PAmong the architects who left their mark on Rochefort, Léon Lavoine (1862-1942) is one of the best known. Firstly because he was active as an architect of the city at the beginning of the 20th century.e century until the 1930s. Then because, according to the new fashion, he signed his buildings and we can still see his name engraved in the stone. Finally, because the name of Lavoine was perpetuated in Rochefort with his son, René, who was also a prolific architect during the interwar period.
Léon Lavoine was born in 1862 in Pas-de-Calais. A member of the Society of Architects of Bordeaux and the South-West, he first settled in La Rochelle, at 7, rue du Palais. Very quickly, he was appointed architect of the civil hospices of Rochefort in 1902; then city architect in 1905.
Portrait of Léon Lavoine.
Old collection / Rochefort Océan media library
The Post Office wrongly
If most often, he is attributed the majestic Post Office, built from 1909 to 1912, in reality, it was his predecessor Fernand Michaud who signed the preliminary project. Oats will modify the roof, but will respect the document. However, he will have the honors of the inauguration and it is his name which is engraved in stone.
Alain Dalançon
Colorful and enameled letters that smell of Art Nouveau in Bains-Douches signed Léon Lavoine.
On the other hand, it is to him that we owe the pretty Bains-Douches (1912) with its fine and elaborate architecture. Under the neoclassical pediment, the maxim “Cleanliness gives health”, written in colorful and enameled letters and surrounded by plant motifs, brings a note of Art Nouveau to Rochefort.
David Briand
Signed by Lavoine in 1904, the Champlain nursery school is the oldest in La Rochefort.
If the Champlain nursery school (1904) closed in September 2024, the maternity and civil hospice also designed by Lavoine at the former Saint-Charles hospital were completely razed in the 1970s.
Bouclaud / Rochefort Océan Archives Fund
Léon Lavoine designed the civil hospice and maternity ward of the Saint-Charles hospital (in the foreground) before the construction of the future hospital designed by Marc Quentin in the 1970s.
Amazing contrast
The most emblematic achievement remains the monumental Zola school, which Léon Lavoine completed in 1931 at the end of his career. The building, divided into three separate courtyards, is rather austere and classic. Unlike its Art Deco facade with metal decorations and perfect symmetry. The collaboration with his younger son René is undoubtedly not unrelated to the adoption of this style in vogue at the time.
-
Léon Lavoine is the architect of this building, built in 1906 on Place Colbert, which today houses the Pénélope store.Kharinne Charov
-
We can read “L. Lavoine architect” on the facade of 115, rue de la République (current O'bistro du sud).Kharinne Charov
In addition to public procurement, Lavoine also has his private practice. We owe him the building erected in 1906 on Place Colbert (currently the Pénélope store) or the one at 115, rue de la République (currently O'bistro du sud) which, like the other, has always housed a business on the ground floor. ground floor and housing on the upper floors.
-
Léon Lavoine designed the layout of the former Sigrand store (here), like that of the former Nouvelles Galeries, by introducing metal into the architecture.Frédéric Chasseboeuf
-
Facade of the Nouvelles Galeries with marquise, rue Cochon-Duvivier, bearing the signature of Léon Lavoine on a pillar.Frédéric Chasseboeuf
Léon Lavoine is also the architect who accompanied the birth of department stores
Léon Lavoine is also the architect who accompanied the birth of department stores in Rochefort. He thus signed the Nouvelles Galeries (currently Monoprix), whose rear facade (1907), 26, rue Cochon-Duvivier, has retained a good part of its original appearance, with its magnificent iron and glass marquise in particular. Ditto at 12, rue Lesson (current Museum of Commerces of the Past) which was a warehouse with a metal structure (around 1910) whose interior has been very little modified. His most modern work will remain the former Sigrand store (today the Armand-Thiery boutique) at 27, avenue De Gaulle (around 1920). Although it has lost its grand staircase and its elegant canopy, the establishment with its metal frame, roof terrace and huge windows is a fine example of the provincial diffusion of the department store concept.
Rochefort Ocean Archives
With its large central staircase and its huge windows, the Sigrand store (today 27, avenue De Gaulle) designed by Lavoine was the emblem of the department store in Rochefort.
Léon Lavoine and his classic but also eclectic style, he is the architect who brought Rochefort into modernity through Art Nouveau, then Art Deco and metal.
And elsewhere
Between 1897 and 1907, Léon Lavoine worked in Châtelaillon-Plage. In addition to villas (Do-mi-sol or Josette for example), he built the town hall school (1898-1900) and La Poste in this booming seaside resort. He has also signed villas in Saintes, Saint-Jean-d'Angély, Tonnay-Charente (Les Sauges) or even in Pyla in Gironde or Charente.
We also owe him the town hall of Saint-Georges-du-Bois (1902); The Tonnay-Charente Post Office; the projects for the war memorials of Breuil-Magné (1922) and Saint-Pierre-d'Oléron (1923), as well as an intervention on that of Tonnay-Boutonne; the Bains-Douches of Marennes; the village halls of Vouhé and Forges; the Fouras covered market (1932-1933); the development of the public garden of Saint-Pierre-d'Oléron; the development of the Pins subdivision and the main boulevard in Marennes Plage; work in the schools of La Brée-les-Bains and in the municipalities of Saint-Georges-d'Oléron, Muron, Saint-Laurent-de-la-Prée, Échillais and La Cotinière.
Thanks to Frédéric Chasseboeuf, tour guide at the City's heritage service; in the Rochefort Océan archives and in the biographical dictionary of the Charentais (Éditions Le Croît vive).
