Stratford, Prince Edward Island
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Stratford (2006 pop.: 7,083) is a Canadian town in Queens County, Prince Edward Island and a suburb of the provincial capital Charlottetown.
It is currently the province's third-largest community based on population and experienced a 12.2% population growth rate from 2001-2006 (7.6% increase from 1996-2001), as a direct result of an improved highway connection to neighbouring Charlottetown.
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[edit] Amalgamation
Stratford was created in a 1995 amalgamation of several rural villages and communities east of the provincial capital of Charlottetown, including:
- Southport
- Bunbury
- Keppoch
- Rosebank
- Kinlock
- Cross Roads
[edit] Geography
Located on the opposite bank of the East (Hillsborough) River (a 30 km long and 1 km wide tidal inlet) from Charlottetown, the communities comprising Stratford were hampered in their development by geography until relatively recently.
[edit] History
Stratford's constituent communities each have had slightly different development patterns. The shoreline of the Hillsborough River in Southport was historically a cottage area for city residents, with cottage development proceeding to Keppoch during the post-war era. Cross Roads, Bunbury, Rosebank and Kinlock were historically agricultural communities.
The area's fortunes are tied to the evolution and development of transportation links with Charlottetown. During the 1800s, a small seasonal passenger ferry service operated between Ferry Point in Southport to a wharf on the Charlottetown waterfront. During the winter months, horse-drawn sleighs would operate directly across the river, if its waters were frozen.
In 1905, the Prince Edward Island Railway installed a used iron railway bridge between Charlottetown and Bunbury, which had previously spanned the Southwest Branch of the Miramichi River in New Brunswick. This development saw narrow gauge passenger and freight trains operating between Charlottetown and Murray Harbour.
Horse-drawn carriages and sleighs (and later automobiles) were permitted on the span when trains were not operating, although it was only 1-lane wide with wood planks placed between and on each side of the rails. In the early 1930s, Canadian National Railways (CNR) completed the conversion of its rail lines on PEI from narrow (3'6") to standard (4'8.5") gauge; the larger dimensions and weight of rail cars and locomotives saw the railway's structural engineers deem the railway bridge over the Hillsborough River to Stratford unsafe, so a bypass route from Mount Stewart Junction to Lake Verde Junction was built as a depression-era project. Following the opening of the "Short Line", the rails were removed from the Hillsborough River railway bridge and CNR instituted taxi service for passengers travelling to Murray Harbour, allowing them to board the train at its terminus in Southport.
By the early 1950s, CNR structural engineers felt the bridge was unsafe for even motor vehicles and pedestrians and recommended that it be shut down. The provincial government (which had been getting away with having the federally-owned railway company operate this important bridge for many years) was outraged. After negotiations between the railway company and the provincial government stalled, CNR barricaded the bridge to public travel. Premier J. Walter Jones staged a publicity stunt at the Charlottetown abutment of the bridge, boarding a bulldozer and demanding in front of media, that the bridge be reopened.
CNR relented and reopened the bridge. By the late 1950s, the federal government was developing the Trans-Canada Highway network across the country and sought to fund a route between the ferry terminals in Borden and Wood Islands via Charlottetown. The federal and provincial governments jointly funded the contruction of a new 2-lane highway bridge to carry Highway 1 over the Hillsborough River parallel to, and immediately upstream of, the condemned railway bridge.
Following completion of the new bridge, the communities comprising present-day Stratford began to experience a slow but steady growth, with permanent year-round dwellings and several subdivisions beginning to replace the seasonal cottages which fronted the Hillsborough River. By the 1980s, commuter and residential development patterns in PEI were changing and it became apparent that the traffic levels on the new 2-lane Hillsborough River Bridge were surpassing its designed capacity.
In 1992, the federal and provincial governments signed an agreement which saw a "Fixed Link" built between Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick; in a related sub-contract, the two governments agreed to have the prime contractor for the Fixed Link (today named Confederation Bridge) construct an expanded 4-lane Hillsborough River Bridge. The expanded Hillsborough River Bridge was completed in the mid-1990s at around the same time as municipal amalgamation took place.
The current town of Stratford is experiencing growth as a result of the improved highway connection to Charlottetown, where most residents work. Despite the 12% growth rate, new development is quite modest by most North American standards and includes several new subdivisions, a small highway commercial district, and several municipal buildings including a town hall and community centre.
[edit] External links
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