This home, now a museum, was built by a man named Dunsmuir. He was into everything - mining, logging, railroads, and real estate. He knew how to push the right buttons in business and politics a century ago and produced many progeny, including misfit alcoholics and lunatics. He was the richest man in British Columbia.
A sad family history. He died before the house was finished. When his wife died the 20 acres high on a Victoria hill were subdivided and sold and the furnishings auctioned. It is now an impressive building refurbished with donations sitting on a tiny plot of land.
One Dunsmuir handled the family interests in California, got his name on a town, and built an estate in Oakland. Unfortuntely he died on his honeymoon.
A very star-crossed family.
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