Le 800 Avenue de l’Hôtel de Ville

Painting sold at the opening on September 22, 2022 at the galerie le 1855...

This Beauty of Yesteryear, built in 1885, was newly acquired with pride by Mr. Pierre Dumaine, on March 8, 2019, in order to practise his profession as a financial advisor for his firm, Dumanité, cabinet de services financiers.

It was also inhabited by Mr. Jean-Baptiste Blanchet, a lawyer and Liberal member of the federal government, elected in a by-election on February 16, 1904.

It once had the civic number 8 rue Rosalie, so named in honour of Rosalie Papineau, sister of the Patriote Louis-Joseph Papineau, wife of Jean Dessaulles and mother of Georges Casimir Dessaulles.

Born on November 10, 1852, MP Blanchet unfortunately died six months after his election, on August 31, 1904, in a railway accident in Richmond, in the cantons de l’est.

After having gone to work in the United States from the age of 16, and having returned to Canada, he began his classical studies at the Séminaire de Saint-Hyacinthe and became a lawyer in 1883, at the age of 31.

He practised his profession at the corner of rues Girouard and Saint-Denis in Saint-Hyacinthe, on the site of Humania today, formerly that of the édifice de La Survivance.

He was then President of the Société Saint-Jean- Baptiste de Saint-Hyacinthe.

A lively and tireless worker, he had very advanced ideas for his time... A public benefactor, he took part in charitable works and had sponsored L’orphelinat de l’Hôtel Dieu de Saint-Hyacinthe..

In his last will of June 1900, he had made a bequest of $500.00 to help the poor of the City.

According to the historical notes of Mr. Luc Cordeau, published in Le Courrier de Saint-Hyacinthe on April 25, 2007, after Sunday Mass, a good number of the Liberal elite would gather at Jean-Baptiste Blanchet’s home to discuss current events.