Bruce Bell, History Columnist –
This past summer was without doubt the busiest tourist season I’ve witnessed in 25 years of conducting walking tours in Old Town. With Taylor Swift, World Cup football (soccer) and a huge influx of European visitors along with our usual American tourists, some days I was so busy I had to turn people away.
However, it all worked out. I feel blessed that I found a second career that I love in the latter part of my life after spending the first half in showbiz: being a tour guide.
The question tourists and locals ask most is how did my love for history begin? I tell them it started with a visit to Oak Hall, the Harry Oakes estate in Niagara Falls, while on a family vacation 62 years ago.
Although my hometown of Sudbury has a rich history in mining, we didn’t have a castle-like estate once owned by the richest man in Canada, Harry Oakes, who was friend to kings and movie stars, and was mysteriously murdered.
That trip in the summer of 1964 inspired the imagination of this 10-year-old historian. It was with my two brothers, and my mom and dad, both of whom were passionate about history.
I remember being enthralled when the tour guide told the story of a massive hand-carved table in the dining room. Unbeknownst to the tour guide, I began repeating the tale to other visitors coming into Oak Hall. The seed was planted.
Oak Hall, now the administrative headquarters of the Niagara Parks Commission, is still open to the public. But it’s only a small part of the story of the man who lived there.
Harry Oakes was born in Sangerville, Maine, in 1874. At the age of 22 in 1896 he headed to the Yukon as part of the Klondike gold rush, but found little success there.
In 1910, Oakes moved on to Kirkland Lake, Ontario, where gold had recently been discovered. Within two years he hit it big with the discovery of an iron ore mine, which he developed along with the three Tough brothers and became a multi-millionaire.
In 1923, 48-year-old Harry met Eunice MacIntyre, 26 years his junior, on a world cruise; they were married within a few months. A year later the couple moved to Niagara Falls, and soon after had five children, all born in Toronto.
In 1928, Harry Oakes built a magnificent manor home on Clark Hill in Niagara Falls at a cost of $500,000 ($25 million today), which he named Oak Hall.
From all accounts Harry Oakes was a difficult man to work for, known for being direct and having an abrasive temper. But he was also brilliant and charitable who throughout his life generously gave back to the communities where he lived.
In 1934, Oakes moved his entire family to Nassau in the Bahamas to escape Canadian taxes of over $3 million per year. He was not only the richest man in Canada but also one of the richest in the world. In the Bahamas the sun always shines and the taxes were low.
On June 8, 1939, King George VI granted him the title of a baronet of the United Kingdom and became known as Sir Harry Oakes.
In 1940 the Duke of Windsor, former King Edward VIII who gave up the throne to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson, was appointed Governor of the Bahamas – reportedly to distance the Nazi-sympathetic duke from England. Upon their arrival, the duke and duchess resided at ‘Wesborne’ the grand seaside estate owned by Sir Harry.
Just before midnight on July 7, 1943, Oakes was found murdered in his bedroom, his 69-year-old body placed in the bed, soaked with gasoline and set ablaze.
It became the ultimate ‘who done it’ with everyone from American gangster Lucky Luciano to Nazi spies being implicated, and whispers of the duke and duchess’s involvement. However, the main suspect was Alfred Fouquereaux de Marigny, Sir Harry’s son-in-law, hated by many Oakes family members and thought to be a gold-digger.
People in Nassau were so convinced of Alfred’s guilt that a rope was ordered for his hanging. But at the subsequent trial, he was acquitted of the charge. To this day the murder of Harry Oakes remains a mystery.
After Sir Harry’s death, the site of his seaside estate became the Ambassador Beach Hotel, which was transformed into Hugh Heffner’s Playboy Casino in 1978. It closed in 1983, then became the present Breezes Bahamas Resort.
A few years back I was in Nassau walking about the grounds of the Breezes Resort, where I was staying. In the overgrown brush of a secluded and forgotten section of the resort, I stumbled across a weather-beaten plaque attached to an old shed that read … “Herein Lies the only existing remnant of Wesborne, the residence of Sir Harry Oakes, A Canadian miner”. I had come full circle.
Today both Niagara Falls and Nassau have parks and gardens named for Oakes. The man is buried in the family crypt in his hometown of Sangerville, Maine, but his stately Oak Hall continues to dominate the cliff above the Dufferin Islands Nature Area in Niagara Falls.
