York Point Community Centre

The York Point Community Centre, formerly the York Point School, has been a landmark in its community for more than 150 years.

The first school in the area is believed to have been located on the south shore of the district along the waterfront at nearby Bass Cove and was established about 1841. A second York Point School, now known as the York Point Community Centre, was built at the MacEwen Road on property donated by Hugh MacEwen sometime between 1852 and 1863. The school was moved across the road to its current location in 1953 to the property of Leslie MacEwen and a front entrance porch was added. Further renovations to the school were carried out between 1980 - 1990.

This one room school was supported, like many other rural schools, by the local Women's Institute group, who raised funds for improvements and renovations, including painting and chalk boards. In the 1960s, the windows were updated. The school was heated by a pot-bellied stove and often a student was tasked with ensuring it was lit each morning.

In 1972, the York Point School District had 129 students. With school consolidation in the province, the York Point School closed in 1973 and students attended the newly constructed Eliot River Elementary School in Cornwall. The York Point Women's Institute purchased the school and operated it as the Community Centre. The Centre included a day care centre facility from 1973 to 1977 and over the years many local community groups and organizations have used the building as a meeting place.

In 2014, the York Point Historical Society assumed ownership of the building and rehabilitation work, sympathetic to the heritage character of the former school, was undertaken to stabilize and refit the building for many more years of service as a community centre.

The York Point Community Centre continues to be valued as a community meeting place and centre hosting meetings and special events and is a tangible reminder of York Point's past.

Source : Heritage Places Files, Department of Education, Early Learning and Culture

Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

File Number: 4310-20/Y3