Papineau
 

People
       					 
WITTENBERG


Stanley Wittenberg sent me this interesting account - October, 2009

My father was Irving Wittenberg. He was born 1905 in England and immigrated
as an infant with his family to Montreal that same year. He grew up on Chabot
Street in the Papineau area. Unfortunately he died in 1962 when I was 11 ½ so
I never had a chance to get any detail stories of his growing up there. He and
his family owned several dress stores on rue St. Hubert between St. Zotique
and Beaubien. The family had 8 kids, Irving,Moe,Bennie,Sammy,Meyer,Bessie,
Yetta,Anna. I haven’t lived in Montreal since 1972 and had very little contact
with any of them after Irving died. I do know that his father( my paternal
grandfather who died in1919 when Irving was 14) was apparently one of the
founders and past presidents of one of the shuls.I have no verification of this,just
what I was told. Prehaps others remember more about them. I’ll try to find some
pictures to upload. I believe I have one of him boxing with a friend. Boxing was
apparently a big sport in the community at the time. As a kid I spent a lot of time
in the family store on St. Hubert & St. Zotique and I remember that Irving was very
 “at home” in the area,more so than in Cote Des Neiges where we lived. 

I was always fascinated with the upbringing my father had there  and would like to
know more. Unlike St.Urbain street where my mother( nee Savitsky) was raised
very few seem to know about Papineau.I went with my sister today to visit the old
stores on St. Hubert between St. Zotique & Belanger. According to my sister the
Wittenberg family moved from Chabot street  to St. Hubert and Belanger( 3 doors
down from the now TD bank) in 1938 when they opened their first Real store,La
Maison Diana where the family  lived upstairs and operated a dress store below. In
1940 my father opened Chez Sandra at the corner of St.  Zotique & St. Hubert next
to the now BMO bank. In 1942 they opened a third store in the middle of that bloc,
Chez Carole. Your father sounds like an amazing individual. Yes my father always
wore a dark suit,crisp white shirt and a tie:as well as a Fedora when outside.Your
father absolutely remembers him.
 
That block of St. Hubert was the place to be in the1940's, 1950's and 60's . I visited
the street today with my sister and time has not been kind to the area. With the
exception of a Reitmans, a Classy formal wear and La Roi du Smoked Meat restaurant,
not a single establishment remains today. They are all run down storefronts selling
cheap discount goods and offering all types of services including a tatoo & piercing
parlor. My father would have been apalled. Even the Lido restaurant corner of St. Hubert
& St. Zotique is gone. It was a classy restaurant with a distinctive round window if
your dad remembers.



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