Description of Historic Place

Charlottetown’s City Hall is a Romanesque Revival style, 19th century public building, located on the corner of Kent and Queen Streets in Charlottetown. The brick and stone building is a landmark in Charlottetown. The designation encompasses the building’s exterior and parcel; it does not include the building’s interior.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of City Hall lies in its role in the history of the City of Charlottetown and its place as a landmark in the city.

From the City’s incorporation in 1855, Charlottetown City Council had been meeting on Queen’s Square in a small wooden building that had been previously used to house a courthouse and a flour and meal market. In 1885, Mayor Henry Beer, in his annual report discussed the need for a new building “for fire and civic purposes”. By 1887, the site of the former Love Family tannery had been chosen; the plans of Island architects John Lemuel Phillips and Charles Benjamin Chappell had been accepted and the building contract was awarded to contractor, William H. Fraser. The inaugural meeting of Council took place in its new home on December 10, 1888. In 1916, a large addition, designed by Charles Benjamin Chappell and John Marshall Hunter, was built on the North East side to accommodate fire engines. Over the years, City Hall has been renovated several times to update the interior and restore the exterior of the building. Despite discussions in the 1960s for the need of a new, more modern, City Hall building, offices of the expanded City of Charlottetown remain here to this day. Throughout the years, City Hall has played an integral part in the lives of Charlottetown residents. Decisions that affected every aspect of the lives of City residents were made in its Council chambers. Fire and Police services were also provided through City Hall until the needs of the Departments grew beyond its walls.

A unique building in Charlottetown, City Hall is a large, predominantly brick structure with a large tower on its South East corner. It is the oldest municipal hall in Prince Edward Island and remains the only 19th century building left on the Queen and Kent Street block. All of the aforementioned contribute to making City Hall one of the most significant landmarks in Charlottetown.

Sources: Heritage Office, City of Charlottetown Planning Department, PO Box 98, Charlottetown, PE C1A 7K2
Record # 1198 and Charlottetown City Hall: Yesterday and Today compiled by Nancy Coughlin

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of the building is shown in the following Romanesque Revival character defining elements:

- the size and shape of the exterior brickwork, which includes Nova Scotia Freestone bands running throughout the exterior; decorative brickwork trim; and large arches over the windows and doors
- the placement and style of the deeply recessed windows including the transom lights on the top of the first and second floor windows
- the placement and double wooden style of the doors on the south side of the building
- the tower with its pyramidal roof and belfry
- the mansard roof of the original Phillips and Chappell design with its two gables
- the 1916 Chappell and Hunter addition
- the large bell on the Kent Street side
- the presence of the building as an important civic symbol on a prominent street corner