Description of Historic Place

The Pierre Bourque House is a traditional farmhouse from the first half of the 19th century, showing typical renovations from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This two-storey Maritime vernacular house is located on on a large lot on Amirault Street in Dieppe.

Heritage Value

A number of factors give the Pierre Bourque House its historical value: first its age, then its relocation, which demonstrates the importance that provincial roads took on in the 1830's, as well as the change of living environment this meant for Acadians. The very successful transformation of the house into an “L” configuration, a style characteristic of the 1890s, can also be considered important. Its large farm, one of the most important in the region, also increases its heritage value.

In the southern part of Dieppe, the Pierre Bourque House has considerable historical interest owing to its age and its relocation, showing the importance of the first roads. Around 1825, to ensure that the government abolished the abusive territorial monopoly of the powerful DesBarres family, Pierre Bourque and a few other Acadians settled in the valley protected by a small brook. Shortly after, Pierre Bourque’s oldest son and namesake, newly engaged to be married, chose a site for himself a little ways upstream from the others. He built a homestead around the time of his marriage in 1930, which makes up the main part of the residence in question. The following year, the government had these properties surveyed to give as land grants to the settlers. But, when the main road grew in significance over the course of that decade, Pierre Bourque fils was one of the first to transport his new home to where the road crossed his lot. In 1866, the younger Pierre Bourque passed on his estate to his only surviving son, Anselme, who, at the end of the century, gave it to his son Jacques, the one most interested in the farm. Before Jacques got married, the house was renovated into the L-shaped style that was popular at that time. Jacques, known as Jim, and his wife lived comfortably on their farm, one of the largest and most prosperous in the whole region, but they never had any children.

Source: City of Dieppe, Historic Places file (2), E8

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements that describe the Pierre Bourque House include:
- main portion of the building representing the original house;
- current house, a bit more spacious than the homestead at the time of construction; it was well renovated at the end of the 19th century;
- annexation circa 1900 of a summer kitchen that was narrower, lower and more modest than the main building to which it is attached perpendicularly to form an “L” shape, a style that was very popular in the 1890s;
- gabled roof with returned eaves;
- pedimented dormer breaking the eaves;
- modest entablatures over rectangular windows ;
- association with the history of relocation out of the stream-protected valley to the main road, which had become very well travelled during the 1830's;
- grounds that reflect the former large farm that surrounded the house, one of the most important and prosperous in the region.