Arvida ( ) is a settlement of 12,000 people (2010) in Quebec, Canada, that is part of the City of Saguenay. Its name is derived from the name of its founder, Arthur Vining Davis, president of the Alcoa aluminum company.

The province of Quebec declared the Arvida neighbourhood a Canadian Heritage Site in late November, 2018 due to its urban planning, distinctive architecture and landscaping as well as its historical character.

Climate

Culture

Landmark of the city is the Église Ste-Thérèse-de-l'enfant-Jésus. In the city's north, there is the Théâtre Palace Arvida, a modern theater for about 500 people.

Notable people

  • Artist Claire Beaulieu was born in Arvida.
  • Thomas J. Hudson, genome scientist, was born in Arvida in 1961.
  • Professional heavyweight champion wrestler Stan Stasiak was born in Arvida.
  • Steve Maltais, ice hockey coach for the Chicago Cougars and former professional player

References

Further reading

Campbell is a good history of the development of aluminum smelting in the Saguenay. Hartwick's more recent book reports on work between 1950 and 68 at Labs in Arvida to develop a new industrial smelting process, the so-called monochloride process.

  • Duncan C. Campbell, Global Mission: The Story of Alcan. Volume 1: to 1950. Ontario Publishing Company Limited, 1985.
  • John M. Hartwick, Out of Arvida. Kingston, Ontario: Citoxique Press, 2007.

In 2011, writer Samuel Archibald, raised in Arvida, published a collection of short stories, Arvida, that won several Francophone literary prizes. In 2015, the collection was translated into English by Donald Winkler (Biblioasis Books) and was short-listed for the 2015 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

  • "Giant of the North" Popular Mechanics, December 1943, article on the crash program to create the Shipshaw hydroelectric project
  • "Arvida", Site Officiel de la ville