teechamitsa people. Today, the Songhees, Esquimalt, Scia’new and T’Sou-ke First Nations may have members who are descendants of the Teechamitsa.
The history of the site is one of transition. In the late nineteenth century, Englishman Roland Stuart operated a farm named Hatley Park on the land. He also tapped the springs for a water supply business.
In 1906, coal baron James Dunsmuir, former premier and lieutenant governor of British Columbia, bought the property with his wife Laura. The formal gardens and Hatley Castle, a 40-room mansion designed by noted architect Samuel Maclure, were completed three years later.
The surviving Dunsmuir daughters sold the estate to the Government of Canada in the late thirties. Shortly after that sale, the government established a training college for the Royal Canadian Navy. The college had several names during its 55-year history. In 1968, it was re-named Royal Roads Military College and given a mandate to educate and train officers for the Canadian Forces. Roads is the historical name for a naval anchorage. Waters south-east of Hatley Park are named Royal Roads.
The federal government closed the military college in 1995. The Government of British Columbia leased the site to establish Royal Roads University that same year and the first programs were launched by university in the fall of that year.
Today Hatley Park is considered one of the finest examples of an intact Edwardian estate. In 2001 the federal government designated Hatley Park a National Historic Site.