A Home Fit For A Prime Minister

I left off yesterday here at the shores of Kingsmere Lake. I wanted this shot of the steps, and I liked having people in the shot.

I headed back up the slope towards Kingswood. This view includes the pergola and the garage.

My path led me on towards Moorside, the other residence built after Kingswood. Another of these signs stood along the path, with another quote from King: 'Apart and alone with God, with nature.'

Here we see Moorside at a distance, across the meadow. King had become Liberal leader after Wilfred Laurier's death, and would become the Prime Minister in 1921, a post that he held, with a couple of interruptions in which the post was in the hands of Tory opponents, until 1948. While his in-town residence at Laurier House was fine for entertaining guests and conducting business, the cottages of Kingswood weren't enough for a rising government leader, and so Moorside was built, more of a proper home on the estate. King was a gentleman farmer here at his estate, gradually shaping the land as time and opportunity allowed, adding gardens and follies to his property.

Closer to the house, I noticed the birdhouse across the path. This is not the only one on the grounds at the estate.

Here are two views of the house. King hosted visitors, including friends and world leaders, and worked  from his office when here on the weekends or in the summer.

This view from the verandah looks towards the gardens, which I'll show tomorrow. Inside the house on the ground floor is a tea room, which was open- something else to be seen before I'm done here. I've been here on numerous occasions, and for whatever reason I was under the impression that the rest of the house was staff only, but that's not the case. Some of it is a museum to King, with the rooms preserved with artifacts from the man himself.

Some of those items are on the ground floor in what would have been the main entrance in King's day. One of his hats, comic books about him from the period, and tools from the estate are in a display case.

Above them in the case are photographs and telegrams tied to King. The photograph at the left features Jacques Greber, the landscape architect King hired to devise a new urban plan for the National Capital Region. The photograph at the left is from the Quebec Conference in 1943. At left, King is sitting with the governor-general at the time, Alexander Cambridge, the Earl of Athlone. Franklin Roosevelt is in the centre, with Princess Alice, the Earl's wife beside him, and Winston Churchill at the right.

Upstairs, rooms are open for viewing, furnished as they were in King's time.

The study particularly appealed to me. Period newspapers and portraits of King are among the items here. Other pictures on the wall are those that belonged to King.