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The Abbot of Kingsmere

By Peter Coffman

“The Abbey”, the crown jewel of Mackenzie King’s ruins at his country estate just outside Ottawa.

One of the strangest architectural monuments in the whole national capital region is the set of pseudo-ruins that Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King cobbled together at his country estate, Kingsmere (now within Gatineau Park).

What on earth was he thinking? Where did he get his ideas? I tackled these and other questions in a public talk I gave for Heritage Ottawa last week, and that talk is now available online on YouTube – and immediately below.

Enjoy!

Peter Coffman, History & Theory of Architecture program
peter.coffman@carleton.ca
@petercoffman.bsky.social