 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "History of Charlottetown" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(May 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
TheHistory of Charlottetown can be traced back to the original French military settlement established on the site in 1720. Over the yearsCharlottetown has grown to become the largest and most important city onPrince Edward Island.
The first European settlers in the area wereFrench; personnel fromFortress Louisbourg founded a settlement in 1720 namedPort-la-Joye on the southwestern part of the harbour opposite the present-day city. This settlement was led by Michel Haché-Gallant, who used his sloop to ferryAcadian settlers from Louisbourg.
DuringKing George's War, the British had taken over the island. French officerJean-Baptiste Nicolas Roch de Ramezay sent 500 men to attack the British troops in theBattle at Port-la-Joye. The French were successful in killing or taking prisoner forty British troops.[1]
In August 1758, at the height of theSeven Years' War, a British fleet took control of the settlement and the rest of the island, promptly deporting those French settlers that they could find (this being fully three years after the originalAcadian Expulsion inNova Scotia). British forces builtFort Amherst near the site of the abandoned Port-la-Joye settlement to protect the entrance to the harbour.Charlottetown was selected as the site for the county seat ofQueens County in the colonial survey of 1764 byCaptain Samuel Holland of the Royal Engineers. A year later, Charlottetown was made the colonial capital of St. John's Island. Further surveys conducted between 1768–1771 established the street grid and public squares which can be seen in the city's historic district. The town was named in honour of QueenCharlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz,consort of KingGeorge III.
On November 17, 1775, the colony's new capital was ransacked byMassachusetts-based privateers, participants in theAmerican Revolutionary War. During the attack, the colonial seal was stolen and several prisoners, includingPhillips Callbeck and Thomas Wright, were taken toCambridge, Massachusetts and later released.
In 1793, land had been set aside by Governor Fanning on the western limits of the community for use by the "Administrator of Government" (the Governor), and as such it became known informally as "Fanning's Bank" or just "Fanning Bank".
On November 29, 1798, St. John's Island was renamed toPrince Edward Island in honour ofPrince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn who was theCommander-in-Chief, North America.
In 1805, the local British garrison constructed a harbour defence called "Fort Edward" to the west of the capital's waterfront and the "Prince Edward Battery" manned this facility.
In 1835, "Government House" was constructed at Fanning Bank as a residence for the colony'sGovernor. Today, it serves as the official residence for theLieutenant Governor.
Between 1843 and 1847, a new legislative building was constructed in the community. Named "Province House", the completion of this structure was an important milestone in the history of the capital and it is still in use today as the provincial legislature and is currently the second-oldest legislative seat in Canada.
On April 17, 1855, Charlottetown was incorporated as a city, holding its first council meeting on August 11 that year. The community had 6,500 residents at the time of incorporation.
Between September 1 and September 7, 1864, Charlottetown hosted what is now termed theCharlottetown Conference. Although many of the meetings and negotiations which would lead toCanadian Confederation were held in Province House, various social events spilled over into the surrounding community.
On June 14, 1873 the "Government House Farm" at Fanning Bank was designated a municipal park, namedVictoria Park in honour ofQueen Victoria. Prince Edward Island entered Confederation on July 1, 1873.
Aside from being the seat of colonial government, the community came to be noted during the early nineteenth century forshipbuilding and its lumber industry as well as being a fishing port. The shipbuilding industry declined in the latter part of the nineteenth century. In August 1874, thePrince Edward Island Railway opened its main line between Charlottetown andSummerside. The railway, along with the shipping industry, would continue to drive industrial development on the waterfront for several decades to come.
The province's first health care facility, theCharlottetown Hospital, was opened by theDiocese of Charlottetown in 1879, which was followed by the publicly operatedPrince Edward Island Hospital in 1884.
In 1885 the municipality saw its status upgraded to become a city.
Religion played a central role in the development of Charlottetown's institutions with non-denominational (i.e.Protestant) andRoman Catholic public schools (Catholic Queen Square, Notre Dame, and St. Josephs. vs Protestant West Kent and Prince Street), hospitals (Prince Edward Island Hospital vs. Charlottetown Hospital), and post-secondary institutions (Prince of Wales College vs.St. Dunstan's University) being instituted. St. Dunstan's was originally developed as a seminary for training priests, and the Maritime Christian College was founded in 1960 to train preachers for theChristian churches and churches of Christ inPrince Edward Island and theMaritime Provinces.
As with most communities in North America, theautomobile shaped Charlottetown's development in the latter half of the twentieth century, when outlying farms in rural areas of Brighton, Spring Park, and Parkdale saw increased housing developments.
The Charlottetown airfield in the nearby rural community ofSherwood was upgraded as part of theBritish Commonwealth Air Training Plan and operated for the duration of World War II asRCAF Station Charlottetown, in conjunction withRCAF Station Mount Pleasant andRCAF Station Summerside. After thewar the airfield was designatedCharlottetown Airport. Charlottetown's shipyards also saw extensive use during World War II, being used for refits and upgrades to numerousRoyal Canadian Navy warships. Further post-war development saw residential properties continue to expand in adjacent outlying areas, particularly in the neighbouring farming communities of Sherwood, West Royalty, and East Royalty.
In 1959, the suburban village of Spring Park was amalgamated into the city, extending the city's northern boundary from Kirkwood Drive to Hermitage Creek and included the campus of St. Dunstan's University.
To commemorate the centennial of theCharlottetown Conference, the ten provincial governments and the Government of Canada contributed to a national monument to the "Fathers of Confederation". TheConfederation Centre of the Arts, which opened in 1964, as a gift to the residents of Prince Edward Island. The centre contains theConfederation Centre Art Gallery, a public library, and amainstage theatre which has played to theCharlottetown Festival every summer since.
In the 1960s, new public schools were constructed in the community, and in 1969 the city became home to the amalgamatedUniversity of Prince Edward Island (UPEI), located on the campus of the former St. Dunstan's University. Together with the federalDepartment of Agriculture and Agri-Food's Charlottetown Experimental Farm (also known asRavenwood Farm), these properties comprise a large green space surrounded by the city. The Prince of Wales College downtown campus became part of a new provincial community college system namedHolland College, in honour of the island's famous surveyor. The P.E.I. Comprehensive Development Plan in the late 1960s greatly contributed to the expansion of the provincial government in Charlottetown for the next decade.
TheQueen Elizabeth Hospital opened in 1982. In 1983, the national headquarters of the federalDepartment of Veterans Affairs was moved to Charlottetown as part of a nationwide federal government decentralization programme. In 1986, UPEI saw further expansion with the opening of theAtlantic Veterinary College.
.jpg)
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Charlottetown witnessed increased commercial office and retail development. A waterfront hotel and convention centre was completed in 1982 and helped to encourage diversification and renewal in the area, leading to several residential complexes and downtown shopping facilities. The abandonment of rail service in the province byCN Rail in December 1989 led to the railway and industrial lands at the east end of the waterfront being transformed into parks and cultural attractions.
The late 1990s and 2000s witnessed a change in the retail landscape with the opening of big box stores on the site of former traditional shopping centres and in new developments in the northern suburbs, particularly the neighbourhood of West Royalty, which is a key road junction.
In 1995 Charlottetown underwent municipal amalgamation. The present city was created by merging Charlottetown withSherwood,Parkdale,Winsloe,West Royalty, andEast Royalty. Since amalgamation, the city occupies most ofQueens Royalty and part of the townshipsLot 33 andLot 34.
The central business district continues to undergo incremental expansion as government and private sector office space is constructed and new institutional space is built or retrofitted, however retail space in the CBD has suffered as a result of outlying big box retail construction in recent years.
| Year list (Timeline) | |
|---|---|
| Topics | |
| Provinces and territories | |
| Cities | |
| Research | |
| Search | |
.svg)
