Quispamsis | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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Quispamsis

Quispamsis, NB, incorporated as a town in 1998, population 17 886 (2011c), 15 239 (2006c). The Town of Quispamsis is located 22 km northeast of SAINT JOHN along the Kennebecasis River.

Quispamsis, NB, incorporated as a town in 1998, population 17 886 (2011c), 15 239 (2006c). The Town of Quispamsis is located 22 km northeast of SAINT JOHN along the Kennebecasis River. The Hammond River constitutes its eastern boundary. Incorporated as a village in 1966 and as a town in 1982, it was reincorporated as a town with new boundaries that included the village of Gondola Point (incorporated 1966) and part of the parish of Rothesay. The name is derived from the Maliseet word for "little lake," probably for Ritchie Lake, and was assigned by the European and North American Railway in 1857 when that line was being built through the area. Prior to that it was known successively as Wetmore's, Gondola Point and Lakefield.

This essentially rural area was primarily a summer community until the mid-1960s. Since then the population of the town has grown dramatically as it developed as a dormitory community of Saint John. Those who do not commute to Saint John work in the service sector of the town's economy. Gondola Point is the landing point for 2 parallel cable river ferries from rural areas across the Kennebecasis River. Quispamsis is the site of Stoneycroft, the old "Twelve Mile House," which was built around 1800 and is now a provincial historic site (1977).