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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)

PREFACE

DOMESTIC BUILDING CONSTRUCTION
AT THE FORTRESS OF LOUISBOURG

Louisbourg flourished as a town in the years 1713-58. In 1760, its fortified walls were demolished and its few remaining buildings, shattered by the cannon balls of the devastating siege of 1758, were in disrepair. After only a few more years not a building was left to testify to Louisbourg's previous greatness.

In 196l Parks Canada undertook to reconstruct a portion of the 60 acres of fortified town. In 1744 over 180 buildings once stood within the protected walls of the town. Today, some 50 buildings have risen again.

Construction activity during the reconstruction phase, 196l-83, was hectic, though controlled. Planning included architectural and building construction research. Files were developed, reports written, committee meetings held, drawings were issued, and structures of all types were built, precisely where they stood in the 18th century.

Building construction techniques of the 18th century were not well understood in North America when the Louisbourg project first began. The grounds for research, the available documentation to be examined, however, were fertile.

Soon, enough information was available to undertake actual reconstruction.

This report then is a summary of some of the more important research findings. By an historian, it does not include the large body of archaeological evidence that exists here at Louisbourg. That, in itself, would produce a large report.

Military and king's building specifications were as helpful in explaining private building construction techniques as were domestic sources, since they often elaborated upon commonly practiced methods or provided details not to be found elsewhere. The challenge, of course, was to add only relevant information to the data base.

This research produced numerous references to each of the various building techniques; so many references that to group the sources by paragraph seemed the best way to avoid the clutter of citing each and every piece of evidence. Consequently, the endnotes* are organized so that any material actually quoted in a paragraph is placed first, followed by the other sources to the information.

Since 18th century French building terms are of a technical nature whose meanings are often obscured by ambiguity, poor calligraphy and damaged script, a précis rather than an exact in-text English translation approach was adopted. Readers, however, may consult the back matter for transcriptions of original French text and for suggested translations.

The dimensions cited in the study follow the measuring system used in Ancien Regime France, where one toise equaled six pieds; one pied equaled 12 pouces; and one pouce equaled 12 lignes. Today's equivalents are 1,9492 meters (6.396 feet); .3250 metres (1.066 feet); and 2.708 centimetres (1.066 inches) respectively.

One final note: Louisbourg within its fortified walls was a planned urban settlement with numbered town blocks (1-45, though some blocks were later expropriated for military use) and lettered building lots (A-M, depending on the block), and block references used in this report are according to the final, approved plan of 1734.

* The author has not made available the endnotes for the web version of the report.