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Researching the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site of Canada
  Recherche sur la Forteresse-de-Louisbourg Lieu historique national du Canada

DOMESTIC BUILDING CONSTRUCTION 
AT THE FORTRESS OF LOUISBOURG, 1713 - 1758

By

Eric Krause

1996 Draft Report

(Fortress of Louisbourg
Report Number H G 10)

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

STAIRS AND STAIRWAYS

Builders preferred hardwood for stair construction, yet many would have chosen softwood. Even the timberwork, if there was any, should be hardwood, declared one set of military specifications. Mitigating against hardwood for general use, however, was its high cost and the protracted time it took to work to proper form.

Hardwood stringers, treads and risers required the same day, tongued and grooved oak or mérisier planks as for floors, and were usually 2 pouces thick. Stringers, which were to be planed and finished with a quarter round molding, were at times 3 or more pouces thick, however. In the King's Bastion barracks, for example, a staircase had 2 pouce thick hardwood treads and risers, and 3 pouce thick hardwood stringers.

The hardwood staircase in the officers quarters of the barracks made use of 2 pouce thick mérisier planks, for treads that were 10 pouces deep, stringers which were 10 pouces high (12 pouces high in the Block One engineer's house) and balustrade 4 pouces wide. Post and newel pieces were 6 pouces wide. In the guardroom a hardwood plank newel post was 10 pouces wide. Risers varied in height throughout the building, from 4 pouces 6 lignes through 6 pouces to 8 pouces for attic stairs.

The planks for a softwood staircase originated from the same stock reserved for common flooring: planks of pine (or fir), 2 pouces thick, planed one side, tongued and grooved. Ten and 11 pouce high stringers were perhaps common. The use of planks planed both sides, normally intended for partitions, or, as in the King's Bastion barracks the use of one pouce thick fir planks for risers or 3 pouce thick pine planks for stringers was likely exceptional.

Stairway width varied. Both the officers quarters of the King's Bastion barracks and the engineer's house had hardwood treads and risers which were 2 pieds 9 pouces wide. Treads of a small pine staircase in the Block 13 hospital were 3 pieds wide, but they were 4 pieds wide for a large pine staircase in the magasin des vivres. Four pieds was also the width that a 1718 King's Bastion barracks proposal envisioned.

Specifications for several staircases included one for the engineer's house that called for oak or mérisier timberwork when it was in fact planks that were paid for by the square rather than timber by the cube. Timberwork was nevertheless used in some staircase construction, notwithstanding the above confusion of terms. Pine was also the practical, if not the only choice of most builders; oak, mérisier and white fir were highly regarded however.

In the King's Bastion barracks pine was the choice for a 6 pouce square newel post in the right pavilion and for another of 4 pouces in the left. Sole plates and cross pieces in the same pavilion were to be 4 by 5 pouces. Elsewhere in the building the pine sole plates, cross pieces and balustrades were 3 by 4 pouces thick.

In the Block 13 hospital a pine balustrade and sole plate measured 4 pouces square. A larger staircase had a newel post 6 pouces square. In the Block One magasin des vivres a pine post and banister were 5 pouces square and the large posts, sole plates and cross pieces of the pine staircase measured 6 by 7 pouces.

Military and privately built staircases were similar in materials and techniques, and in design, whether winding, horseshoe-shaped or in a straight run. Accordingly, a repair in 1752 to a stairway in a Block 19 building centred upon a newly constructed hardwood staircase, of three winders only and an upper landing. The sawn balusters, 4 pouces in width, were curved and mortised and tenoned securely in place, 4 pouces apart.

Hardwood was also the material that the carpenter Dubenca (as did the owner of a Block 34C house, François Vallée) chose in 1756 for all the treads and risers of a stairway in a Block 5A residence - storehouse complex. As well, Dubenca used hardwood in Pierre Aurieu's house, which he also built, but for the first step only. The remaining treads and risers were of Boston planks, an imported softwood.

In a 1738-38 building proposal the widow Rodrigue agreed to a staircase made of timber with treads of planks, 2 pouces thick, 3 pieds wide. Treads elsewhere in the building, in the basement and for a landing, were to be of pine. There was also to be a rather steep ladder to the basement.

Ladders, instead of stairs, to basements and attics were quite common. Renovations in 1736 to the King's Bastion barracks, for example, included two ladders to the basement. The ladder in the Block One magasin des vivres was constructed of 6 by 7 pouce pine members, while that of a private Rue d'Orléans house was comprised of four rafters.

Also popular were roof ladders. A fire precaution, they were permanently secured at the ridge by two iron clamps, with a shorter ladder propped against a wall providing access. In particular, roof ladders were probably of oak.