Notre-Dame Cemetery
HEADQUARTERS OF Les Jardins du Souvenir
75, Fournier blvd., Gatineau (Hull Sector)
Established in 1872
A 33-acre landscaped and wooded property where peaceful beauty, tranquility, respect and serenity prevail.
The largest of the six cemeteries is the Notre-Dame Cemetery, located on Blvd. Fournier (Hull Sector). It appears that the Oblates of Mary Immaculate acquired, in 1866, a field of one hundred acres on the Blvd. Fournier. In 1872, Father Henri Tabaret purchased nearby 52.5 hectares of land from John and William Welch, timber merchants in Hull. Subsequently, Andrew Leamy gave 1.6 hectares of land to build a cemetery. All these parcels of land constituted a property large enough to accommodate a cemetery.
Subsequently, the International Portland Cement Company (current site of the Casino du Lac-Leamy) purchased a portion of the land, other portions of land were subdivided while approximately 13 acres were used for burial purposes over the past 140 years.
The entrance to the Notre-Dame Cemetery is quite impressive. It has a carved stone portal built in 1902 following the plans of Hull architect, Charles Brodeur. A statue of the Angel of Death sounding the last trumpet surmounts the portal. Made of hammered copper, the statue was made by Quebec sculptor Arthur Vincent. It appears that this statue was the last significant work of the artist.
Built in 1915, the Notre-Dame Cemetery caretakers' house was first inhabited by Ovide Lemieux, Exhildat Jacques, his wife and their seven children. It then became the residence of the family of their son Joseph. Ernest Martel and his wife Alice Brault who occupied the house along with their nine children until their departure in 1964. Other caretakers replaced the Martels until 1975 when the house was transformed into offices for the cemetery's staff. In October 2006, the house was emptied and offices were then housed in a new building located where once was the garden.
Caretaker houses were probably rare in Western Quebec. This property evokes the very special and important work the caretakers who, through their tasks, took care of the sites where our dearly departed ancestors and elite are buried. Located inside the perimeter of the cemetery, the building has witnessed the happy memories of the descendants of the families and their friends at a time when the presence of death was part of everyday life.
According to historian Manon Guitard, the heritage value of the building resides in the fact that it was the residence of caretakers and is unique in Gatineau. In fact, It is the sole caretaker house in the entire city. Its heritage value is attributed to the fact that it is located inside the perimeter of the cemetery, near the monumental entrance, thus granting it a significant value.
The cemetery is the resting place of many public and prominent figures:
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Comedian, author and critic Laurette Larocque, better known under her artist name, Jean Després (1906-1965);
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Marcel Chaput, Founder of the Rassemblement pour l'independance nationale (1918-1991);
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Father Louis-Étienne Reboul (1827-1877), Founder of the City of Hull Parish;
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Actor and Director René Provost (1903-1966), father of actor Guy Provost;
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Pianist and poet Clara Lanctot (1886-1958);
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Match maker Donalda Charron (1886-1967) who led the famous strike of " faiseuses d'allumettes/match makers " of the EB Eddy Company in 1924;
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Marcelline Dumais (1850-1916), owner of the house where started the Great Fire of Hull in 1900;
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Marie-Therese Archambault (1904-1960), first lay woman to earn a doctorate in philosophy in North America in 1932 and heroic defender of the French language in 1917;
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Painter Jean Alie (1925-1997);
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Several other well-known personalities
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