architecture & Design
Joan Dunsmuir
It is hard to believe that I, the daughter of a Kilmarnock spade-maker, wound up living in a home such as this. Robert and I came from respectable backgrounds, but not from wealth. We came to Vancouver Island in the early days of its colonization by Hudson’s Bay Company, and though we had a three year contract to work the mines, we ended up staying forever, and raising our 10 children here.
Craigdarroch’s design and furnishing is meant to echo the aesthetic of aristocratic homes back in Great Britain, and demonstrate what ordinary people can achieve through hard work here in North America. We are not, however, aristocrats, and I wonder if in our efforts to make our home reflect our new status and incorporate the latest technology we haven’t made it a trifle too ostentatious.
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