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Posted Jan 15, 2010, 8:20 PM
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Quote:
Orléans at 150
By Matthew Pearson, The Ottawa CitizenJanuary 15, 2010 3:03 PM
OTTAWA — Long before Highway 174 was built, Joseph Eugène Bruno Gigues, Ottawa’s first Catholic bishop, travelled by boat down the Ottawa River to a tiny farming community east of the city.
For half a century, English and French settlers had been clearing land to grow potatoes and other produce bound for Montreal.
One man, François Dupuis, wanted the bishop’s permission to build a small chapel, so residents would have a place to worship.
The bishop, who could have come by horse-drawn cart down Montreal Road and paid a 25-cent toll to cross the bridge over Green’s Creek, granted Dupuis his wish and agreed to start a Catholic mission.
In 1860, that mission officially became the Parish of St. Joseph d’Orléans — we know it today as Orléans.
The predominantly francophone parish has since grown into a community of more than 100,000 people. The church no longer plays such a central role and anglophones now make up the majority, but Orléans hasn’t lost its French flavour.
A major health care centre was announced just this week, for land south of Innes Road. And the opening of the Shenkman Arts Centre last year has given the community a temple for the 21st century.
There wasn’t much separating church and state in 1860.
People often referred to the town by its parish name. That could explain why celebrating the 150th anniversary of the parish seems more significant.
“Even though the celebration is for the parish, it’s also a celebration of the community that has come around the place,” said Msgr. Peter Schonenbach, the head of a society formed to plan anniversary activities.
A banquet Saturday will kick off a year of events to mark the anniversary. In May, Archbishop Terrence Prendergast of the Catholic archdiocese of Ottawa will re-enact Gigues’s trip down the Ottawa River, culminating in a parade, mass and reception at the church.
With five masses a week and close to 4,000 families registered — not to mention a steeple that towers over everything on St. Joseph Boulevard — the parish continues to play a major role in Orléans.
But Schonenbach admits growth throughout the last half of the 20th century has changed the community forever.
The parish had 43 anglophone and 131 francophone families in 1880, according to Diocesan records.
Nearly a century later — in 1976 — the population of Orléans was 11,480. By 2008, it was estimated to be 103,750 and counting.
As the community grew, so too did St. Joseph Boulevard. The street was widened to accommodate more traffic. Houses built by some of the original settlers were torn down and replaced by strip malls and parking lots. The house of the parish janitor, just east of the church, was demolished to make way for a Kentucky Fried Chicken.
There’s a big push on now to reclaim the strip as the “Heart of Orléans,” but it won’t be easy. Cars and trucks rush past, most businesses are set back from the street and shoppers have many more options than they once did. They’ve been flocking to Place d’Orléans mall since it opened in 1979 and, more recently, to the box stores popping up on Innes Road.
As area MPP Phil McNeely said, “We built our own Merivale Road up on Innes.”
Like so many people here, Gérald and Pauline Poulin moved to Orléans in 1957 because they wanted to raise their children in a French milieu.
The couple bought a vacant piece of land on Notre Dame Street and, in 1958, built a small house. A few years later, they built a larger house on the same piece of land and raised eight kids — four girls, four boys.
Gerald may have a small stature — he stands five-foot-four — but he’s always had huge ambitions for the community.
He joined the chamber of commerce and the campaign to bring municipal waterworks to the community. He became secretary-treasurer of the school board and oversaw the opening of the intermediate school on Carrière Street, which is now St. Joseph school. And he helped to make the Bob MacQuarrie Recreation Complex Orléans a reality before it had MacQuarrie’s name on it.
Not bad for someone who was in the federal public service and, after retiring, began a second career in real estate.
His latest project was a short history of Orléans, published in the Orléans Cumberland telephone book. This place is clearly in his blood.
“I’ve lived here, I’ve helped develop it, I’m going to die here and I’m going to be buried here, it’s my place,” said the 78-year-old, who has a small park in Chapel Hill named after him.
Today, Orléans is a vital part of the city and Poulin says the 150th anniversary is a fitting time to recognize it. “This community is the best reflection of what Canada could and should be, given the relationship between the francophones and the anglophones — the way we work together, the way we get along, the way we get things done and the way we respect each other,” he said.
Anglophones are roughly 55 per cent of Orléans’ population, compared to francophones at 31 per cent. A further 10 per cent of the community speaks a mother tongue that is neither French or English.
Since the late 1970s, MIFO — Mouvement d’implication francophone d’Orléans — has worked to protect and sustain the French part of the community.
It started with 30 volunteers and one employee, and today boasts 160 employees and 50 volunteers.
Jocelyne Agnew, the president of the board, said MIFO strives to meet the artistic, cultural and educational needs of the community through preschool, before- and after-school programs and summer camps.
MIFO also presents a quarter of the programming at the Shenkman Arts Centre.
“We’re very proud to have it,” Agnew said. “I think it was 20 years of requests before they gave us our arts centre.”
Agnew said the new facility helps MIFO bring big-name francophone talent to local audiences. So far, the shows have, on average, sold 75 per cent of available tickets.
She is not alone in heaping praise on the 86,000-square-foot centre, which includes a 505-seat theatre, 100-seat theatre for rehearsal and experimental work, practice studios for music and dance, gallery and exhibition space, classrooms, a recording studio and administrative offices.
Meanwhile, the area around the centre is becoming a hub of activity. The red-bricked sidewalks are wide and clean as people walk to the neighbouring Orléans outpost of city hall, or to the YMCA. Across the street, there are restaurants, pubs and several businesses blossoming in the plaza.
“I think this will unify Orléans,” said McNeely said of the Shenkman centre. “I’ve always felt that this building would be the heart and soul of Orléans.”
The Shenkman, he said, is a place for all people — regardless of language, religion or club affiliation.
Over the next few months, audiences can see onstage Canadian-born country singer Derek Ruttan, popular Franco-Ontarian performer Brian St-Pierre, Montreal-based dance troupe Destins Croisés or “journey to Pakistan” at an event put on by the Canada Pakistan Association.
McNeely, whose ancestors were part of the first wave of Irish Catholic settlers in the area, could hardly contain his glee during his inaugural New Year’s Levée, held on the lower level of the centre.
For that event, he and others, dressed in period costume, munched on buckwheat pancakes and molasses, and tapped their feet to traditional francophone music.
There was a feeling of celebration and of new beginnings in the air that afternoon for they have built a modern temple for modern times, a new heart for a community built around — and because of — the Parish of St. Joseph d’Orléans.
mpearson@thecitizen.canwest.com
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen
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