Blanchette moving company packing up and moving on after 77 years in Lewiston

LEWISTON — Leopold Blanchette moved to Lewiston to work in the Continental Mill, like so many other Canadians from Quebec.

By 1930, historical accounts estimate that more than one million had crossed the border in search of better pay and a better life in the cotton mills of New England, with close to half the workforce being French-Canadian.

By 1947, Leopold Blanchette had left the mill behind and worked for a time with a shovel and a rake, fixing and building Maine’s roads. Then, he struck out on his own, founding Blanchette Moving & Storage, known then as Blanchette & Son Moving.

Robert Blanchette, 95, holds a photo April 17 of the first truck his father, Leopold, purchased for the business, known then as Blanchette & Son Moving. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

Seventy-seven years later, the third generation of Blanchettes will be the last one in the moving and storage business, with grandson Marc Blanchette, his sister JoAn and the remaining crew making two final deliveries April 30.

Leopold’s son, Robert Blanchette, 95, still has a trace of his Québécois accent and plenty of stories to tell of a bygone era. He started working for his father in the late 1950s and retired at 80 in 2009.

“Well, everything was tubs that people packed, dishes and tubs and all that. Today, it’s all boxed,” Robert said, reflecting on how the business has changed over the years.

Tubs? What kind of tubs?

“Wash tubs, OK. They’d fill those right up,” he said.

He remembers the halls in homes were narrower than they are today, while appliances were much heavier.

“We used to have a lot of wood and oil stoves that weighed up to 600-700 pounds that we had to lug out,” Robert said. That usually meant taking them apart and then reassembling them.

Marc Blanchette, left, and Felipe Alvarado carry a heavy box Tuesday afternoon into a new home in Turner. The men are part of a crew from Blanchette Moving & Storage making the final delivery for the longtime Lewiston business. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

“We don’t move appliances too often anymore,” his son, Marc Blanchette, chimed in. “Washer and dryer once in a while. Even the washer-dryer will stay with the house a lot now.”

Robert remembers pianos were more common in households than they are today. “We used to have a lot of pianos, a lot of big pianos,” he said. “We moved some up and down the stairs and some we had to bring up through the windows.”

There were tricks of the trade, he said. “We had a pulley, we had to put a rig outside the window to put the pulley to bring up the” large, heavy objects. “It’s all changed, it’s really all changed.”

What hasn’t changed is the physically hard work.

“People don’t want to do the work,” Marc Blanchette said, adding he’s been trying to hire more people for five years. “Yeah, it’s hard work and since COVID, I don’t know where the people went, but every business is hiring.”

“It’s the biggest reason I’m retiring,” he said. “If I had some good help, and people I could rely on to do the work that I do, I wouldn’t be retiring.”

A 14-year battle with Lyme disease has also taken its toll physically on an otherwise fit man, who does not look 65 years old.

U-Haul has been around since the 1950s and became available nationwide in the 1960s. Today, there are portable containers like Pods, trucking companies that rent self-movers space in their trailers and other forms of competition that have put the squeeze on full-service moving companies.

“There’s a lot more competition because of the pods and stuff,” Marc said. “But we’ll go in your house, take everything off the walls, empty cabinets, and we’ll pack all the dishes.” Those jobs have all but disappeared in Lewiston, he admitted.

Connor Cyr of Blanchette Moving & Storage carries a tub Tuesday afternoon at a new home in Turner on the final delivery for the longtime Lewiston business. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal

In the 1960s, the company would charge $8 an hour for three men and move an entire house for $35. It’s far from today’s pricing.

“A day’s work will cost you $2,000,” Marc said. “Yeah, it’s $250 an hour now, for three men.” Moving an entire house, depending on size, distance and other factors, would cost between $10,000 and $20,000, maybe more.

Members of the Blanchette family and a longtime employee stand April 17 in the office of Blanchette Moving & Storage in Lewiston. From left are daughter JoAn Larrivee, son Marc Blanchette and their father, Robert Blanchette, son of founder Leopold Blanchett. They are joined by Steve Morin who recently retired after working for the company for more than 50 years. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal

Steve Morin, who worked with the family for many years, recently retired.

“He used to babysit you guys whenever they were little,” Robert said with his son and daughter listening. “He came to work after high school… he’s been with us over 50 years, too.”

Two other employees have been with the Blanchette family for 20 years each and a third one for just a few years. They were told about the family’s plans six months ago and will move to other jobs.

Over the years, the Blanchettes have moved a few local celebrities and taken on some unusual moves, including one to the Cayman Islands. The Blanchettes have moved customers by boat — including some furniture for the Coast Guard at Pemaquid Point Lighthouse.

“The Coast Guard took care of the lighthouse,” Robert said. “We had to haul it down to the boat, bring it down and take it across and unload it… it was rough, because when the tide goes down, it’s really, really rushing.” It was quite a move, he added.

Then there was the moose in a pool on Brault Street in 1992. Game wardens had to tranquilize the 800-pound animal and they called on the Blanchettes to provide special straps to haul it onto a truck to take it to a state game farm.

A wayward moose stands in a swimming pool on Brault Street in Lewiston in September 1992. Blanchette Moving & Storage of Lewiston helped remove the tranquilized moose, which was taken to a state game farm. Ken Love/Sun Journal/File

The COVID-19 pandemic brought a flurry of people moving to and from Maine, and Marc said the most popular outbound destination was the Carolinas.

Over the years, they’ve moved people all over the country, and Marc spent a lot of time behind the wheel. “I’ve been to every state except Alaska,” he said.

He said that with their departure, Lewiston will be without a full-service moving company and customers will have to look to Augusta or Portland for one.

As they look to sell the business or lease the building, Marc will unwind the business and get some well-deserved camp time. He said they’ll miss the customers, something sister JoAn Larivee, echoed.

“Yeah, we have good customers,” she said. “People are calling, they’re like, ‘what’s the community going to do.’ And they’re stopping in.”

For her, retirement means more time with the grandchildren.

As for Robert? Stories, lots of stories to tell.

Marc Blanchette holds a newspaper clipping April 17 from the Lewiston Sun Journal showing him as a young man working for the family business. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal