The French Presence in Cornwall

Photo by Alan L Brown - June 29, 2005

Plaque Location

The United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry
The City of Cornwall
At a church on the north side of Montreal Road just west of McConnell Avenue

Plaque Text

A vital cultural force in Eastern Ontario, the Franco-Ontarian community in Cornwall was established during the late 1870s when large-scale industrial expansion led to an influx of workers and tradesmen from Quebec. By 1881 French-speaking residents comprised the largest single cultural group in the town. Supported by a number of religious and scholastic institutions, including l'église de la Nativité de la Bienheureuse Vierge Marie, the Francophone community grew steadily in the decades that followed. Increasingly it asserted its cultural distinctiveness, paying particular attention to language preservation and French education. Long-standing efforts to protect and advance the community's rights and interests in these spheres culminated in the opening in 1974 of La Citadelle, an all French secondary school.

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