Maison Saint-Gabriel
The Maison Saint-Gabriel is a historic building in Montreal . It is located on Place Dublin in the Arrondissement Le Sud-Ouest and is the oldest surviving farmhouse on the Île de Montréal . The building, erected around 1660, houses a local museum . It is a listed building and has been a National Historic Site since 2007 .
history
François Le Ber built the house around 1660 and sold it to the Congrégation de Notre-Dame de Montréal in 1668 . This religious order founded by Marguerite Bourgeoys then set up a farm. Until 1673 the “ daughters of the king ” (filles du Roi) were taken in here - single women who had been sent to New France at state expense to be married to local settlers. The house temporarily served as a sewing room and school. Most of the building was destroyed by fire in 1693, and five years later it was rebuilt using the original foundation walls.
At the beginning of the 19th century the nuns cultivated an area of around 70 hectares. The order used the products for itself or for numerous charities operated by it. After the opening of the nearby Lachine Canal , industrial buildings increasingly shaped the area. The area used gradually decreased until the order finally ceased farming in 1960. In 1965, the Québec Province Cultural Goods Commission placed the building and the adjoining barn under a preservation order. The local history museum was opened in 1966.
Building and museum
The Maison Saint-Gabriel is a rare example of rural French architecture in Montreal. It has thick walls made of rough-hewn field stones . The few windows are arranged irregularly and asymmetrically. The primary concern was to adequately illuminate the various rooms, while the architectural form was of secondary importance. The steep gable roof without a shelter is also typical of this construction method, which was adopted from Normandy and Brittany .
The way of life of the early French settlers is presented in the museum. The collection includes over 15,000 objects. This includes household appliances, clothes, books, furniture, tools and handicrafts. Temporary exhibitions deal with aspects of the settler culture.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Lieu historique du Canada de la Maison Saint-Gabriel. Lieux patrimoniaux du Canada, accessed November 1, 2011 (French).
- ↑ a b La Maison Saint-Gabriel… a témoin des origines de Montréal. (No longer available online.) Commission franco-québécoise sur les lieux de mémoire communs, October 22, 2007, archived from the original on April 7, 2014 ; Retrieved November 1, 2011 (French). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Maison Saint-Gabriel. In: Grand répertoire du patrimoine bâti de Montréal. City of Montreal, accessed November 1, 2011 (French).
Coordinates: 45 ° 28 ′ 33.6 " N , 73 ° 33 ′ 21.4" W.