Cornwall, Prince Edward Island
Encyclopedia
Cornwall is a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
suburban town located in Queens County
Queens County, Prince Edward Island
Queens County is located in central Prince Edward Island, Canada. The county is geographically divided by the Hillsborough River's estuary, a tidal inlet which almost splits the county and Prince Edward Island...
, Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...
.
The town is located immediately west of the provincial capital Charlottetown
Charlottetown
Charlottetown is a Canadian city. It is both the largest city on and the provincial capital of Prince Edward Island, and the county seat of Queens County. Named after Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III, Charlottetown was first incorporated as a town in 1855 and designated as a city in 1885...
and functions as a bedroom community.
History
The community of Cornwall traces its history to European settlement in the 18th century and was a predominantly farming community until the construction of Route 1, the Trans-Canada HighwayTrans-Canada Highway
The Trans-Canada Highway is a federal-provincial highway system that joins the ten provinces of Canada. It is, along with the Trans-Siberian Highway and Australia's Highway 1, one of the world's longest national highways, with the main route spanning 8,030 km...
, during the early 1960s. Several subdivisions were created near the intersection of the new highway with the Meadowbank Road, along with a small commercial strip.
The present town was incorporated by the provincial government in 1995 through municipal amalgamation which saw the following unincorporated rural communities merged:
- Cornwall
- North River
- Elliot River
- East Wiltshire
- York PointYork Point, Prince Edward IslandYork Point is an unincorporated Canadian community in Queens County, Prince Edward Island.In 1996 it was amalgamated into the town of Cornwall....
The amalgamation did not see any controversies. It was claimed that the name of the community of Cornwall would survive while the others were dissolved. Residents of North River and other communities being subsumed had called for a new community name, as what occurred in the case of Stratford
Stratford, Prince Edward Island
Stratford is a Canadian suburban town located in central Prince Edward Island.It is situated on a peninsula formed by the Hillsborough River estuary, Charlottetown Harbour, and Hillsborough Bay - a sub-basin of the Northumberland Strait....
(also amalgamated at the same time).
Education
The town of Cornwall is home to four Eastern School DistrictEastern School District
The Eastern School District is a Canadian school district in Prince Edward Island.The Eastern School District is an Anglophone district operating 43 public schools in Queens and Kings Counties with its headquarters in Stratford...
schools: