Moxham Castle, King's Road, Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada
When Helen Moxham arrived in Sydney, in the spring of 1900, her beloved castle was waiting for her. She had left a comfortable life in Ohio, and followed her husband Arthur to Nova Scotia, because he was appointed general manager of the Dominion Iron and Steel Company. Also in Sydney were their four grown children, two sons and two daughters.
The boys, Tom and Egbert, both worked at the new steel plant, under the supervision of their father. Tom was the supervisor in charge of construction, as there were several parts of the huge plant that were not yet finished. He and his wife Ellen also lived on Kings Road, in a new house that had been built for them by Arthur Moxham.
Little more than one year later, in June of 1901, tragedy struck the Moxham family when Tom was killed while working at the steel plant. While supervising a construction project in the rail yard, he was accidentally run over by a train. His was waked in the great hall of Moxham Castle, and then his remains were taken by train to Louisville, Kentucky, were he was buried in the family plot.
Only two months later, tragedy would again strike the Moxham family. Toms wife Ellen, and their newborn son, both died during childbirth. Once again the distraught family made the sad train trip back to Louisville, where mother and son were interred next to Tom, in the local cemetery.
Needless to say, both Helen and Arthur Moxham were devastated by this unfortunate turn of events. Arthur quickly lost interest in managing the Sydney steel plant, and less than a year later resigned his position, and the family returned to the United States. They did not sell Moxham Castle, however, and returned for a few months each summer, up until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.
For the duration of the war (1914-1918), Arthur Moxham donated the castle to the Canadian government, to be used as a rehabilitation hospital for wounded servicemen. After the war the family lost interest in the castle, and it was sold in 1922 to M.R. Chappell of Sydney. In 1942 the castle was sold to W.R. (Went) MacDonald, who lived in it until the property was turned over to the city of Sydney in the late 1950s. After sitting vacant for several years, and suffering a great deal of damage from vandals, Moxham Castle was destroyed by fire in 1966.
This write up appeared in the Cape Breton Feb 18, 2010 written by Rannie Gillis
29 сен 2024
