Program Manual - Recreation PEI

The Center’s primary objective is to assist Home Children and their descendants by discoveringtheir real identities, obtaining confirming documentation (birth certificates), and the tracing andlocating of living relatives.LocationThe Centre is on the site of the first farm settled in Cavendish in 1791. Located in the PEI NationalPark, on Route 6, the Centre is across the road from Avonlea Village, and is just half a mile west ofGreen Gables House.The Farmers’ Bank of Rustico MuseumThe Farmers' Bank of Rustico, a National Historic Site, operated from 1864 to 1894 as thefirst people's bank and is credited with being "the precursor of the credit union movement in NorthAmerica." The museum, which describes the settlement of the community by the Acadians and theestablishment of the bank, also contains a genealogical centre. The Doucet House, now situatedadjacent to the bank, is a 1772 Acadian period log house which has been restored and is open forvisitation.Kensington Train StationAt the start of the 1870s, the Island was a thriving and independent British colony, made prosperous andeven a little bit overconfident by the shipbuilding boom. By 1873, it had to throw itself on the mercy of the federalgovernment to offload over three million dollars worth of debt. What happened in between was the building of theP.E.I. Railway. Many of the difficulties the government experienced can be traced back to the shortcomings of theoriginal contract, which agreed to pay the contractors per mile of track laid and failed to specify an exact route. As aresult, the builders went around instead of through obstacles, and engaged in under-the-table dealings to determinewhere the track would make its bends.The result was one of the most winding and circuitous road beds in Canada. The constantneed to veer left and right posed real challenges for the crew of the old steam engines, who would haveto re-adjust the steam pressure to take each bend at the right speed. Adding to this already formidabletask was the fact that, despite the yeoman service of rail foremen, every spring thaw would change therails into a province-wide series of dips and humps. When the Island was converted to diesel in 1950,not many thought they would miss the unpredictable old steamers. But they soon discovered that thesteam engines were not only sometimes easier to repair, but also possessed a romance and personalitythat the quiet, efficient diesel could never replace.If the railway was important in determining the fate of our province, it exerted an even greater influence on thedevelopment of Kensington. The same railway that was the undoing of the province was the making of our community;it can honestly be said that, without the tracks, there might not be any town at all. Before the arrival of the rails in the1870's, the town was no more than a village at a crossroads, with a couple of inns for travelers. It was a far fromobvious decision to route the rail lines through Kensington, as communities with water frontage-- such as Margate--were the real commercial centres in the region at the time.But thanks to a little backroom wheeling and dealing, the big bend bypassed Margate and thecommerce followed the tracks right into Kensington. Businesses clustered around the town's trainstation, the final version of which is a beautiful stone structure completed in 1905. Perhaps thesaddest day in the history of the building came on August 25, 1900 when it housed the dying DavidPound, injured in a terrible train crash outside the town. While trains may no longer pull in and out ofthe yard, an engine will always remain there, thanks to those who rescued Engine 1762 to serve as a