Victoria-by-the-Sea

Victoria was laid out in 1819 as a shipping port on a four-street grid that has not changed, and it had a busy trade until the railway and larger ports took the traffic. Fewer than two hundred people live there year-round. What it has instead is disproportionate: the Victoria Playhouse, a professional theatre in the 1913 community hall running a full summer season, a chocolate factory making by hand, potters and artists in the small buildings, and a seafood restaurant or two. The range light on the shore dates from 1879. Low tide exposes a long red sand flat where people dig for clams.

History

James Bardin Palmer, a lawyer and agent for the Earl of Westmoreland, founded Victoria in 1819, and his son Donald laid it out on the family estate on the street grid still in use. By the late 1800s it was a prosperous seaport with three wharves, trading with Europe, the West Indies and the east coast and shipping potatoes and eggs by schooner until the early 1900s, with hotels, a bank and a rink that was home to the Victoria Union hockey team; when the Trans-Canada Highway passed it by, many businesses moved to nearby Crapaud (Wikipedia, Victoria, Prince Edward Island).

The main sights

• The 1819 grid - four streets unchanged since the village was laid out.
• The Victoria Playhouse - professional summer theatre in a 1913 hall.
• The chocolate factory - hand-made confectionery in the village.
• The range light - an 1879 wooden light on the shore.

When to go

June to September, when the theatre season runs and the shops open; the village is largely shut from October to May. Evening performances are the reason most people stay.

Things to know

Almost everything closes outside summer. The village is four streets and walked in twenty minutes. Theatre tickets for popular nights sell out.

Nearby

Charlottetown lies east; the Confederation Bridge is west.

Key facts