Description of Historic Place

The St. Brieux Museum is a Municipal Heritage Property situated on a single urban lot in the Town of St. Brieux. The property features a two-and-a-half storey, wood-frame house.

Heritage Value

The heritage value of the St. Brieux Museum resides in its original use as a Catholic rectory. Built in 1919, the building served as the home for several priests from the St. Brieux parish until 1963. The first occupant of the rectory was the Abbé Barbier, who helped establish one of Saskatchewan’s first European-French settlements. The Roman Catholic faith played a central role in the lives of these settlers.

The heritage significance of the site also lies in the building’s simple residential architecture. Although the building’s interior has been modified since its original construction, the structure still displays most of architectural elements of the four-square design, a floorplan common to many houses from the period. A reaction to the more ornate late-Victorian styles, four-square houses were typically simple, square-shaped, wood-frame structures in which the main floor was typically divided into four rooms.

Source:

Village of St. Brieux Bylaw No. 4-1983.

Character-Defining Elements

The heritage value of the St. Brieux Museum resides in the following character-defining elements:
- those elements associated with the establishment of the Roman Catholic parish in one of Saskatchewan’s first European-French settlements in the early part of the twentieth century, such as its orientation on its lot and the original altar;
- those elements associated with its four-square design, such as the hipped roof, asymmetrical window placement on both levels, the enclosed verandah off the front that provides a platform for a second storey balcony, the open verandah on the west side, and the existence of a large parlour room on the main floor.