Description of Historic Place

The Henri Gauvin House is a two-storey residence in the Four Square style with a hipped roof and a single central dormer. Built around 1929, this structure is located on Dover Road in Dieppe.

Heritage Value

The Henri Gauvin House is designated a Local Historic Place for its architecture and its association with the hardships of a young Acadian family whose eldest son was prematurely given the responsibility of caring for several generations, a situation that was much too common at that time.

The Henri Gauvin House provides a good example of a commodious Four Square style house, the most popular style at the time. In fact, its construction date coincides with the height of the style’s popularity. This model, inspired by the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, was most popular between the two World Wars. The structure has no additions that take away from the original design. The only dormer is located on the front façade, as was the custom. The owner’s uncle, mason and builder Auguste Gauvin, most likely helped build the house. Two circumstances lead to this supposition: first, he had filled in by doing some of the duties of the deceased father for his widowed sister-in-law and her children; also, he had built a house identical to this one nine years earlier for his oldest son, who looked after his farm.

At another level, the house calls to mind a situation common to countless homes in Dieppe at that time: an oldest son who, in the absence of a father who most often worked away from home, was required to run the family farm and do many of the absent father’s tasks. Many eldest sons could not escape this imposed role.

Henri Gauvin, eldest son of Edmond, built this large square house on the paternal lot on Dover Road (in the southern part of Dieppe), around 1929, three years after he married Anna Bourque. He was returning to take over the family farm, which he had been forced to run, along with his mother and brother Yvon, after the premature death of his father in 1904. Henri settled his young family and his mother in this spacious new dwelling that replaced the house built by his grandfather Ferdinand Gauvin. He ran the dairy and vegetable farm until he retired around 1970, when he sold the house and land. For Henri Gauvin, the early death of his father solidified his destiny as new head of the home, a role he had to assume until the end of his life.

Source: City of Dieppe, Historic Places File (2), F3

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements that describe the Henri Gauvin House include:
- overall symmetry;
- lack of ornamentation;
- two-storey square massing;
- hipped roof;
- single hipped roof central dormer on the front façade;
- probable participation of the owner's uncle, mason and builder Auguste Gauvin, in the design and construction of this house.