Sir Henry Pellatt built Casa Loma with Home Bank loans, the bank failed, and Toronto took the castle for unpaid taxes

Henry Pellatt was a Toronto stockbroker, knighted in 1905, who made money in electric power and Cobalt silver. Work on the main building of Casa Loma, his castle on a Toronto hill, began in late 1909. Estimates of its cost run up to $3.5 million. Much of his spending ran through loans from the Home Bank. On 30 November 1915 he owed it $2,191,732.81. From 1919 to 1921 bank officials rebuked him for deceiving them on land deals and skimming funds; he had borrowed from nine institutions. In 1913 the city ended his fixed tax assessment and his taxes rose sixfold. In 1923 he set up a holding company that gave the Home Bank control of his assets. The bank failed in August 1923, and the Pellatts moved out. Lady Pellatt died on 15 April 1924. The government inquiry into the bank opened the next day. In June 1924 the castle's contents, legally part of her estate, were auctioned. Investors ran the house briefly as a hotel. The city took it over for unpaid taxes. Pellatt died in 1939 in the home of his former chauffeur, and his son inherited an empty estate. The Kiwanis Club ran Casa Loma as a tourist site from 1937 to 2011. In 2026 the City of Toronto owns it and Liberty Entertainment Group operates it under a long-term lease signed in 2014.