page_title: Ministers Island
section_title: Covenhoven Post-Van Horne
hierarchical_section_title: Ministers Island / Covenhoven Post-Van Horne
caption_attribution_description: English: Showing Covenhoven in the summer of 2017
context_page_description: Ministers Island is an historic Canadian island in New Brunswick's Passamaquoddy Bay near the town of St. Andrews.
  The 200-hectare island stands several hundred metres offshore immediately northeast of the town and is a geographical novelty in that it is accessible at low tide by a wide gravel bar suitable for vehicular travel.
  Ministers Island became famous in the last decade of the nineteenth century as the summer home of Sir William Van Horne, the president of the Canadian Pacific Railway. By the time of Van Horne’s death in 1915, the island had been transformed into a small Xanadu, sporting a sandstone mansion furnished in the most lavish late Edwardian manner, manicured grounds, scenic roads, greenhouses turning out exotic fruits and vegetables, as well as a breeding farm producing prize-winning Clydesdale horses and Dutch Belted cattle. It was the most spectacular of many palatial summer homes in St. Andrews, which since the creation of the St. Andrews Land Company in 1888 and the arrival of Van Horne in 1891, had become a watering place of note on the Canadian east coast.
context_section_description: Following Van Horne's death in 1915, Sir William's daughter Adaline inherited the estate. Very similar to her father, Adaline loved the island and the farm and maintained the property until her death in 1941. From there it was managed by the Royal Trust Company of Montreal on behalf of the Edith Bruce, wife of Adaline’s deceased brother, Richard Benedict Van Horne, and his granddaughter Beverley Ann, born in 1932. Throughout the forties and fifties, Mrs. Bruce made continual requests for cost-saving measures, resulting in the gardens and greenhouse operations being scaled back considerably; tenants were eventually found to occupy the property for the summers of about 1949-1953. 
  Beverley Ann came of age in 1953 and took possession of the house; though she visited the island, she showed little interest in maintaining or restoring the island. It was largely unoccupied, and in 1961, was sold to an American company. This group formed the Van Horne Island Club and drew up plans to turn the island into a private resort, with Covenhoven as a clubhouse, the bathhouse as a lounge, a golf course, trap and skeet shooting, yachting, and an airstrip. However, these plans did not come to fruition, owing to the high cost of operating the island, making improvements such as installing electric lighting, and the generally inaccessibility of the island. After 12 years and a sizeable investment, the Van Horne Island Club had hosted only friends and families of the Club members; it was then sold to Norman Langdon, a real estate developer from Maine.
  Langdon's plans were similar to those of the Van Horne Island Club and met a similar fate. After expenditures of around $300,000 (by his own estimation), Langdon was in approximately the same economic situation as the Van Horne Island Club had been. He attempted to sell the island to the Province of New Brunswick, but negotiations were slow, and finally in 1977 Langdon auctioned off the contents of the house and the island itself in an event that drew a great deal of media attention. The Van Horne home in Sherbrooke St, Montreal had been torn down in 1973, leaving Covenhoven the only remaining Van Horne residence; as such, many considered it of national significance, given Van Horne's close connection to the unification of the country under the Confederation.
  Representatives of the Province of New Brunswick attended the auction and purchased some artifacts, but many were taken from the house during the auction. After two businessmen, Michael McPherson and Alexander George, took out an option on the island itself, the Province felt something drastic needed to be done; the Island was declared a protected site, prohibiting any potential owners from making any chances without approval. McPherson and George subsequently declined to exercise their option, causing Langdon to reopen negotiations with the Province. The Province purchased the island in 1977 with the exception of one outstanding lot, which was picked up in 1982.
caption: Covenhoven 2017
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "5472", "Image ImageLength": "3648", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon EOS 6D", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CC 2019 (Macintosh)", "Image DateTime": "2018:10:25 01:34:34", "Image Artist": "David Sullivan", "Image Copyright": "339 Water St.\nSt. Andrews, NB\nE5B 2R2\nseaside@nb.aibn.com", "Image ExifOffset": "376", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1062", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3420", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/320", "EXIF FNumber": "71/10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF RecommendedExposureIndex": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:10:01 13:21:56", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:10:01 13:21:56", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "1040241/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "2827819/500000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "4", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "17", "EXIF SubSecTime": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "00", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "00", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1536", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "650", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "1520", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1520", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "132128000706", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[17, 40, 0/0, 0/0]", "EXIF LensModel": "EF17-40mm f/4L USM", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "0000000000"}