Placentia is a town on the Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland and Labrador, consisting of the amalgamated communities of Jerseyside, Freshwater, Dunville and Placentia.
Family names include Caul, Power, O'Keefe, Williams, Gambin, Barry and Careen. Its current population is approximately 4,200.
It is unclear when Placentia was first settled by Europeans, but Basque fishermen were fishing in the area as early as the beginning of the 16th century, using Placentia as a centre of operations. Placentia's large, rocky beach meant that fish could be salted and dried on the beachrocks, saving both time and effort.
In 1655, the French, who controlled more than half of the island of Newfoundland, and most of Atlantic Canada, made Placentia (or 'Plaisance,' as they called it) their capital. The French colony at Placentia was a successful one, and several raids against the English were launched from here.
In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht forced the French to abandon their Placentia Bay settlements, and Placentia became a British possession. Although eclipsed by St. John's and Harbour Grace, Placentia was a large and important town, a regional centre to the southern Avalon peninsula and the eastern Burin peninsula.
From the mid-1700s through to the 1830s, numerous Irish immigrants from Waterford, Wexford, Kilkenny, and Cork settled in Placentia, so that the population of the modern town is largely of a mixture of West Country English and South-eastern Irish background.
In 1940, via an agreement between the British and American governments (Newfoundland not joining Canada until 1949), a large American military base was constructed at nearby Argentia (which is now within the town of Placentia's boundaries). For a time, this was the largest American military base outside of the United States, and it played an integral role in World War II, earning the nickname "the Gibraltar of the Atlantic."
This huge development revolutionized the Placentia area both economically and culturally. Esentially, the American base introduced a wide-spread cash-based economy. Suddenly, people who had fished all of their lives (engaging in a type of barter system called the truck system) had access to good-paying jobs on the American base. American technology enriched the living standards of Placentia residents, while the local culture was influenced strongly by the American presence.
The American base at Argentia was scaled back in the 1970's, and closed totally in 1994. This, along with the cod moratorium introduced by the Canadian government a few years' earlier, left the town of Placentia without an economic base for some time, although recently developments by INCO are beginning to stabilize the town's rocky economic situation.
Placentia is also home to a campus of the College of the North Atlantic. It has a unique lift-bridge, many archaeological sites (some partially re-constructed), several excellent examples of late-19th century Newfoundland architecture, two museumes (O'Reilly House and Castle Hill), and one of the two Marine Atlantic ferry links to Nova Scotia (via Argentia). It is 130 kilometres from the capital city, St. John's, and is within easy distance of the scenic Cape Shore (including the Cape St. Mary's Bird Sanctuary), the Irish Loop, and Conception Bay.
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Coordinates: 47°14′N 53°58′W