Description of Historic Place

The Charles Philip Bartlett House is a balanced and symmetrical, one-and-a-half-storey rectangular building with white, painted, lap siding, coloured exterior trim, a gable roof with a gable dormer over the front entrance, bell-shaped eaves, and a stone foundation. The building also features an uncovered gallery, which runs the full length of the building, a summer kitchen at the side of the house with a mansard roof, and a shed addition that extends the length of both the main house and the summer kitchen. The Charles Philip Bartlett House is part of a grouping of buildings that also includes a barn and shed, which are located on the upper part of a steep hill facing the Gaspé Bay at Grande-Grave, within Forillon National Park. The designation is confined to the footprint of the building.

Heritage Value

The Bartlett Phillip (Charles), House has been designated a Recognized Federal Heritage Building because of its historical associations and its architectural and environmental values:

Historical value
The Bartlett Phillip (Charles), House is associated with the national theme of the cod fishery in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which was the main activity and the driving force behind the Gaspé economy for several centuries. The building bears the name of one of its occupants, Charles Philip Bartlett, who was a bookkeeping clerk at the Fruing Company, and it illustrates the pivotal role played by cod exporters and merchants in the settlement of the region, and the social structure and economic dynamics that shaped traditional Gaspé fishing villages like this one.

Architectural value
The Bartlett Phillip (Charles), House is a good example of a vernacular form that is especially common in Gaspé, where Quebec domestic architecture is influenced by the design of the Neoclassical New England house. The building’s distinctive style illustrates the preservation of a tradition in domestic architecture between the mid-19th and early 20th centuries, and is typical to many of the houses in Grande-Grave. Many of the characteristic elements of this neoclassical vernacular style can be found in both the layout and the elevations of the Bartlett Phillip (Charles), House, while the addition’s broken roofline, is influenced by the Second-Empire Style. Although a conventional structure, this well-preserved house features exterior ornaments which are among the most elaborate in Grande-Grave and remarkable interior woodwork, which together, demonstrate a high level of craftsmanship.

Environmental value
The Bartlett Phillip (Charles), House reinforces the present character of Grande-Grave which still evokes the former settlement, and blends with the marine landscape of Forillon owing to its design which is compatible with other buildings in Grande-Grave, and to its siting which is well-integrated with the site’s topography. The Bartlett Phillip (Charles), House is one of a string of buildings along the coast that characterize the cultural landscape of the south shore of the Forillon Peninsula. Open to visitors, it is a highly visible landmark in the area and speaks to the presence of a former, traditional Gaspé coastal fishing village.

Sources:
Roch Samson, Christine Chartré, Michel Bédard, Paul Trépanier, Yvan Fortier, The Houses and Outbuildings
of Grande-Grave, Forillon National Park, Québec. Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office Building Report
01-066; Charles Philip Bartlett House, Forillon National Park, Québec, Heritage Character Statement 01-066d.

Character-Defining Elements

The character defining elements of the Bartlett Phillip (Charles), House should be respected.

-supports the raised frame of the house and follows the topography of the site, the balanced symmetry of the elevations, the roof line broken by a gable dormer, and the uncovered gallery running the full length of the south façade; Features specific to this typical form of domestic architecture, such as the stone foundation;
-the components that illustrate the building methods and techniques that are specific to this vernacular neoclassical tradition including the use of wood as a building material, the white, painted, lap siding and coloured exterior trim, and the exceptional interior woodwork;
-the roof line with its bell-shaped eaves, a typical feature of 19th-century Quebec vernacular architecture that was somewhat popular in Gaspé;
-the attached summer kitchen, a common feature of houses in Grande-Grave, which is on the side rather than at the back of the building and has a mansard roof in Second Empire style;
-the great similarity of style, form and materials that creates the overall harmony of the buildings in Grande-Grave;
-the visual and physical link between the house and its outbuildings, the site with which it is historically associated.
-its location amid fields and pastures also reflects the varied activities of fishermen-farmers;
-the relationship of the house to its setting which consists of a rugged coastline, as well as its relationship to the spread-out settlement of Grande-Grave.