Duhaget Property

The property of garrison officer Robert Tarride Duhaget (c. 1702 - 1757) introduces the way most of Louisbourg’s town lots were laid out. There were few seigneuries in the colony. Landholding was freeholding, and real estate traded freely, largely exempt from taxation. In the town, most lots resembled Duhaget’s — regular in shape, and separated from neighbours and the street by high post fences. Inside the fences, a house often shared its lot with outbuildings and a kitchen garden.

Born in the south of France, Duhaget came to Louisbourg as a young officer and progressed steadily through postings around the colony. The house he built here in 1737 was a frame structure with beveled board siding - one of the largest in Louisbourg. Duhaget may have foreseen a big family from his marriage of that year to Marguerite Rousseau de Villejouin, but the marriage proved childless, and soon much of the house was rented as lodging and offices. Duhaget rose to senior rank, but his health failed in 1757. He returned to France to “take the waters” and died there soon afterwards.

“Louisbourg as a fortress” is the exhibit on the ground floor of the Duhaget house, and there is a comfortable theme lounge upstairs.

The Icehouse

This inverted cone topped with the royal fleur de lis was a luxury and a little piece of practical science. It is an icehouse, complete with tightly insulated roof, north-facing door (never to be opened in the heat of the day), and a deep pit to he packed with layers of ice and straw. It was a sensible place to hang meat and store perishables, and perhaps the governor scored a little coup by serving iced drinks and frozen desserts on August afternoons.