Casa Loma, the house on the hill, was designed for wealthy magnate  Sir Henry Pellet, by renowned Toronto-architect E.J. Lennox as a testament to his vast fortune. The construction cost $3.5 million, equivalent to $80 million today), and took 300 workers three years to build. The castle had many interesting features, such as an oven large enough to roast an ox, and several secret passages, like the one that leads to the stables, which housed a top-secret weapons laboratory during the second world war. Pellet’s fortune was fleeting, as his ostentatious display of wealth raised public ire, and had political ramifications. His property taxes were increased two thousand per cent, and his private ownership of Toronto’s electric utility, which was the basis for much of his wealth, was taken over by the province of Ontario. Pellet faced further losses in land speculation, and he and his wife Lady Mary were forced to vacate the premises in 1923 when the City seized the castle for unpaid taxes. But perhaps Pellat never really left, returning after his death to watch over his estate. Rumours have it that he haunts the halls, cutting a ghostly but regal figure. Others have said a lady in white, perhaps Lady Mary, can be seen in her old chambers, where invisible hands clutch shoulders, and sudden chills may pass you over.