Charlottetown - Fame, Flames, and Glory

Charlottetown - Fame, Flames, and Glory. . In this milieu in the late summer of 1864 came two important events - the Slaymaker and Nichols Olympic Circus (the first such visit in over twenty years), and the Charlottetown Conference with delegates who arrived from the Maritimes and Upper and Lower Canada. Both such events were considered by some to be equally entertaining spectacles., Charlottetown, long a centre for shipping and shipbuilding, commerce, and government, suffered somewhat from isolationism and was quite unprepared for the onslaught of visitors. The city hosted only about a dozen small hotels and boarding houses. By the time of the Charlottetown Conference, the Circus, the Delegates, and visitors from the surrounding countryside had swelled the population of the capital beyond its capacity to lodge them all. , In the midst of all this excitement,... the Prince of Edward Island government had certainly not planned any elaborate or formal reception for its guests. It was rumored darkly by the newspapers that some of the ministers wanted to attend the...Olympic Circus; but the cabinet decided that it was quite unnecessary for a governmental reception committee, with the Premier at its head, to go down to the docks to greet the delegates. Instead W.H. Pope, the Providence Secretary...was appropriately deputed to welcome the visitors. Pope, a suavely correct and courteous person...was an obvious choice, but as things turned out, he became a harassed and overworked deputy boat host, who received even more urgent after the Great Fire of 1866., As a city, Charlottetown continued to grow and prosper, although its growth was measured in small, careful increments. By 1864, gas lighting was becoming more common throughout, Charlestown as new funds were found to augment a fledging service that had begun ten years earlier. Businesses grew up in the city and artisans took up the challenge of creating the homes, offices, churches, and streets of the capital. Brickyards and lumber yards flourished in the city and surrounding countryside in order to meet the demand for building materials, a demand that became evermore urgent after the Great Fire of 1866., It was a midsummer morning, Sunday, July 15th, 1866, when Charlottetown fell victim to fire, the great scourge of wooden towns and cities of the period. The cause has never really been determined, however, it is believed that the fire originated with an "incendiary" of unknown origin. Four complete city blocks were devasted by the flames. Starting in a structure on the southeast corner of King and Pownal Streets, the fire rapidly spread from Pownal down to Water Street and up to Dorchester Street. The north side of Water Street, all of King Street, from Pownal Street almost to Great George Street, which led directly to Queen Square and Providence House. The Fire Department, with its woefully inadequate hand-pumped machines and water pumps, was quickly overwhelmed by the magnitude of the fire. All the able-bodies citizens, the troops in the Garrison, and even the lieutenant governor formed bucket brigades and joined in the fight against the common foe., Large flakes of burning shingles were carried for miles up the Hillsborough River and the roar and the rush of the flames, as they leaped from house to house, might be heard for miles around; whilst the heat was so intense that one person could stand within one hundred yards of the fire...without being almost scorched or suffocated. The streets and squares presented a strange and saddening spectacle. Piles of household furniture, and goods broken and shattered, were scattered on all sides, and cows, pigs, horses, and poultry roamed at large without regard to the City Laws, Hog Reeves, or Act of Parliament. , Charlottetown was able to recover from the Great Fire but was never the same city. Gone was the shanty-like roughness of its earlier days-cleansed, so to speak, that the construction of new brick homes, stores, and warehouses could take their rightful place. In 1864 the city of Charlottetown had been a somewhat reluctant, yet gracious host to those who became the Fathers of the Canadian Confederation. Her fame as the birthplace of Canada secure, Charlottetown remains the Queen City of Prince Edward Island basking in deserved glory as the birthplace of our nation. Province House 1860., Captions: , Province House, 1860 The Great Fire of 1866 (View from Queen Street) Le grand incendie de 1866 (vue de la rue Queen) , Water Street toward Queen La vue Water en direction de la rue Queen , Grafton Street, 1890s Rue Grafton, anne`es 1890