Victoria Park, Charlottetown
| Victoria Park | |
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| Type | Public park |
| Location | Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island |
| Coordinates | 46°13′47″N 63°8′24″W / 46.22972°N 63.14000°WCoordinates: 46°13′47″N 63°8′24″W / 46.22972°N 63.14000°W |
| Area | 25.5 hectares (63 acres) |
| Created | 1873 |
| Operated by | City of Charlottetown, Parks and Recreation Department |
Victoria Park is a waterfront park in the Canadian city of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.
The property containing Victoria Park was established in 1789 by Governor Edmund Fanning as a 100-acre (40 ha) parcel for the use of the colonial administrator for St. John's Island (renamed Prince Edward Island in 1799). This property located immediately west of Charlottetown's original "500 lots" was roughly eight times larger than the thirty-six 12-acre (4.9 ha) "estates" established in the northern part of the Queens Royalty. It was envisioned that the property would be used to provide farmland for the governor and a site for an official residence.
Prior to the War of 1812, the Prince Edward Battery established a fortification along the shore of the property facing the main shipping channel into Charlottetown Harbour. This battery was manned by British Army regulars, as well as colonial militia until the mid-19th century.
In 1809 an Act of the Legislative Assembly was passed to establish a meridional line for surveyors in the colony. In 1820, three commissioners reported to Governor Charles Douglass Smith their calculations of magnetic declination and placed stone markers to this effect in a field cleared immediately north of the Prince Edward Battery. In 1846 additional markers were placed at right angles to the meridional lines (by another Act of the Legislative Assembly). These survey stones remain in the park to this day.
The 100-acre (40 ha) property known as the Governor's Bank (as in land bank) was nicknamed "Fanning's Bank" and eventually shortened to simply Fanning Bank. In 1826, a farm house and barns were built and in 1832, a tender was called for constructing Government House to house the colonial administrator which opened in December 1834.
Public pressure began to build for access to the 100-acre (40 ha) property and in 1869, the colonial government of the day stated that 30 acres (12 ha) of land was "quite sufficient for Government House" and that the remainder 40 acres (16 ha) should be procured for the public "as a place of retreat from the heat, filth and dust of the city".
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