For sale: the final residence of Tsar Nicholas II’s last surviving sibling

Started by snokitty, November 22, 2014, 06:56:39 PM

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snokitty

For sale: the final residence of Tsar Nicholas II?s last surviving sibling ? a dilapidated semi in Toronto | National Post
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If the end result of a war is an exchange of territory, the outcome of a revolution is ultimately the exchange of real estate. The house at 716 Gerrard Street East is an apt illustration of the downward mobility of the politically displaced.

Listed last week on MLS, the modest two-story Riverdale semidetached was the final residence of the Tsar Nicholas II's last surviving sibling, Grand Duchess Olga Alexandranova. The highest ranking member of the Russian imperial family to emigrate to North America, Olga convalesced in the care of Russian friends who ran the beauty shop on the main floor.

She was bedridden for a year and ate nothing but ice cream, according to Nick Barisheff, who was 15 when the 78-year-old duchess succumbed to cancer in his family's apartment. She died in the upstairs front bedroom Nov. 24, 1960, 54 years ago this coming Monday.

It was a step down for the Grand Duchess, whose palace of birth, Peterhof, is also known as the "Russian Versailles."

At age 19, on the occasion of her wedding in 1901, Tsar Nicholas granted his youngest sister a 200-room starter home — a $453-million St. Petersburg, parapeted, neo-Palladian with a 47-window front façade.

It had its own church, coach houses, a two-storey gardener's shed, a greenhouse and an art studio for Olga, who painted. For sport, the couple hunted wolves. The childless couple was waited on by a staff of 70.

As an intimate of the Tsar's family, the duchess escorted her four nieces, the Tsar's daughters, to social events in St. Petersburg.

She was pursued by Rasputin, another household intimate, who stroked her arm and asked prying questions about the status of her marriage, which was unhappy, despite their 200-room house.
"Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too"      Voltaire

I can see humor in most things & I would rather laugh than cry.    Snokitty


snokitty

Shabby Toronto apartment was once home to Russia's Grand Duchess Olga | Toronto Star
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The sister of the last Czar of Russia was born in a St. Petersburg palace, grew up with thousands of servants and occasionally sported goose-egg-sized diamonds.

She died in a now run-down apartment above a beauty salon on Gerrard St. E. in 1960.

Russia's Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna Romanov was the youngest daughter of Emperor Alexander III of Russia. During the 1917 Russian Revolution, her incredibly wealthy and powerful family was overthrown and her brother's family was murdered, forcing Olga, her husband and two sons to flee to Denmark and eventually Canada.

Today, the shabby East Toronto unit where the Grand Duchess died can be yours — for $539,000, according to an MLS listing.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B3Vr_zwCMAE2naR.jpg

From St. Petersburg to Toronto: The Life of Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna (1882-1960) | Carolyn Harris: Royal Historian
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In June, 1959, the widowed seventy-seven year old Mrs. Nikolai Kulikovsky of 2130 Camilla Road in Cooksville, Ontario, [now part of Missisauga] received a royal invitation. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh would be hosting a luncheon on the royal yacht Britannia during their visit to Toronto as part of their Canadian tour and requested the presence of the Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna and her elder son, Tikhon Kulikovsky. For the last time, Olga's early experiences as a Russian Grand Duchess, the sister of Emperor Nicholas II and the cousin of King George V, and her later life as a farmer's wife in Canada came together as she met with her royal relatives.
"Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too"      Voltaire

I can see humor in most things & I would rather laugh than cry.    Snokitty


LouisFerdinand

It was informative to learn that Grand Duchess Olga's mother-in-law, Duchess Eugenie of Oldenburg gave her a ruby-encrusted tiara. What became of the tiara?