The Bédard family: five generations in Manor Park
Located at the north end of St. Laurent Blvd., a small cluster of Manor Park homes silently tells part of the story of the Bédard family: Eugène Bedard (1867-1937), his wife Albina (c. 1863-1948) and their descendants covering five generations.
It began in 1905 when Eugène started work on construction of the Rifle Range. Yet little did the Bédards realize they would become ‘the first permanent residents’ in the area now known as Manor Park.
The Bédards married in 1886 at Notre Dame Basilica. Eugène, described as an early riser and a hard worker, was always on the move and stayed on as caretaker of the range. Meanwhile, his wife Albina was a “terrific cook” and many a visiting militia officer enjoyed a home-cooked meal at her table. Together, the family operated a tiny ‘convenience store’ selling supplies to the military as there were no shops for miles.
The Bédard’s home was overtaken long ago by the Rockcliffe Airbase and the RCMP. However, on Sandridge Rd., behind modern clad siding, rests a two-storey, Tudor-style building built by one of their sons, Hector.
Hector Bédard, a bachelor, was a taxidermist by profession and his reputation was widespread. Known to be an ardent hunter and fisherman with a hunting camp near Masson, QC, Hector lived to be 90.
Beside Hector’s home was a more modest dwelling where his sister Maria, a widow, raised four children. She married Henri Desormeaux with great fanfare in 1909 as she was the first bride married at Notre Dame de Lourdes Church in Eastview (now Vanier).
When the long winter walk to school in Lower Town became too difficult for her children, Maria moved, and Hector took over the space for his taxidermy. All traces of the shop/ home are now lost under a modern house.
Barber shop
Fast forward to 1949 and the next chapter of the Bédard family story. Manor Park was booming with new housing and new ‘settlers’. Liliane (oldest daughter of Maria and granddaughter of Eugène and Albina) and her husband, Fabien Vaive, built a new bungalow at the corner of Gaspé Ave. and St. Laurent Blvd. – within shouting distance of Hector’s Sandridge Rd. home.
Fabien was a barber. Moving to Manor Park signaled an opportunity to establish his own business at a time when the RCMP barracks and housing in Manor Park were expanding. Liliane, who had lived her early days just around the corner on Sandridge Rd., worked as a florist at downtown floral shops. Their bungalow had a double peaked roof – one peak for the family and a small peak set back slightly for his barber shop – Manor Park’s first.
The date, 1949, was carved in a cornerstone of the steps.
Although Liliane and Fabien had no children of their own, their niece Diane became part of the Vaive household following the death of her mother, Rhea (Liliane’s sister). Diane was the fourth generation of Eugène and Albina Bédard’s family to live in Manor Park. Initially she travelled by school bus to the Quarries Public School on Montreal Rd. as all children east of St. Laurent Blvd. were schooled in Gloucester Township. However, by grade two Diane could literally skip to Mount Carmel School down the block on Gaspé Ave. and come home for lunch.
‘It’s home for me’
Continuing the Bédard story, in 1999, Diane’s son, Dan Gravelle, purchased and moved into Liliane’s bungalow with his wife, Darlene. “It’s home for me”. He remembered having his hair cut there as a child and walking just around the corner where his great-uncle Hector’s stuffed animals spooked him. Dan always liked the area, while his mother Diane was more than “glad the house was still in the family.”
That house stayed in the family until it was sold around 2015 when the Gravelles left Manor Park. That sale brought the fifth-generation chapter of the Eugène and Albina Bédard story that started back in 1905 in Manor Park to an end.
Edited for length from the original story written by Dawn Logan and published in the September 2011 Chronicle.
