NARRATOR (male voice)
You’re standing in front of the Demers Residence, a Queen Ann-style home where the family lived for thirty years.
The July 1911 fire destroyed a large part of the downtown area, including a shoe store that was established on this site. The store’s owner, M. Alphonse Désautels, granted the land to Dr. Olivier Demers a few weeks later in exchange for a sum to be paid until the donor’s death.
NARRATOR (female voice)
In fact, Dr. Demers had to pay the equivalent of $30 per month until Mr. Désautels’ death. An agreement concluded between the two parties specified that as soon as Mr. Demers had paid a total of four thousand five hundred dollars in cash, he would be released from all debts.
NARRATOR (male voice)
Born in 1876, Olivier Demers married in 1902 and produced three sons from this union. Origène (who became a sales agent), Paul (a physician) and Philippe (a physician as well).
For more than twenty years, Dr. Demers was the appointed physician for the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific railways. He was also a medical examiner for several insurance companies and coroner for the District of Bedford. Upon his death, he was replaced in this capacity by his son Paul.
He also served as mayor of the City of Farnham from 1920 to 1926.
NARRATOR (female voice)
He passed away in Farnham in 1939 at the age of 63.
In 1941, a year after their mother’s passing, Origène and Paul sold their shares of the property to their brother Philippe who later, in 1942, would sell the property, thus ending the Demers’ ownership of this home.
In 2004, major restorations were carried out with careful consideration given to the original style of the building.