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Though much as been written about the summer economy of St. Andrews, perhaps not many realize that tourism only provided part-time income, and the people of St. Andrews accepted its dominance over their incomes rather grudgingly. Part of this has to do with pride. When tourism hit the area in the last two decades of the nineteenth century, there were still citizens who remembered the good old days under British protectionism when the shore was lined with huge wharves doing business with Britain and the West Indies and complaining about "hard times" was at a discount. Even after the "arrival" of St. Andrews as a watering place, there was still the old struggle, held over from the glory days, of finding winter employment. Great hopes were placed on the railway in this connection, mainly in the freight department. But the upshot of the railway venture hoping to connect St. Andrews with Quebec was only modest increase in industrial traffic; mainly the railway brought summer visitors and with them the need for related business such as hotels and bathing facilities, town improvement societies, parks, and whatnot.
This section of the site focuses on the local economy of St. Andrews: the various full-time, year-round, non-tourism businesss that have sprung up and either died or continued on over the years. The sections on the Summer People and Hotels are devoted more exclusively to the transient and part-time tourist trade.