Road to Marylake, The

Book excerpt: In the early 1900's a gentleman and financier named Sir Henry Mill Pellatt (builder of the famous 'Casa Loma' in Toronto) started to piece together several farms (1,214 acres) to create what he called Lake (or Lac) Marie Farm & Country Estate. The name Marie was to honor his first wife Lady Mary Pellatt (nee Dodgson). Designed to be a place of respite for high society, hunt events and highballs on the verandah (1911-1935) this land came into the ownership of a group of Basilian leaders who took this site of social indulgence and converted into "Marylake Agricultural School and Farm Settlement Association" (now 814 acres). On August 25, 1942, the Agricultural School sold to the Augustinian Father of Ontario (Inc.) and as such, Marylake Monastery, Retreat House and site of Pilgrimage was born.