in Manchester's Little Canada, was the first credit union chartered in the United States, specifically founded to serve the French Canadian population. The credit union, or "people's bank" ("la caisse populaire") was a financial institution pioneered in Quebec by Quebecers who had difficulty obtaining credit from banks controlled by anglophone Canadians. The most noted resident of Manchester's "petit Canada" was Grace Metalious, author of the best-selling novel Peyton Place. Metalious denied her French Canadian heritage and mostly lived in non-French Canadian neighborhoods in Manchester, due to her mother's desire to avoid prejudice. During World War II, Metalious eventually had to live in Little Canada after her husband went off to war due to a housing shortage. In contrast, novelist Robert Cormier of Leominster, Massachusetts, highlighted the culture of fictitious but representative Little Canadas in New England in many of his works, notably "Frenchtown Summer." Revlon founder Charles Revson, of Russian-Jewish extraction, grew up in a cold-water tenement in Manchester's Little Canada. Other prominent Little Canadas were found in Lowell, Massachusetts, the home of novelist Jack Kerouac, and Lewiston, Maine. Another notable Franco-American community sprang up in Fall River in southeastern Massachusetts. As a result, a number of cultural and charitable organizations, such as the Franco-American Civic League, the Club Richelieu, La Fédération Catholique Franco-Américaine de Fall River, and L'Association Culturelle Française de Fall River, were founded to foster French language and culture within the Franco-American community. Today, New England French (essentially a variety of Canadian French) is spoken in parts of New England, in particular Maine. References External links French Canadian Emigration to the United States, 1840-1930 History of St. Mary's Bank Photo of the first credit union in the U.S. Excerpt from "Fire and Ice," Andrew Tobias' biography of Charles Revson Salem as "Little Canada": French-Canadian Connections and Franco-American Heritage in Salem, Massachusetts Report of the Town and County Historian on the Area Known as "Little Canada" in the Town of Indian Lake Ethnic enclaves in the United States Canada–United States relations New England French-Canadian culture in the United States Canadian-American culture