Telegraph Office

Telegraph Office, 1909

Built in the early 1900s by Jean-Louis Légaré, this ridge-roof house was built with store bought lumber. Obviously it was setup with its ultimate destiny in mind from the start, as the front gable end was bestowed with a ten foot flag pool.

Some say it was first situated near Légaré's store in the park, while others say it was situated along the hills directly south of town! In any case, in the spring of 1904 the house began serving as Telegraph Office, with Marc-Aurèle Noël as operator.

According to Mr. Philippe Mondor, the house was moved to its present site in 1909 by one man, using a capstan and a lone horse. Apparently the man set the building on logs, and then proceeded to dig a post hole X number of feet in the ground ahead of it. He then installed the capstan in the hole, and setup a rope joining it and the house. As the horse turned the capstan, the house rolled forward and when it reached the capstan, another hole was dug up ahead. This process was repeated until the house reached its present site, which took all summer.

Some years later, on October 22, 1912, Mr. Noël married Grazialla St. Laurent and in due course their family numbered eight children. Mr. Noël continued to serve a Telegraph Operator at this site until 1931, at which time he was transferred to Notikewin, Alta. Even so, his wife and family continued to occupy the house until 1932, then joined him there.

Afterwards the house (presumably owned by Alexandre P. Beausoleil) still served as a private home, but it also filled in as Village Office for several years.

After September 18, 1942, the building began its long term as the area's first Credit Union.
1970s At some point in the mid 1950s the edifice was enlarged, by adding a lean-to on the west side, and the business was readily moved into it. Credit Union Managers at this site were: Alex P. Beausoleil (1942-45), Raymond P. Boulianne (1945-58), Laurent Mondor (1958-60), and Leonard Bourdages from July 1, 1960, until September 17, 1962. At that time, a small fire took place and the building received considerable smoke damage. Even though there was no vault, all vital documents were saved, but the Credit Union nevertheless vacated the premises.

That fall Marcel & Anna (Weismiller) Mondor bought the building, renovated it, and used the main part of the structure as their home. In that, since 1960, Anna had handled the S.G.I. franchise (Mondor Agencies) in a small office setup in the lean-to for that purpose, she continued to do so until 1980.

The remainder of the lean-to was converted into a suite which was first rented by Marcel's dad, Philippe Mondor, who resided in it until about 1968. After him there was Dr. Henry Walter, followed by a teacher, etc. and the last tenant was Annna's dad, Paul Weismiller Jr. who occupied the suite from 1977 to 1980.

In 1981, the house and business was sold to Daniel & Jeanette (Watchel) Mondor. They converted the lean-to into office space and operated the S.G.I. agency out of it, using the same name. Dan's mother, Anna, continued to reside in the main structure. .
Telegraph Office, Spring 2007

In 1987, Robert & Jocelyne (Martin) Therrien purchased the building and the S.G.I. franchise; they renamed it "Therrien Agencies". The house served as their family residence, though they did make considerable renovations to it sometime later on, and Robert continued to operate the S.G.I. office out of the lean-to until October 19, 1991. The S.G.I. business was then moved across the street to the old C.I.B.C. building, while the family continued to occupy the house until the fall of 1995. At that time, Robert sold the S.G.I. franchise and they moved to Regina.

In April, 1997, both the house & lean-to were sold to Scott Moffet of B.C. He spent a few months in it, repaired the heating system, then gave it back to Robert Therrien.

The next owner was Robert Campbell of Alberta who purchased the house in May of 1998; he never occupied it and the house remained vacant and in limbo until the summer of 2007 when the town took over the house through the tax enforcement process.
Telegraph Office, Dec 6, 2007

The property was purchased from the town on October 2, 2007 by Allan Charles Mondor who is currently restoring the property the to look in had in 1909. The lean-to on the west side has since been demolished, the exterior was stripped down to the original 1904 siding, and the interior was stripped down to the studs. Work is currently under way to get a new basement under the building so the actual restoration work can began on a solid foundation. Visit www.willowbunchtelegraphoffice.ca for more details on this project.