Higho de Cocagne Institutional Centre

Higho de Cocagne Institutional Centre is designated a Local Historic Place for its association with the first institutions in Higho de Cocagne, namely, the first two churches, the first school, and Robichaud Road, which was the village’s main artery.

In the spring of 1832, the three Desroches sisters, Marguerite, Barbe, and Geneviève, took possession of the first three properties in Saint-Antoine. Because of the elevation of the land and its proximity to Cocagne, the new site was dubbed Higho de Cocagne. It was on these newly cleared tracts of land that the first institutions in the village of Saint-Antoine were built, representing the religious and educational elements that greatly helped to shape a culture unique to the community. The first chapel was built circa 1838 by the parish’s first settlers using locally cut wood. The small pine chapel measuring 28 ft. x 40 ft. was located on the same site as the second church, built in 1856-1859, on Robichaud Road, which is now the New Brunswick Trail. That second church served as a place of worship until 1923 when a new stone church was erected on the site where it now stands. It was built by Sacite LeBlanc. The interior was completed in the late 1870's by Narcisse LeBlanc. The altar from this church is currently conserved by the Fédération des scouts de l'Atlantique in Saint-Antoine. The first school was built in 1876 near the church at the end of Robichaud Road. In 1918, it was moved closer to the new village centre. Robichaud Road, as it was then called, served as the main artery until the railroad arrived and the village centre was moved alongside it.

Along with the existing vestiges of the buildings that once occupied this site, there is a strong potential for archaeological resources yet to be discovered relating to the religious and educational history of the area.