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The Pharand Haberdashery
77 Promenade du Portage and 1 Leduc Street

77 Promenade du Portage

Alfred Lane bought this land from Janet Louisa Wright before 1884. He was a shoemaker who enlarged his wooden house to fill the entire lot. From 1888 to 1900, Ermine Lapierre also kept a bookstore there. In 1892, Jean-Baptiste Pharand, of Saint-Clet, Soulanges County, acquired the building where Lane and his son continued to live for two more years. The Pharand family lived on Inkerman (Champlain) Street. After Lane's departure, the house was rented out. In 1896-1897 it had six tenants, but there were none the following year. Jean-Baptiste Pharand planned to construct a new building, but abandoned the idea when he and his wife separated. Instead, he left Hull after giving the building to Wilfrid Pharand in 1898. Wilfrid passed on the property to Jean-Baptiste's son, also named Jean-Baptiste Pharand.

The J.-B Pharand haberdashery opened its first premises on the very day of the Great Fire of 1900. It was eight years before the younger Jean-Baptiste Pharand erected a new building. In 1908, he finally constructed this three-storey building in the Italian style fashionable in commercial and residential architecture at the turn of the century. On the first floor, the haberdashery sold ready-to-wear men's clothing until 1964. There was also a tailor's workshop on the third floor for alterations and made-to-measure clothing. The entrance to the second-floor residence was at 1 Leduc Street. This apartment was first occupied by Charles Leduc in 1908-1909, and then by Jean-Baptiste Pharand's family from 1911.

Pharand was born in Saint-Clet on August 15, 1882. He studied commerce at the college in Rigaud, and then apprenticed in the store of his brother Joséphat (1873-1956). He married Lumina Lapointe, daughter of Odilon Lapointe and Lumina Rousseau, in 1911. They had four sons and two daughters: Paul, Émile, Ubald, René, Madeleine and Charlotte. The family lived in the luxurious apartment on the second floor until, following the lead of several other Hull families, they moved to Cèdres, near Aylmer.

Pharand, a jovial man, was socially active. He was a financial contributor to the advancement of sport in Hull. He founded the first bowling alley in the city, paving the way for many others, including the popular B & B alley. He was an alderman from 1926 to 1932, a school commissioner (1938-1939), and then chairman of the school commission (1940-1941). When the Ste-Bernadette Church was built, Pharand donated a carillon with three bells. They were rung at his funeral. He died at the age of 69 on July 15, 1951 at the Ottawa General Hospital. The viewing was held at his home.

His will, drafted exactly one month before he died, was imbued with love and respect for his wife, to whom he bequeathed the management and usufruct of all his possessions. The property was left to his children. Paul and Émile carried on the family business. Charlotte (born in 1922) had married Philippe-Alphonse St-Germain in 1946. Madeleine (born in 1926) married Dr. André Dussault, son of Edgard, after the death of her father, on August 25, 1951. Lumina Lapointe would never remarry. She moved into the home of her daughter Madeleine where she died on March 27, 1983.

Lumina had lived long enough to watch the former Main Street become a route for civil servants who did not shop in Hull, and to see the haberdashery close in 1979. A craft store tried unsuccessfully to attract a new clientele.

Two years later, D. C. Hotel. Inc rented the premises. Following an arson on March 9, 1981, the wall between this building and its neighbour (75 du Portage) was opened to create the Tabasco lounge. A residence and an office occupied the second floor and two other residences were located on the third floor. Gilbert Legault found the craft shop premises ideal for an "erotic" bookstore, which certainly did not resemble that of Ermine Lapierre a century earlier. In 1984, silversmith Pierre Pharand, son of Émile, converted the bookstore into a jewellery store. The Tabasco became the Helium in 1987. When this name was questioned by the Office de la langue française (French Language Bureau), the owner renamed it "Zap". Another fire forced him to close in June 1991. The owner of the bar, Denis Lanoue, had Pharand rebuild the wall that had been opened in 1981. In February 1992, the liquor-licensing board suspended his license. In 1995, Nézar Békir rented the building from Pharand for five years to establish a restaurant there. The building remained vacant until the opening of the Bacci Restaurant, around 2001.



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