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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 ELEVEN

DOOR AND WINDOW OPENINGS - SHUTTERS

The construction details of a batten or emboiture shutter were very similar to those of a door. Two pouce  thicknesses were unlikely, however, although 1 1/4 pouces  was an alternative to the common one pouce thick shutter.

Shutters generally either equaled or were slightly larger than the window itself. Occasionally, though, their dimensions were given as less than the size of the sash; in other examples, their width might be the same, but their height was greater than the sash.

Shutters were popular for a variety of reasons: a desire for privacy or security, a need to shut out the elements, or a concern for protecting the glass. But shutters were neither mandatory nor always found on the exterior, though most were placed there. A street-facing boutique, a yard-side room and two smaller rooms on the ground floor of a Block 15C house had exterior shutters but the two street-side rooms and a yard-side kitchen did not. In contrast a Block 5 residence made use of interior shutters, but on the ground floor only, and only within the storehouse section. The windows were also barred, although not glazed.

Owners were also to place shutters on occasion in upper storeys, including those with dormers. They found them particularly useful when leaving their dormers unglazed, as a 1738 Rodrigue contract proposed. Failure to close dormer shutters, lamented one official, was as much a reason for rain entering the soldiers rooms as was the design for the too steep roof of the King's Bastion barracks. His solution was to remove 25 dormers. Shutters, though, did not have to shut out the outside completely to be effective. Some were pierced with an opening, or perhaps even had a window pane or two.

Finally, a glass door, here or there, may have been shuttered, as would the occasional shutter have been of the venetian type.