Elliotts Flag Station

This rare flag station building was built in 1906 on the railway tracks that ran through the Elliott family farmyards, millpond, and mills in Pleasant Valley. It replaced the 1875 PEI Railway flag station which was a similar size and is depicted in Meacham's 1880 Atlas.

The Railway constructed three types of stations: terminal stations, usually with three buildings, a passenger house, engine shed, and car shed; crossing or way stations with a waiting room, ticket office, and freight storage; and the smaller flag station. There were once 50 of the open-ended flag stations with 100 feet of platform along the track. If the flag was up, the train would stop. The Elliott Flag Station was a humble fixture in Queens County PEI. It had two rooms: one for coal and one used as a rest stop for waiting passengers. It is a rare structure, as few such buildings survived into the 21st century. The construction of the railway in Prince Edward Island was a costly business, leading to increased taxes. The financial burden ultimately led to PEI joining Confederation in 1873 with the Dominion of Canada settling the railway construction debt.

In the 1960s the Elliott Flag Station was moved to the nearby Weeks farm and used as a storage shed.

In 2014 Stacey MacInnis purchased the station and relocated it to his property in Burlington, where he has restored it. MacInnis's mother Celia stoked the coal fire for waiting passengers, taking up the job following her husband Ernest MacInnis's death in 1956, leaving her with three small children. Restoration of the building was undertaken between 2014 and 2018; in 2018, the owner received a PEI Museum and Heritage Foundation Heritage Activity Award for his efforts.

The Elliott Flag Station is a tangible reminder of the importance of the province's railway and transportation history.

Heritage Places Files, Dept. of Economic Growth, Tourism & Culture, Charlottetown, PE

File #: 4310-20/E5