55 Vaudreuil Street

Built in 1887, after a fire burned down several blocks of houses, this modest one-storey dwelling is typical of the small flats designed for the labourers and artisans of the period. It was built on the site of a previous house by carter Louis Lemieux, who died in 1890. His wife moved out a year later and a grocer, François Manseau, bought the house as a rental property. After that, it changed hands almost every year. Just one or two people lived in this tiny house at any given time.

A man named Gagnon, the second husband of Gilberte Laroche of Iberville, bought the house in 1949. Laroche's daughter, Mariette, born in 1920 in Arthabasca, worked in the public service. She lived in this house for many years, until 2004. The house has been covered with tongue-and-groove boards since 1950, for a previous family photograph shows vertical, black boards on the exterior.