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French Community in Welland

Photos by contributor Brian Bockus - Posted July, 2017

Plaque Location

The Region of Niagara
The City of Welland
Just to the north of
Sacré-Cœur Roman Catholic Church
on the east side of Empire Street
just north of Welland Street

Coordinates: N 42 59.473 W 79 14.382

Plaque Text

The neighbourhood that became commonly referred to as "French Town" was established in this area in 1918, when approximately 20 French-Canadian families arrived from Quebec to work at the Empire Cotton Mills plant. The Roman Catholic Parish of Sacré-Cœur was established in 1920 and became the cultural centre of the francophone community that developed around Empire Street. Additional French-Canadian families arrived from Quebec, New Brunswick and northern Ontario throughout the 1920s. Another wave of francophones moved here at the outset of the Second World War, attracted largely by employment opportunities in local industry. The French district was a strong and vibrant community that protected and fostered French-Canadian language and culture. The neighbourhood's population reached its peak during the 1960s, but the majority of Welland's francophone population still lived here until the late 1980s. The strong legacy of French-Canadian culture and heritage created by the small but dynamic francophone community remains within Welland to this day.

Related Ontario plaques
French-Canadian Settlement and the CPR in the Mattawa Area
The French Presence in Hearst
The French Presence in Cornwall
The French Presence in Lafontaine
French Settlement on the South Shore
Jeanne Lajoie 1899-1930
L'École Guigues and Regulation 17

Related Toronto plaque
Sacré-Cœur Parish

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