In Orléans, We Build Our Community With the Help of Our Neighbours

By Pierre Chartrand

 

M. Chartrand, a resident of Orléans, is the son of Bernard and Gabrielle Chartrand. He is the writer of the historical plaques found in Orléans.

 

After their marriage in Ottawa on June 4, 1945, Bernard Chartrand and Gabrielle Champagne decided to settle in Orléans. Why? Because that’s where Bernard’s parents were born and where they had spent their youth. Gabriell, adhered to the conventions of the day: When a woman married, she moved to her husband’s community.

 

But, all their lives, and long after they left the village, they continued to shop at the Boucherie d’Orléans. See the SFOPHO and Heart of Orléans BIA plaque about the butcher shop at 2871 St. Joseph Boulevard.

 

In addition, Bernard’s grandparents had lived in the Sainte-Martine which was also called “rang des Chartrand” (Trim Road today). If you have a chance, read the historical plaque in the former Chartrand village, installed by the SFOPHO and CÉPEO in 2020. It’s on Millenium Road in front of Gisèle-Lalonde Public High School.

 

Bernard and Gabrielle found a large lot on Boyer Road, not far from St. Joseph Boulevard, adjacent to the lands of Alexandre Glaude and Wilfrid Charrette, and the properties of Henri Lauzon and Arthur Vézina. You can see the SFOPHO and Heart of Orléans BIA plaque about this at Arthur’s Supertest Garage, 2006 St. Joseph Boulevard.

 

Bernard and Gabrielle hired the mason, Hermas Saumur, who was the husband of Léontine Lachapelle and father of 14 children. You can see the City of Ottawa plaque on St. Joseph Boulevard just east of Montée Duford, about this family.)

 

Bernard and Gabrielle built the two-story house on a beautiful promontory facing the vast fields of the Grey Nuns of the Cross farm. All building materials – cinder blocks, wood, nails, cement, paint – were purchased from Montpetit’s General Store. There’s a SFOPHO and Heart of Orléans BIA plaque about this Orléans staple at 2839 St. Joseph Boulevard.

 

The house would have been ready by the summer of 1946. But there were slowdowns caused by rationing during the war, which had just ended. Bernard and Gabrielle moved into their home in the spring of 1947, and lived there for many years, raising their three children, Pierre [the article author], Huguette, and François. In the late 1950s, Notre-Dame Street was extended west of Boyer Road.