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The store began its career in 1909 when Joseph Alphonse Larocque launched his eponymous dry-goods business at 270 Dalhousie Street. It was a small store, just 400 square feet, but it was a great success.
He advertised hats and feathers for sale at bargain prices. In March 1913, the J. A. Larocque Company supported the inaugural issue of Le Droit, Ottawa’s French-language newspaper. The store advertised that it had Japanese silks for sale in all colours at only 21 cents a yard, and was the only distributor in Lowertown of Butterick Fashions’ dress patterns. The store also noted that it was the sole distributor of the “famous” D & A corsets made by the Dominion Corset Manufacturing Company of Montreal; all sizes were available. A few months later, the Ottawa Citizen reported that J.A. Larocque was “an energetic businessman who gives personal direction to his business.” The newspaper added that his department store had made “rapid strides in the business world of late,” and that his window displays indicated the high quality of his merchandise.
The decision to build the new department store may have been a financial stretch for Alphonse Larocque. At the same time as he was purchasing the lot from the City of Ottawa, he downsized his operations at 270 Dalhousie citing excessive rent on half of his premises. He announced a big sale and moved what was left of his stock into the store’s annex which was located around the corner at 119 Murray Street.
Until 1923, this was the first store location for J. Alphonse Larocque who expanded his business into the well-known department store J. A. Larocque Limited at Rideau and Dalhousie. After Larocque departed their shop became the J.B. Lefebvre shoe store, a large footwear emporium frequented by generations of Lowertown residents.
Construction began in early August 1922, a little later than planned, but was completed and ready for business by mid-May 1923. The three-story building with a basement was built at a cost of roughly $200,000.
The business struggled to thrive. Unlike its competitors, it invested little in advertising. This was likely a sign of weakness, not strength. Attempting to spin a necessity into a virtue, the store placed a small advertisement in the Ottawa Citizen in November 1924, billing itself as “the store that does not advertise.” The store claimed that the savings from forgoing advertising were passed on to customers in the form of lower prices. However, these efforts were insufficient. J.A. Larocque Company Ltd. declared bankruptcy in September 1926, and its assets were liquidated at a steep discount of 46.5%.