In his book “An Emerging Acadian Community (Caraquet),” historian Nicolas Landry demonstrates how the Acadians of the Acadian Peninsula, lacking cash, had to use their accounts with Jersey merchants, even for transactions between neighbours. For example, in 1868, Xavier Albert asked the manager of the Robin store to pay Frederick Savoie 3 louis for hay he had purchased from him. The store then became the hub of trade for the village. This ended in 1908 when Caraquet acquired a bank, and a Francophone one at that. D.D. Landry, a successful Caraquet businessman, and the director of the College convinced the Provincial Bank of Canada (now the National Bank) to set up shop in Landry’s store, which was located at the current corner of Chenard Alley and Saint-Pierre Boulevard. Profitable for the bank, it soon commissioned architect Nazaire Dugas to design a building that would house the bank on the ground floor and the manager’s apartment upstairs. The building served its purpose from 1914 to 1970 and still stands proudly at 160 Saint-Pierre Boulevard West. Alfie Martin was its first manager, and the institution now has the distinction of being the oldest business in Caraquet, at 112 years old!

Bernard Thériault, historian