Description of Historic Place

Harshman Boarding House, built in 1875, is located on Bas-Cap-Pelé Road in Bas-Cap-Pelé. The one-and-a-half-storey, rectangular wood-frame building has a cross-gable roof.

Heritage Value

Harshman Boarding House is designated a Local Historic Place for its role in housing workers associated with the lobster industry. It is also recognized for its architecture.

Commonly called the cookhouse, Harshman Boarding House was a commercial building used to house men and women working at a lobster cannery during the last quarter of the 19th century. In 1875, W. Ben Harshman built a lobster cannery and a boarding house near the shore, not far from this building’s current site. The building was divided into two parts in order to accommodate boarders of both sexes. The building was abandoned around 1892. That is when the boarding house was purchased by Jude Babineau. He moved it to its current site and added it to a house dating from around 1845, transforming it into a family residence. The Harshman Boarding House is represented by the western portion of the current residence.

Harshman Boarding House is also recognized for being one of the few remaining of a style of boarding house associated with the lobster industry during this period. The one-and-a-half-storey, rectangular wood-frame building has a cross-gable roof.

Source : Village of Cap-Pelé Municipal Building - Historic Places file #16

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements that describe Harshman Boarding House include:
- one-and-a-half-storey rectangular wood frame;
- shingled gable roof;
- two windows located just below the roof cornice.