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Oakes Hall
Sir Harry Oakes, the mining millionaire, bought this estate on the Niagara Parkway on July 15, 1924. He hired the architectural firm of Findlay and
Foulis, the same architects who designed the new Table Rock House, to design the 37 room Tudor style baronial edifice that is present day Oak Hall. The reconstruction took four years and in 1928 the
Oakes family moved in. The Oakes family lived in Oak Hall for six years until Harry Oakes, annoyed by the inroads that taxes were making on his income, wound up his affairs in Canada and moved his family
to England. In 1935 he moved to Nassau in the Bahamas and it was while he was living there in 1939, that he was created a baronet by King George VI and became Sir Harry Oakes. On July 8, 1943 he died
tragically in the Bahamas.
In 1943 Lady Eunice Oakes, Sir Harry's widow, deeded Oak Hall to the Government of Canada to be used as a convalescent hospital for the Royal Canadian Air Force.
When there was no longer a need for convalescent facilities, the Federal Government deeded it back to Lady Oakes in 1952. The Niagara Parks Commission purchased the estate on May 25, 1959. For the next
few years the building was used only for public displays put on by the Niagara District Art Association. In 1964 the Commission furnished several rooms on the ground floor, with furniture which Sir Harry
Oakes had purchased from the estate of Dr. Harry Y. Grant. Three of the Oak Hall Administration Building rooms found on the first floor are open to the public. They can be viewed Monday to Friday from
8:45 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. with the exception of those times when meetings are taking place. Arrangements for special tours of the building are handled by the Communications Department.
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