Ardgowan National Historic Site

Disappointed. Was expecting the advertised “Victorian garden” and to be able to walk around inside the building. No garden and the building is offices and a boardroom. Other than if you want to take a picture of the outside I’d say just skip this

This is basically a fake parks Canada location. The entrance has a doorbell. Finally someone comes and says the building is just an office. There's lot of grass and trees but no victorian garden.

Used to live across the street on Palmers Lane. It's a great place to visit.

Place is well maintained.i stopped there to look aroind and charge my Tesla with the free level 2 charging system there

Very pretty park grounds, however no public washrooms were available. A nice quick place for a walk amongst nature in Charlottetown.

Nice quiet little park. I imagine it will be beautiful when things start coming into bloom.
I was impressed there was an electric vehicle charging station in the parking lot.

Important to understand that only the grounds of this historic site are accessible to visitors. Parks Canada is using the interior of the building for offices, and unfortunately the interior has not been restored to what it would have looked like in the 1860s. Visitors cannot tour the inside of what was the home of PEI's father of Confederation, William Henry Pope (1825-1879). This is a shame because the house is famous for hosting George Brown when he participated in the Charlottetown Conference; and was the site of a "grand luncheon" of PEI lobsters, oysters, etc, that Pope hosted for Sir John and the other delegates. Ironically, PEI declined to join Confederation in 1867, despite Pope's role in hosting the Charlottetown conference. PEI finally joined Confederation in 1873 when it was faced with a financial crisis - the colony incurred a huge debt during the building of the Island railway. Lost opportunity to tell the story of the owner of this historic site, and his role in facilitating PEI's entry into Confederation.