DESPATIE, Joseph Onesime (1890-1949) was active in Montreal, Que. and devoted much of his career to serving as Staff Architect for the Northern Electric Co. of Montreal, overseeing the design and construction of their regional buildings across Canada. Born in Montreal on 22 October 1890, he graduated from Laval University in 1912 and studied architecture at McGill University in 1912-16. He worked as a draftsman for Dominion Bridge Co. (in 1916-20), and for the construction company of Peter Lyall & Sons in their offices in Montreal and in Ottawa from 1920 to 1922, and then formed a partnership with Joseph A. Bernier (see list of works under Bernier & Despatie). After the dissolution of their firm in 1925, he joined Northern Electric Co. in 1926 and held the post of company architect until his death in Montreal on 27 June 1949 (obit. Gazette [Montreal], 29 June 1949, 23; La Presse [Montreal], 29 June 1949, 41; Montreal Daily Star, 29 June 1949, 24; inf. Province of Quebec Assoc. of Architects)
MONTREAL, QUE., Northern Electric Co., St. Patrick Street at Shearer Street, major addition to existing warehouse, 1926; new By-Products Building, 1928 (C.R., xlii, 11 Jan. 1928, 51; Montreal, Architecture Industrielle, 1982, 162-65)
(with Pratt & Ross) WINNIPEG, MAN., Northern Electric Building, Rorie Street at Bannatyne Avenue, 1928 (City of Winnipeg, 1985 - The Year Past, 1987, 51-2, illus. & descrip.)
(with McCarter & Nairne) VANCOUVER, B.C., Northern Electric Co., Robson Street, c. 1930 (dwgs. Vancouver City Archives)