Perpete's "store" included store, an ice cream parlour, dance hall, hotel, rooming house and home, contained in one large building

Victor Perpete began his life in Canada in Saskatchewan in 1888 but ten years later he was in Chapleau working as a fireman with the Canadian Pacific Railway. He had come to Canada with his parents at age 16, according to Vince Crichton in his book "Pioneering in Northern Ontario". Mr. Perpete came from Belgium.

In due course he married "the widow Turcotte" and they decided to expand a business she had established but the only location suitable for their plans was three lots on Elm Street near the CPR station. Apparently a hotel had been located on the site but it had burned down.

Vince wrote that in 1908 on the lot at the corner of Elm and Dufferin streets a building was under construction which came to be known as 'Perpete's Store'. It was a small general store specializing  in tobacco, drugs, confectionery,  groceries and fruit.

On the second floor was a "Lodge Room" were local and lodge rooms. 

My mother Muriel E (Hunt) Morris and her sister Elsie were growing up in Chapleau in the early years of the 20th Century and Mom would tell me stories about attending dances in this room where she would sing and my aunt would play piano.

Vince noted that it became known as "Perpete's Hall in the 1920s, a favourite place for the "younger set" to hold their parties and dances.

At one point they also had an ice cream parlour.

Vince relates that the Perpete family who had been living in the store, bought and moved into a home which in 1975 when he wrote his book was 81 Dufferin Street. It was still there when he was writing his book.

They also expanded the building and created living quarters which were rented by the month to "regular railway employees such as mail clerks, conductors, and brakemen running into Chapleau on steady passenger train runs who found the proximity to the station ideal for a rooming house"

He added that by the time the building was completed "it contained 23 rooms and 'Perpete's' was actually a store, an ice cream parlour, dance hall, hotel, rooming house and home, contained in one large building".

Mr. Perpete had left the CPR to be a full time merchant but left the business to serve in the armed forces in World War I and World War II. 

Mrs. Perpete managed the business during his absences and continued to do so after World War II when Mr. Perpete returned home but became ill and died in 1946. She sold the store and moved from Chapleau. She died in 1966, at age 89.

Vince noted that Mr. and Mrs. Perpete were very civic minded. Mr Perpete served on the township council and was a member of the Chapleau Brass Band. They were willing to donate the hall to clubs and charities for fund raising activities especially during the two world wars.

The site is now the home of the Chapleau Pentecostal Church. My email is mj.morris@live.ca