Growth of a Community
Charlottetown
Just as Prince Edward Island is both the smallest province in Canada and one of the most beautiful,
Charlottetown is the smallest and one of the most charming of the
provincial capitals. Charlottetown has none of the drawbacks of big-city life: no polluting smokestacks,
no overcrowded or littered streets. Yet it offers many of the benefits of urban living. Charlottetown is not
only the island's seat of government but its cultural and educational center, its chief port, and its shopping and banking hub. The only city on Prince Edward Island,
Charlottetown is situated on a broad harbor opening
into the Northumberland Strait. Although the city was not officially incorporated until 1855, settlement began in the area in the early 1700's,when the French built Port La
Joie on one of the arms of the harbor. When the British took control of the island in
1758, they renamed this outpost Fort Amherst. In 1764, when Captain Samuel Holland arrived to survey the island, he and fellow Englishman Charles Morris chose the site for
Charlottetown, which
is named after Queen Charlotte, the wife of the King, George III. Acadians, English, Irish, and Scots arrived in
Charlottetown by the hundreds.
The island became a separate colony in 1769 and Charlottetown
was named the capital. The first governor was Captain Walter Patterson who
arrived in Charlottetown in 1770. There he found about 300 inhabitants and only
two decent houses and a few log huts. There was no courthouse, no jail and
no place of worship. Since it was surrounded by rich farmland, Charlottetown
grew slowly as a market center. However, the most important business was
shipbuilding and export trade by sea. In 1864 political delegates from the Maritime
provinces and the province of Canada met here to discuss union. The conference
led to Confederation but 
Prince
Edward Island did not join until 1873.By this time, the new provincial capital was the 11th largest city in Canada.
Charlottetown was fully equipped to fulfill its role as the island's cultural and political
center. It had modern water and sewer services, electric streetlights, hospital, schools, and, most important, a railroad station and a full-service port. Today the city is home to the province's major cultural and educational institutions as well as to its government and commercial
officials. The Confederation Center of the Arts is one of the leading cultural centers of the maritime provinces. One of the province's oldest structures, the old Government House, built in 1834, is located
there. Across the street is Beaconsfield, a Victorian home, built in 1877, that houses the Prince Edward Island Museum and Heritage Foundation offices, the Center of Genealogical Research, and a bookstore specializing in island
history. Indeed, as the capital of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown welcomes some 600,000 to 700,000 visitors every
year. Charlottetown was
incorporated as a town in 1855 and as a city in 1875 and now includes the formerly incorporated areas of Parkdale, Sherwood, Hillsborough Park,
Winsloe, West Royalty, and East Royalty.
Created by Melissa Mac Millan