Yesterday we had a Deans retreat at the very unique King Campus of Seneca College. This was the "Estate" of a very wealthy Canadian family 70-80 years ago (the Eaton family) from whom Seneca bought the land and original buildings about 20 years ago. Seneca build a campus at the estate which is located near King City, about 50 kilometers north of Toronto. One of the unique programs offered at this campus is "vet technician" (assistant to the animal doctors) and Seneca has a variety of large animals living on the original farm land of the estate. After the planning meetings of the Deans and several other staff members we were treated to a tour of the entire campus (so far I had only seen some parts of the campus).
This is the barn which was built about 100 years ago by the farmer who sold the land to the Eatons and which houses the horses and offers hands-on training space for some of the programs delivered at this campus (which also includes "forensic investigation", a program also making good use of the rural setting of this campus). Police Foundations, Early Childhood Education and Practical Nursing are some of the other programs of Seneca at this campus housing about 3,000 students.
On this photo above to the right in the background you can see the 300 room student residence of this campus and behind the residence is the main campus building.
The campus building seen from the other side of the small lake at the estate. One of the community activities of the King campus are Spring Day camps for elementary and high school students as well as summer camps for individual youngsters. The camp offers all sort of outdoor activities including canoeing, high ropes, and mountain biking (and cross-country skiing during the winter).
These photos are taken inside the Eaton Hall which was a 25 room small conference center. At the moment it is not functional after a severe ice-storm several years ago broke the water-pipes resulting in flooding in most of the rooms. Renovation work is taking place but Seneca lacks the funds at the moment to fully restore the place as a conference center. It was built about 70 years ago and lends its style from the old European castles. It would be great to find somebody who would want to invest the $7-8 million required to fully renovate the place and make it operational again.... :-)
