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In 1890 SIR WILLIAM VAN HORNE purchased Minister's Island on PASSAMAQUODDY BAY for his summer resort. Van Horne built a most impressive sandstone house there, which he called Covenhoven.
Ministers Island Historic Site
In 1890 SIR WILLIAM VAN HORNE purchased Minister's Island on PASSAMAQUODDY BAY for his summer resort. Van Horne built a most impressive sandstone house there, which he called Covenhoven. Covenhoven boasted 50 rooms, including 17 bedrooms, as might befit one of Canada's most important captains of industry. Van Horne also kept thoroughbred horses and a herd of Dutch belted cattle on the island, and he had heated greenhouses built to ensure a supply of the best fruits and vegetables year round. Today visitors can get a sense of how the wealthy lived in early 20th-century Canada by visiting Ministers Island. Designated as a New Brunswick historic site in 1977, the island is open from June to mid-October.
