Municipal Heritage Site
La Broquerie is an unincorporated community southeast of Steinbach recognised as a local urban district in the Rural Municipality of La Broquerie. It was established in 1881. The R.M. was formerly known as Carlton. La Broquerie was named by the Hon. Alphonse a la Riviere, Member of Parliament for St. Boniface (1878-1889) and Provencher (1889-1904), and senator (1911).
When the Parish of Ste. Anne des Chenes was divided it was expected that La Broquerie would be called St. Joachim (Ste. Anne’s husband) since the parish was under his protection. However, La Riviere wanted to please Bishop Tache by naming it after the Bishop’s uncle and guardian.
Settlement in what is now a predominantly Francophone community began in 1879 with the influx of families from Quebec. (The St. Joachim Museum has artifacts relating to French and Belgian settlers since 1877.)
The Post Office opened in 1882. The community was named after the Rural Municipality of La Broquerie.
St. Joachim Roman Catholic Church was built in 1898. It was dedicated in 1901.
“St. Joachim Roman Catholic Church is a splendid example of French Catholic church architecture applied to a rural Manitoba parish church at the turn of the twentieth century. Derived from French-Canadian ecclesiastical examples of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and recreated in the French community of La Broquerie, the classically inspired building recalls long-established architectural traditions through its form and fine exterior and interior detailing. Constructed entirely with local materials by parish volunteers supervised by their priest, Father Alexandre Giroux, the church also is a symbol of local dedication. Little changed over the years, this impressively large facility is a local landmark and dominant element of the streetscape.” (Rural Municipality of La Broquerie By-law No. 1-2000, February 23, 2000.)
The centennial of St. Joachim Catholic Parish was celebrated in 1984. The church was designated a Municipal Heritage Site on February 23, 2000. In 2003 it received funds for renovations from the Prairie Churches Project (2003-2008), a collaboration between the J. M. Kaplan Fund of New York, the Thomas Sill Foundation of Winnipeg, and the Historic Resources Branch of the Province of Manitoba.
• Photographed in 1987.
• Published in Senior Scope, September 9. 2020.
• Included in Testaments of Faith, Manitoba’s Pioneer Churches.