Charlottetown
According to the available archaeological records Prince Edward Island was inhabited as early as about ten thousand years ago. The name of the Island in the native Micmac language is referrred to as Epageit or Abegweit, derived from the word Abahquit meaning, "land cradled on the waves."1
The first European to discover the Island was Jacques Cartier who described it while passing by in his ship in 1534s"... the fairest land 'tis possible to see."2
By the early years of the seventeenth century French Acadian settlers called the Island, ile Saint-Jean3. The Acadians were defeated by the British in 1758. Following the English victory the French name of the Island was translated and then the name St. John's Island continued to be used for a while. The British surveyor-general and captain, Samuel Holland divided the Island into 67 lots and 191 smaller districts in 1764; he gave names to the different areas of which 92 still remains in use today.4 It was also Samuel Holland who proposed the present name for the principal town of the Island to be called Charlotte Town in reference to Charlotte Sophia, consort of King George III.5 The site of the new settlement was officially surveyed and a street plan set up by Charles Morris of Nova Scotia in 1768.6
In the early 1770s the first British Governor of the colony, Walter Patterson asked another surveyor, Thomas Wright, to revise the original plan of Charles Morris. The new plan of 1771 is essentially the core of the modern city. Most of the historic buildings are located within the north-south and east-west grid system established more than two centuries ago. The new town was established a short distance from the original French settlement of Port la Jolie, the later harbour of Charlottetown. According to the concept of Walter Patterson all the new houses were to face south to receive the maximum of sunshine and the minimum of the cold northern wind. However, similarly to numerous other localities, the original orientation of the buildings was not kept as the town became more and more extensive. Of the earliest eighteenth century dwellings there is not a single one which remains intact or can be identified as such. It was only after 1800 that better houses started to appear.7
Most of the early houses were constructed of timber. Wood was the preferred material as in most of the New England States.8 Timber was not only abundant and easy to obtain but the settlers also believed that brick and stone houses were cold and damp; and indeed without proper ventilation they were.9
From an 1806 publication of John Stewart it is known that Charlottetown had no more than seventy houses, each occupying a spacious lot.10 By the later 1840s the population of the city has increased to 4,000. The inhabitants included the descendants of American Loyalists from 1784 and a large number of English, Irish and Scottish settlers. From the census of 1841 it is also evident that the largest minority of the population was born in Charlottetown.11
As far as the architecture of the city is concerned in the first half of the nineteenth century, the influence of the origin of the various settlers is reflected. Documents indicate that John Plaw, a noted English arthitect moved to Prince Edward Island in 1807.12 Although his name cannot be connected with any houses in Charlottetown or elsewhere on the Island, his teachings concerning the craft of building are documented.13 It is also known that his drawings upon his death remained in the possession of Island families.
Continuing to use the favourite building material of the eighteenth century the great majority of the houses, constructed during the nineteenth century, were also timber frame structures. Bricks and cut stone appeared slowly and in the early years these materials were mostly used for foundations, chimney stacks or as reinforcement of the structures and for some ornaments. By 1834 there were only two houses constructed entirely of bricks,14 and one of those belonged to John Gainsford a brick manufacturer himself.15
Our information concerning cut stone houses in Charlottetown, and elsewhere on the Island, is very scanty. Nevertheless there is some indication from a contemporary local newspaper report that a few stone buildings existed even in the early nineteenth century.16 However, the first clearly documented use of freestone on a large scale is connected with the construction of Province House, from 1843 to 1847.17 The designer of Province House, Isaac Smith, is also one of the earliest known persons who worked as an architect in the city.
The Land Purchase Act of 1853 and the fact that in 1854 Charlottetown ceased to be a military town had some influence on local architecture. About the same time in the mid nineteenth century the shipbuilding industry started to flourish bringing wealth to the Island, "between 1840 and 1890 over 3,100 wooden vessels were constructed at 176 locations."18 The Island grew in importance in the region and in September, 1864 Charlottetown was the meeting place of the "Fathers of Confederation" when 23 delegates made a commitment for a union of all the British North American Colonies. The agreement became a fact in 1867 with the establishment of the Dominion of Canada.19
With the progress of time, after the mid nineteenth century, building techniques and manufacturing methods have improved, for example "...timber construction graduated from the hand-hewn stage to pit sawing and finally milled lumber."20 Houses became more comfortable and their exteriors were embellished often following the various fashionable trends of the Victorian era. Ideas were transmitted not only through magazines and the increasing number of building journals and manuals but also by Islanders who had a chance in an increasing number to travel in North America and elsewhere for business and/or pleasure. With the growth of population and prosperity after the mid nineteenth century building activity and related industries have also enjoyed a progressive expansion. For instance in 1861 "...there were nine kilns in operation in the province, producing 1.3 million bricks..."21 and by 1878 there were seven kilns in business in Southport alone; as well, pressed bricks were imported."22
Following the Great Fire of 1866 and those of 1884 and 1887 there was an attempt made to encourage people to use brick for houses23 but because the expenses involved timber frame construction remained the dominating type of building method up to the present day. Besides bricks as indicated above the use of freestone was also very limited. Even when freestone was employed the material had frequently been imported, mostly from Nova Scotia. This fact seems also to indicate that the local sandstone had problems of quality. As a matter of fact William A. Parks in 1914 noted that, "the sandstones are, for the most part, of course grain and inferior durability... the crushing strength is very low and the loss of strength on soaking is remarkable."24 One must add that W.A. Parks' report was based on a very limited evidence which was obtained from only one quarry. Nevertheless, his test results have not been disapproved even since the report became known. W.A. Parks also mentions the possibility that stones quarried from a greater depth might be "harder and more durable" to which H.M. Scott Smith adds that "it is hoped that a practical and economical solution may be found so that we may once again see handsome rusted buildings rising out of the Island's red clay soil."25
With the arrival of gas lighting in 1854 for private homes and ten years later for city streets and then the installation of electric street lights in 1885 the construction of houses became speeded up both within and outside the city limits. To this can be added the improvement of other municipal services such as road construction and water works.
Houses became numbered for the first time in 1887 when the population of the city was around ten thousand inhabitants; the numbering system was revised and improved in 1907. As in every locality of a certain magnitude in Charlottetown too there were some favourite areas for residential housing; these districts similarly to many other towns, changed with the passage of time. "In the 1860s this area was Hillsborough Park or Square; in the 1870s it was the Dundas Esplanade, formerly Fort George and barracks property; in the 1880s it was Upper Prince Street; and after that Brighton and the western outskirts of the city."26
Building regulations were non-existent up to the 20th century and the restrictions concerning construction were few. Permits were relatively easily obtained and there was little protection for historic properties. Even when municipal laws were introduced and then reworked a number of times during the earlier half of the twentieth century the preservation of historic houses was not seriously considered up to the 1970s.
Of the still existing, approximately three hundred, historic properties in town many were designed and constructed by now unknown craftsman builders. Many of the amateur architects were stone masons, carpenters, cabinet makers or plasterers. Their skills are frequently manifested in the detailing of the exteriors and especially the facades. Of the professional builder-architects of the nineteenth and of the early decades of the twentieth centuries, the names of eleven designers stands out. These were, Thomas Alley, George Baker, Charles Campbell, John Corbett, William C. Harris, John Hunter, John McLellan, John Plaw, Isaac Smith, David Stirling and Percy Tanton.27
The various influences absorbed by both the professional and amateur builders are most often manifested in the designs of the facades. These influences, similarly to provincial architecture elsewhere, are rarely mean direct copies but rather indicate a tendency to display elements of vernacular origin; i.e. features based on regional and/or local forms and materials. In the arts and architecture influences can originate from a wide and often unexpected spectrum of sources. In the local context the point is well illustrated in a story from the 1880s. Oscar Wilde visited and lectured in Charlottetown in 1882 about the artistic need for decoration in architecture. Three years later a local newspaper the Daily Examiner in referring to the more colourful exteriors of recently built houses noted that,"...the teachings of Oscar Wilde are beginning to bear fruit and a vast improvement is noticeable. Brighter colours are being used..."28 His teachings are still relevant today and hopefully our contemporary generation and especially builders will take note and design private dwellings that will be joy to look at now and in the more distant future. Historic house facades are and will be an inseparable part of the cultural heritage of the people who had constructed them. Consequently, buildings of social and/or architectural importance should be preserved by all possible means, in Charlottetown and elsewhere.
The present survey of the selected historic house facades attempts to give a cross section of the stylistically different buildings and place them in the context of the architectural history of the region.
NOTES
1. L.C. Lorne, The Cradle of Confederation (Frederiction, N.B., 1964) 15.
2. H. Baglole, (ed.), Exploring Island History (Belfast, P.E.I., 1977) 35.
3. Supra n. 2, 35.
4. D. Campbell, History of Prince Edward Island (Belleville, Ontario, 1972) 3-8.
5. F.W.P. Bolger, Canada's Smallest Province (Charlottetown, 1973) 36.
6. A.B. Warburton, A History of Prince Edward Island (St. JOhn, N.B., 1923) 133.
7. Scott Smith, p. 17.
8. See A. Gowans, "New England Architecture in Nova Scotia," The Art Quarterly (Spring, 1962) 17.
9. Supra n. 8, 22.
10. John Stewart, Account of Prince Edward Island 1806.
11. Journal of the Legislative Assembly, 1842.
12. Rogers, p. 4.
13. Weekly Recorder, December 24, 1810.
14. PAPEI, R.G.1., Lieutenant-Governor, Vol. 4, Blue Book, 1834.
15. PAPEI, Mortgage Document, Liber 41, Folio 225, 1834.
16. Colonial Herald, June 12, 1841.
17. Manuscript Report, No. 211, Parks Canada by Mary K. Cullen.
18. P.E.I. Visitors Guide (1993) 23.
19. For the local history of the period consult, supra n. 4;.
20. Scott Smith, p. 17.
21. Scott Smith, p. 38.
22. Rogers, p. 5.
23. Scott Smith, p. 38.
24. Scott Smith, p. 39.
25. Scott Smith, p. 39.
26. Rogers, p. 9.
27. For further brief summary of the activities of these architects see, Scott Smith, pp. 41-48.
28. Daily Examiner, August 27, 1885.