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St. Laurent chiropractor forced to move
After 57 years in the same location, offices undergo an adjustment
Max Harrold
The Gazette
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
“Ah, yes!” Joe Kinelski, 55, exclaimed as he rode on his chiropractor’s surfboard-size treatment table from its upright position smoothly down to a restful horizontal angle.
Kinelski, a long-time patient of St. Laurent chiropractor Carl Frégeau, will also likely transition just as easily this summer, when the doctor moves from the Norgate shopping centre and a chiropractor’s office that has been there for 57 years.
It should be a minor adjustment for the hundreds of patients Frégeau sees annually, as the office will move only five blocks away to a brand new building at 845 Décarie Blvd.
For the Norgate, however, the move could be an aching loss since the chiropractic office has been one of the mall’s most loyal tenants.
“It wasn’t our choice to move,” Frégeau, 43, said. “We want our clients to know that.”
Indeed, Frégeau’s decision to move came after months of rumours swirling through the Norgate – Canada’s first strip mall, built in 1949 – that Frégeau would be forced out to make room for a language school next door that wants to expand.
The mall’s owner offered to relocate the office to another part of the mall, Frégeau said. But “we didn’t want to lose our (second-floor) windows and the light,” he explained.
“Moving will be the end of an era for us,” Louise Reynaert, Frégeau’s assistant, said. “Our clients have come here for years. We’ve treated the grandchildren of some our first clients.”
The Norgate was built in 1949 from a design by Montreal architect Max Kalman; he later followed up with the Dorval, Van Horne and Pie IX shopping plazas.
Chiropractor Pierre Paquin, Frégeau’s predecessor, set up the Norgate office in 1951, becoming part of a new urban vision for the area.
“They had built all these apartments around here and they figured people would need to go to the bank and do their shopping somewhere,” said Frégeau, who started working with Paquin in 1992.
Paquin retired in 1993 and now lives in Florida, Frégeau said.
Gertrude Perreault, 84, has been a client of both doctors. The Cartierville resident said she has kept coming to the Norgate because both have been gentle with her, using soothing ultrasound to relax her muscles.
“When I first came here I was in so much pain. I was all bent over when I walked,” the retired music teacher said.
Reynaert, 51, said people keep coming because of the familiar, human touch.
“When they come here, they are in such pain and that can be very emotional,” she said. “I try to remind them that they’ll get through this.”
One client, who came to the office for many years, eventually asked Reynaert if she could take his cat when he moved to a senior citizens’ home that does not allow pets.
“He was so happy when both me and Dr. Frégeau went to visit him and we brought the cat.”
The chiropractor’s lease ends July 31. The new office should be up and running no later than Sept. 1, Frégeau said.