René-Arthur Fréchet

Born in Montreal, Quebec, Fréchet obtained a degree in architecture from Laval University in 1898 and the same year he obtained a job with the Intercolonial Railway as an architect. Two years later, in 1900, he moved to Moncton, New Brunswick, for the railway, and resided at the Minto Hotel. In 1905, he opened his own architecture firm, developing a specialty in religious and domestic architecture.[2] However, he was not limited to these architectural fields. Notably, he designed the Capitol Theater in Moncton in the mid-1920s.[3]

St. Bernard Church (1910)

Paquetville Church (1914)

Capitol Theatre, Moncton (1926)

Fréchet became involved in the Acadian community. In 1903, he married Elvina Cormier, daughter of local merchant Simon Cormier. Fréchet was a member of the provisional management team for the French-language Acadian newspaper L'Évangéline, a founding member of the revitalized newspaper (1920s, see Valentin Landry), a city councillor for Moncton City Council for several years, and a member of Société Nationale l'Assomption.[2]

René-Arthur Fréchet died on May 28, 1950, in Moncton. Two days later, Émery Leblanc published a letter in L'Évangéline in memory of Frechet, highlighting his accomplishments.[4]

In Moncton:[5]

• Mary's Home
• Provincial Bank of Canada
• Brunswick Hotel (now Crowne Plaza, significantly altered)
• Capitol Theatre
• Academy of the Sacred Heart
• St. Bernard's Roman Catholic Church
• Hôtel-Dieu and nurse's residence
• Good Shepherd Sisters Building (now the Léopold-Taillon Building, University of Moncton)

Elsewhere in New Brunswick:

• Saint-Antoine l'Ermite Church, Champdoré[6]
• St. Joseph's Church, Shediac
• Léger Pharmacy, Shediac (1912)[7]
• Church of St. Francis Xavier, Charlo
• 21 Gray Street, Fredericton (1919)[8]
• John Peck House, Hillsborough (1919)[9]
• Creaghan Building, Miramichi (1924)[10]
• Church of St. John the Baptist and St. Joseph, Tracadie (1925)[11]
• Bourgeois House, Tracadie (1938)[12]
• Government of Canada Building, North Head (1939)[13][14]

In Nova Scotia

• Memorial Church, Grand-Pré National Historic Site[5]
• St. Bernard Church, St. Bernard, Nova Scotia[5]

In 2012, a park in the Sunny Brae neighbourhood of Moncton was named to recognize the legacy of René-Arthur-Fréchet. Fréchet had been virtually forgotten at the time of the park's naming, and in 2016 residents petitioned to have it given another name.[15][16] The publicity revitalized his memory.[1]