Charlottetown

Charlottetown is the capital and largest city of Prince Edward Island (PEI), the smallest province in Canada. Founded in 1768, the city is named for Queen Charlotte, the wife of King George III of Britain. The city had an estimated population of 36,094 residents in 2016. Charlottetown is a port city, located on a harbor where three rivers meet. Fishing and farming have long been important parts of the economy; in recent decades, food processing and tourism have become significant as well.

The city is known as the "Birthplace of Confederation" because of its role as host city for the 1864 "Charlottetown Conference," at which Canadian colonial leaders discussed creating a unified confederation. Tourist attractions include the beautiful beaches, historic buildings, and the Confederation Centre of the Arts.

Landscape

Charlottetown lies on the south shore of central Prince Edward Island. The city is located on Charlottetown Harbor, at the meeting place of the Hillsborough, North, and West Rivers. The harbor opens up onto Hillsborough Bay, which opens onto the Northumberland Strait. The strait separates Prince Edward Island from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick on the mainland. The construction of the Confederation Bridge in 1997, connecting PEI with New Brunswick, has had a major cultural and economic effect on Charlottetown.

Originally incorporated in 1855, Charlottetown grew considerably in the 1990s, thanks to the annexation of surrounding communities, including Hillsborough Park, Sherwood, and Parkdale.

People

Charlottetown's population has increased slowly but steadily over the last one hundred years. Much of this growth came from incorporating the surrounding communities. The people of Charlottetown are mostly of British heritage, particularly Scottish. There is a large French minority ("Acadians"), dating back to the early eighteenth century, when the French settled Prince Edward Island. Their first settlement, Port La Joye, was located across the harbor from present-day Charlottetown.

Notable persons to come from Charlottetown have included a Canadian Supreme Court justice, a United States cabinet officer, and several Olympic athletes. Sir Louis Henry Davis (1845–1924), was a member of the Supreme Court of Canada from 1901 until 1924. He also served as premier of PEI during the late 1870s and as a member of the Canadian House of Common from 1882 to 1901. Franklin Knight Lane (1864–1921), the US secretary of the interior under President Woodrow Wilson, was born near Charlottetown but moved to California as a boy.

The city has an active cultural life, with internationally known museums, arts centers, and music festivals. The annual Charlottetown Festival, hosted by the Confederation Centre of the Arts, is a major draw each year. The local music scene includes jazz and Celtic music.

Charlottetown was incorporated in 1855. Before that, the colonial administration of Prince Edward Island provided what little formal government was required; the local garrison of British soldiers served as a police force. In 1851, the island became responsible for governing its own internal affairs. Women gained the right to vote in 1927. Prior to the 1960s, the mayor's office was a part-time position.

There are several institutions of higher learning in Charlottetown. The University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) was created in 1969 from the merger of historic Prince of Wales College (a Protestant school, founded 1820) and St. Dunstan's University (a Catholic school, founded 1831). One of the school's most notable research centers is the Lucy Maud Montgomery Institute, dedicated to studying the works of the PEI-born author, who penned the Anne of Green Gables novels. (Montgomery herself was an alumna of Prince of Wales College.)

Another major institution of higher learning are Holland College, a community college with eleven branches around the island. Other institutions include the Atlantic Veterinary College, the Culinary Institute of Canada, the Atlantic Police Academy, and the Marine Training Centre (for training in maritime trades).

Economy

Historically, Charlottetown's economy has been based on maritime occupations, such as fishing and shipbuilding, as well as farming. Shipbuilding faded away after the nineteenth century, but fishing and farming remain important. Potatoes are a major crop, as Prince Edward Island produces nearly one-third of all Canadian potatoes. Tourism is another important economic sector.

Farming has expanded to include a focus on agricultural science and biotechnology. Charlottetown is home to the Institute for Nutrisciences and Health, one of nine research institutes operated by Canada's National Research Council. In 2003, the federal government appropriated $28 million for the facility. Charlottetown and environs are home to many biotechnology companies, such as Fortius Canada and BioVectra, which produce "nutraceuticals," or foods that are enhanced with nutritional supplements. The city is also home to the Prince Edward Island Food Technology Centre (PEIFTC), a government agency which supports the island's food-processing industry.

The tourism industry focuses on Charlottetown's long heritage, particularly its role as host to the 1864 Charlottetown Conference. The Festival of the Fathers, celebrated around Labour Day, honors the role of the "Fathers of Confederation" in unifying and establishing the nation. The Confederation Centre of the Arts opened in 1964, the centennial anniversary of the conference. Many visitors to Charlottetown come from other parts of Canada and the United States, but there is also a high percentage of overseas visitors.

The Charlottetown Airport, which also serves general aviation, is the island's only commercial airport. In 2018, the airport served more than 370,700 passengers. Originally built in 1932 as a municipal facility, the airport was a military air base operated first by the Royal Air Force and then the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II.

Charlottetown is the center of mass media on Prince Edward Island. The main newspaper is the daily the Guardian. Television broadcasting is provided by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). There are several CBC radio stations, as well as several private stations.

Landmarks

Despite being the provincial capital, Charlottetown retains a small-town feel. The cityscape reflects the community's long heritage, particularly its status as a capital and university town. The waterfront has been redeveloped since the 1990s, to include more upscale shopping and office space, but many nineteenth-century mansions remain. Historic public buildings include Province House, the provincial legislature, which is built in classic revival style, and the Victorian-era City Hall. Other historical sites include the War Memorial Monument, honoring the veterans of both World Wars and the Korean War.

Historic churches include All Souls Chapel and St. Dunstan's Basilica. Important cultural venues include the Confederation Centre of the Arts, built in 1964, which covers a whole city block. The University of PEI contains many historic buildings from its predecessor schools, Prince of Wales College and St. Dunstan's University.

In 2004, the city council adopted an urban-planning proposal that tightens city bylaws on development. Among other things the measure intended to protect Charlottetown's historic cityscape.

History

The area around Charlottetown was first settled in 1720, by the French. They built a fort named Port la Joye on the opposite side of the harbor from present-day Charlottetown. This settlement became the administrative center of the Île Saint-Jean (St. John's Island), as the French called Prince Edward Island, but it never grew much beyond one hundred inhabitants. During this period, the island was part of the French colony of Acadia (later Nova Scotia).

The British seized the island in 1758, during the Seven Years' War, after taking the French fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island in eastern Nova Scotia. Port la Joye was renamed Fort Amherst, in honor of the victorious British general Lord Jeffrey Amherst. In 1765, British military engineer Captain Samuel Holland surveyed the future site of Charlottetown, across the harbor from the fort.

Charlottetown was established three years later, in 1768. The community was named in honor of Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III. The following year, it became the capital of Prince Edward Island (known as St. John's Island until 1799), when the British established PEI as a separate colony from Nova Scotia.

Despite the new status, Charlottetown grew slowly. Settlement was hindered partly by the fact that much of the land on the island was owned by absentee landlords (a fact that caused political discontent for decades among the tenants). Charlottetown's fortunes were not helped by its sacking in 1775, early in the American Revolution. During their raid on the city, Massachusetts privateers seized the colonial seal along with some prisoners.

The economy began to pick up in the early nineteenth century, when Charlottetown became a major shipyard. The most common vessels built were fishing boats and lumber transports. This prosperity produced a great era of construction. Government House, the colonial governor's mansion, was completed in 1835; the building is now used by the province's lieutenant governor. In 1847, construction was completed on Province House, home of the provincial legislature; the structure is still used for this purpose today.

Charlottetown was incorporated in 1855, ending direct rule by the colonial government. Prior to this, the garrison of British regular soldiers served as a police force. Troops were called in again during the mid-1860s to quell rioting by the Tenant League, which wanted to buy back land from absentee landowners.

In 1864, the city hosted the Charlottetown Conference, a meeting that hoped to create a Canadian confederation out of the many colonies making up British North America. One of the inducements for PEI to join the Confederation was the promise that the other colonies would help the province buy out the absentee landlords. Confederation succeeded in 1867, with the establishment of the Dominion of Canada. However, Prince Edward Island held off joining until 1873, when Charlottetown was established as the new provincial capital.

Shipbuilding had declined by the second half of the nineteenth century, but railroads ensured that Charlottetown remained an economic hub. In 1874, Prince Edward Island Railway opened its main line, from Charlottetown to Summerside. Growth remained slow but steady into the early twentieth century, thanks in part to the isolation of Prince Edward Island.

Tourism became an increasingly important part of the island's economy after World War I, with the rise of the automobile. World War II brought added growth, as well as a renewed military presence in the form of several Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) bases. After the war, RCAF Station Charlottetown became the Charlottetown municipal airport. The arrival of new types of industry and the growth of tourism have helped to keep Charlottetown economically strong.

Besides being provincial capital, Charlottetown is also the county seat of Queens County. Since the 1995 amalgamation, the city has been governed by a mayor and ten-member city council. Each councilor represents one of ten wards.

Trivia

• In June 2004, the Lucy Maud Montgomery Institute at the University of PEI appointed Princess Takamado of Japan as its international patron. Montgomery's "Anne of Green Gables" books are highly popular in Japan, where the title character is known as "Akage no An" ("Red-haired Anne").
• The Culinary Institute of Canada, a two-year cooking school, is part of Charlottetown's Holland College, the provincial community college system.
• Dorothy Corrigan, who served from 1968-1971, was the first woman elected mayor of Charlottetown, as well as the first full-time mayor.
• One of the most prominent citizens of early nineteenth-century Charlottetown was Dr. John Mackieson (1795-1885), a Scotsman who studied medicine in Glasgow and immigrated to Prince Edward Island in 1821. He practiced in Charlottetown for the next 64 years, until his death in 1885, leaving behind several manuscripts detailing the health conditions of his era.

Bibliography

Baldwin, Douglas, and Thomas Spira. Gaslights, Epidemics, and Vagabond Cows. Ragweed, 1988.

Clark, Andrew Hill. Three Centuries and the Island: A Historical Geography of Settlement and Agriculture in Prince Edward Island, Canada. U of Toronto P, 1959.

MacDonald, Edward. "The Working Life of an Island Priest: The Diary of Father Angus Mcdonald, Diocese of Charlottetown, 1879-1883." Historical Studies, vol. 80, 2014, pp. 9–27. America: History & Life with Full Text Alumni Edition. Accessed 29 Sept. 2015.

Rider, Peter E. "Charlottetown." The Canadian Encyclopedia, 5 Mar. 2019, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/charlottetown/. Accessed 8 Nov. 2021.

Robb, Andrew, H. T. Holman, and Jacqueline McIsaac. "Prince Edward Island." The Canadian Encyclopedia, 4 Feb. 2021, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/prince-edward-island/. Accessed 8 Nov. 2021.

Waite, P. B., and Ged Martin. "Charlottetown Conference." The Canadian Encyclopedia, 13 Jan. 2020, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/charlottetown-conference/. Accessed 8 Nov. 2021.