A cool old house that became a…read more friend for friendless women. Beaconsfield House was build back in 1877 for James Peake, a very wealthy merchant and leading businessmen of Prince Edward Island. The house certainly reflects his wealth because it is absolutely gorgeous, with all the latest conveniences that the 19th century had to offer, including central heating, gas lighthing and running water. The Peakes even had a party that Princess Louise, the daughter of Queen Victoria attended. Real gaudy, ostentatious, high society, hooty tooty stuff. The house is located right on Charlottetown Harbor so it has beautiful views of the water. You pay your loonies and toonies and a very friendly and knowledgeable guide gives you a tour of the house. You are then free to walk around by yourself. Of course they can answer any stupid questions you happen to have and obviously love talking about the house. Unfortunately the economy back in the 1880's was as capricious as our present one and due to the collapse of the shipbuilding industry, Mr Peake lost all his money and only lived in the house for about five years. The new master was the eccentric and wealthy Henry Cundall. He never married and lived at Beaconsfield with his two sisters. When good old Hank died in 1926 he left the house to the town as a refuge for "friendless young women". So the house operated as a sort of a very elaborate and ornate type of homeless shelter for a few years. Then in the 1930's the Cundall House became a place for student nurses studying at the nearby hospital. Finally in the 1970's it was turned into the present museum. I love poking around old houses and talking to people that enjoy old houses, so the visit to the Peake house was great. What made it even more enjoyable was when some women came in that said they actually lived in the house years ago when they were studying to be nurses. You never know what unexpected treasures you are going to find in a great old house.

Beautiful old home in Charlottetown and it's right by a sidewalk that goes along the water. In the…read moresummer, everyone is out exercising and walking their dogs.

This place had so many cute local made gifts and also we got a super yummy seasonal coffee!…read moreDefinitely recommend stopping here. We ended up getting food somewhere else but some of their food looked delicious!

This museum is sorely in need of a technological update. Opened in 2001, it contains a walkthrough…read moretour of Canada's history of confederation. While the information is interesting, the tour is run with earphones that contain a radio receiver. Each stop is transmitted continuously in one direction. This means that if you are not standing in the correct spot, or turn your head away from the display, you get earfulls of static. The headset is also heavy and uncomfortable because of the receiver. Additionally, many of the touch-screen displays aren't functioning. Finally, the tour theme is a journalist's view of confederation there had been journalists that were crosses between a tongue-in-cheek CBC reporter and the Royal Canadian Air Force. It was just too light an atmosphere for these important events. I've been to many museums, both in Canada and abroad. With digital techonology, they can now set tracks at each station, and have tourists dial in their stop number in a digital player, rather than continuously running on radio-waves. This would prevent having to listen to the back-half of an event, wait for it to restart, and then listen to the front-half. On the bright side, it's an informative (if superficial) tour of Canada's confederation years.

Visited today on vacation from New Jersey. Very interesting and staff was extremely friendly and…read moreinformative. We learned a lot about Acadian history, as well as European history. The docent also gave us a great restaurant recommendation.

I had my doubts, but this car museum is worth the visit! History and entertainment for the whole…read morefamily.