Charlottetown is a Canadian city and the provincial capital of Prince Edward Island and is the wealthiest capital city in Atlantic Canada.

Charlottetown is situated on its namesake harbour which is formed by the confluence of three rivers in the central part of the island along its south shore. The harbour itself opens onto the Northumberland Strait. In 1995 the present city was created by amalgamating Charlottetown with the communities of Sherwood, Parkdale, Hillsborough Park, Winsloe, West Royalty, and East Royalty. Since amalgamation, the city occupies most of Queens Royalty and part of the townships Lot 33 and Lot 34.

Downtown Charlottetown includes the city's historic 500 lots, as surveyed by Captain Samuel Holland, as well as the waterfront facing the harbour and the Hillsborough River. Adjacent communities to the original downtown included Brighton, Spring Park, and Parkdale. The areas to the west, north and east of downtown have been developed in recent decades with several residential and commercial/retail developments, although the outer regions of the city are still predominantly farmland, as is an area in the centre of the city where an Agriculture Canada crop research station is located.

History

The first Europeans in the area, then known as Île Saint-Jean, were the French, whereby personnel from Fortress Louisbourg founded a settlement in 1720 named Port La Joye on the southwestern part of the harbour opposite the present-day city. This settlement was led by Michel Hache-Gallant, who used his sloop to ferry Acadians from Fort Louisbourg. In August 1758, at the height of the Seven Years' War, a British fleet took control of the settlement (and the entire island) and promptly deported those French settlers that they could find, this being fully three years after the original Acadian Expulsion in Nova Scotia. British forces built Fort 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 of Queens County in the colonial survey of 1765 by Captain Samuel Holland of the Royal Engineers. 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, also chosen as the colonial capital, was named in honour of Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, consort of King George III of the United Kingdom.

On November 17, 1775 the colony's new capital was ransacked by Massachusetts-based privateers during the American Revolutionary War, during which the colonial seal, along with prisoners were taken.

Tourism

Charlottetown is a popular destination in eastern Canada for visitors from other Maritime provinces, central Canada and the northeastern United States, as the city has a central location in the province as well as various services. The city's streetscapes with a centrally-planned downtown core containing many Victorian-era houses and buildings is an attraction, as well as a waterfront redevelopment project in recent decades which has seen walking trails and parks developed on former industrial lands. A new cruise ship terminal is planned by the local port authority which proponents hope will make the city a more attractive destination for the growing number of vessels operating in Atlantic Canadian waters.

Popular attractions within the city include the provincial legislature at Province House, which hosted the Charlottetown Conference, as well as Founders Hall, a recently redeveloped railway maintenance building which now houses an interactive trip through history tracing the development of Canada as a nation. The Confederation Centre of the Arts provides live theatre, including the Charlottetown Festival during the summer months, as well as a nationally-ranked art gallery. The Charlottetown Festival itself is headlined by Canada's most popular and longest-running musical, Anne of Green Gables - The Musical, which is an adaptation of Island author Lucy Maud Montgomery's novel.

The Confederation Chamber in Province House, where the historic 1864 meeting took place, is known as the Birthplace of Canada.

Getting around

Untill 2005, Charlottetown did not have a public transit system. However, in the fall of 2005 the city started it's first public transit system made up of six city buses. Plans to add another six are in the works. The buses travel from as far out of the city as Winsloe, into and around the downtown core. The buses are designed to look like old fashioned trolleys. The look of the buses has been a source of controversy, as many of the residents find the buses tacky, and also feel that the added expense of the "specialty" buses over the typical city buses, is not justified.