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Anthony DelRosario History of the Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson Master in Preservation Studies Tulane School of Architecture
PRST 6610 - History of Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson December 3, 2008
The French Colonial empire in North America lasted for over two centuries, from the founding of Port Royal, Nova Scotia in 1605 to the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. During this period, New France grew from an outpost on the North Atlantic seaboard, to the St. Lawrence River valley, across the Great Lakes, and down the Mississippi River valley. Despite the immense expanse of the area, very few French Colonial buildings outside of Canada remain. However, one can trace the lasting impact of early French Canadian architecture of the French Colonial period to several buildings throughout Louisiana. The architectural types of French Colonial Canada will be explored via the history of the colony and these types will be compared to the architecture of Louisiana.
PRST 6610 - History of Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson December 3, 2008
all other European nations) did not attempt to establish another permanent settlement in what is now Canada. During this period, the French mainly used the North Atlantic seaboard for fishing and beaver hunting. (Bowerman)
PRST 6610 - History of Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson December 3, 2008
into vernacular construction that spread throughout Canada and the Mississippi Valley. (153) The style of the buildings of Port Royal with steep roof forms (Figs. 1 and 2) imitated that of buildings found in the cold regions of France. (Moogk 23) The pice-sur-pice construction method created a good insulation, while the steep roof kept snow and water from collecting.
Samuel de Champlain returned to Canada in 1608 to establish a trading post farther inland up the St. Lawrence River. He reached the site of Quebec and claimed it for France and built a massive, wooden fortification called LHabitation (Fig. 3) on a narrow shelf by the St. Lawrence River. During the early years, the town grew around lHabitation in a medieval fashion with the fortress as a radial endpoint. By 1615 early residents of the town included traders and missionaries who created the beginning of town life with houses and a chapel. (Reps 49)
PRST 6610 - History of Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson December 3, 2008
Montreal was established in 1642 by Paul Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, and became the third major French settlement along the St. Lawrence River (eight years after Trois-Rivires). As with Quebec, early residents of the town included traders and missionaries. Churches and chapels (Fig. 4) were often among the earliest buildings of these settlements. Many buildings were built with a method often found in France called colombage pierrot, a half-timber construction with stone rubble and plaster of lime in-fill. This method was a substitute for solid wooden walls at a time when wood was increasingly expensive in western France. Nevertheless, the French builders perpetuated the technique in New France (and) Upper Louisianawhere wood was abundant. (Edwards and Kariouk 65) However, with a nearly limitless supply of timber, builders in New France often utilized the pice-sur-pice method that originated at Port Royal to create better insulation.
PRST 6610 - History of Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson December 3, 2008
Expansion
In the second half of the seventeenth century, New France saw a period of significant growth. In 1663, Quebec officially became a royal province of France. To populate this area of invigorated interest, King Louis XIV sent a shipload of women for the settlers in the province (Fig. 5).
Fig. 5: Men of New France welcome women sent by King Louis XIV
After setting up missions in the western Great Lakes area and learning of a great river from the local native tribes, French missionary Father Jacques Marquette was joined by Louis Joliet, a French Canadian explorer, in 1673 to search for the Mississippi River. Marquette and Joliet found and traveled the river to the mouth of
PRST 6610 - History of Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson December 3, 2008
the Arkansas River and turned back for fear of encountering Spanish explorers further downriver. Nine years later Robert de LaSalle canoed down to the mouth of the Mississippi and laid claim to entire Mississippi River basin for King Louis XIV. In the following decades, these explorations lead to the founding of settlements along the Mississippi River at such sites as Ste. Genevieve, Missouri (1735), Cahokia, Illinois (1696), and New Orleans, Louisiana (1718).
As the colony grew in size (Fig. 6), the original settlements along the St. Lawrence River also grew. A metropolitan vision began to take shape after Quebec became a royal province. City planning became more regularized. The first three major settlements (Qubec City, Montral and Trois-Rivires) were established in a medieval conception of aristocratic bourg (town) was marked off from the faux bourg (suburb or false town) (Marsh). New gridded plans were drawn up for these cities as well as new fortifications based on concepts from Sbastien Le Prestre, Seigneur de Vauban, the great French military engineer (Figs. 7, 8 & 9). Vaubans
PRST 6610 - History of Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson December 3, 2008
influence on fortification design would also be seen in the designs of New Orleans, Mobile, and Biloxi.
Fig. 7: Montreal
Fig. 8: Louisbourg
Fig. 9: Quebec
PRST 6610 - History of Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson December 3, 2008
While the builders in the rural settlements continued to use the familiar halftimbered colombage construction method, more permanent methods were being used in the cities. Monumental architecture in the metropolis had an early impact on the cityscape of the new provincial capital: the Chteau Saint-Louis (1647, 1692), the Church and College of the Jesuits (1666, 1725), the Cathedral of Qubec City (1684) and the Episcopal Palace (1692) imposingly embodied the principles of French classicism, which religious communities and orders adopted in their turn. In Qubec City, Montral and Trois-Rivires monumental structures were built whose scale and formal expression, seemingly at odds with the vast uncleared tracts round about, left an imprint on the built landscape as a whole. (Marsh) The two versions of the Chteau Saint-Louis greatly influenced the style of rural dwellings throughout the following century. (Marsh) The first Chteau SaintLouis (Fig. 10) built in 1647 by Charles Jacques Huault de Montmagny, the governor of New France after Champlain, was a larger version of the double pitched roof houses found in France with a slight modification. The houses in France often had a roof-to-living space height ratio of two-to-one; the first Chteau Saint-Louis and the houses influenced by it design had a roof-to-living space height ratio of closer to one-to-one. A prime example of a house in this style is the Boucher-deNiverville Manor (Fig. 11) in Trois-Rivires built in 1729. This style continued to be built in Louisiana, as seen in Lafittes Blacksmith Shop (1772) found in the French Quarter of New Orleans (Fig. 12). The second Chteau Saint-Louis (Fig. 13) built in 1692 by Louis de Buade, Comte de Frontenac et de Palluau, another governor of
PRST 6610 - History of Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson December 3, 2008
New France, was also double pitched, but in addition, was also hipped. The influence of this style was found in buildings throughout Quebec (Fig. 14) and down the Mississippi River in New Orleans (Fig. 15).
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PRST 6610 - History of Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson December 3, 2008
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PRST 6610 - History of Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson December 3, 2008
The Church of the Jesuits (Fig. 16) in Quebec City was a large version of the simple chapels and churches that had been and continued to be built in New France. The exterior form of these buildings was usually quite plain a gabled roof with a single tall spire at one of the gabled ends that also had the main entrance. Between 1669 and 1680, Mgr de Laval, first Bishop of Quebec, commissioned a series of churches for the parishes around Quebec. According to Alan Gowans: They were small, and from a world viewpoint hardly significant; but to the history of architecture in Canada they are very important, for it was in them that the first distinctively Canadian architectural forms appeared. Not that any of their individual features were new any one of them could have been found, in one place or another, in French architecture of the period. What made them distinctive was the peculiar way these features were combined. Nowhere in France is there precisely the same combination of high-pitched roof and transept, splayed eaves, niches, quoins, oculus, spire, as here. (Looking at Architecture in Canada, 41) This design continued to dominate the construction style of churches in Quebec through the eighteenth century (Fig. 17) as Lavals successor, Bishop Saint-Vallier, strove to maintain standardization in church design after he created eighty-two parishes in 1721. (Kalman 71) On the outside, these parish churches were diametrically opposite of the twin towered ornate churches found throughout Colonial Spain. However, the Canadian and Mexican churches often shared a Baroque lavishness on the inside.
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PRST 6610 - History of Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson December 3, 2008
A sketch of Montreal (Fig. 4) when first settled shows a simple church in this style built in the pice-sur-pice method. Often the church would have small extensions from the sides to create a cross-shaped building. Most rural churches that survive today in the province of Quebec are the third or fourth built on the site as the earliest churches were framed in wood that deteriorated and the use of stone was uncommon until about 1730. (Traquair 135) In addition to the pice-sur-pice method, colombage construction was commonly utilized for churches throughout Quebec. Along the Mississippi River, churches were also built with the colombage method, for example the chapel at Fort St. Jean Baptiste, Louisiana built around 1730 and the Holy Family Log Church in Cahokia, Illinois built in 1799. These two churches were built using two different post methods that were common in New France. The chapel at Fort St. Jean Baptiste was constructed with the poteaux-en-
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PRST 6610 - History of Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson December 3, 2008
terre method in which the timber frame of the wall was created by posts set in the ground. While at Cahokia, the poteaux-sur-solle method was used in which the timber frame of the wall was created by posts mounted onto a heavy sill which was either set on the ground or raised off the ground. In Louisiana, very few churches influenced by this simple style remain and they are in rural areas.
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PRST 6610 - History of Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson December 3, 2008
From 1758 to 1760, the major French fortifications of Louisbourg, Quebec, and Montreal fall to British possession. In 1763 France ceded Louisiana to Spain and its remaining possessions to Britain by way of the Treaty of Paris. (The British abandoned Louisbourg after the Treaty of Paris and the site was left for ruins (Fig. 19) like Panama La Vieja in Panama.)
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PRST 6610 - History of Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson December 3, 2008
In 1801 a Franco-Spanish alliance returned Louisiana to France, but two years later the French colony was sold to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase (Fig. 21) and ended the two centuries of the French Colonial empire in North America.
Architecture of the French Colonial Empire in Canada and Its Influence in Louisiana
The influence of French Colonial Canadian architecture upon the architecture found in the Mississippi River valley and basin, especially in Louisiana, can be traced through style and method of construction of dwellings. Despite being the dominant style of church construction throughout the eighteenth century in Quebec, the style influenced by Lavals parishes of the late seventeenth century did not leave a lasting impression on church design in Louisiana. However, the impact of French Colonial Canadian architecture in Louisiana is found in a variety of buildings from homes in the French Quarter of New Orleans, to cottages on the bayou, to
Anthony DelRosario Masters of Preservation Studies - Tulane School of Architecture
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PRST 6610 - History of Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson December 3, 2008
plantations along the Mississippi River. Alan Gowans states that New Frances principal impact and legacy on the North American landscape has been the rural homestead. (Styles and Types of North American Architecture, 30)
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PRST 6610 - History of Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson December 3, 2008
In addition to the steep roof style (Fig. 23), the houses of Canada and France shared a construction method from the medieval period known as colombage, a half-timber wood frame (Fig. 26). The colonists in Canada employed two versions of the colombage method colombage pierrot and colombage bousill. The difference between the two was the material used as in-fill between the wooden
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PRST 6610 - History of Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson December 3, 2008
posts. Colombage pierrot used stone and mortar and colombage bousill (Fig. 25) used bousillage, a mixture of mud and/or clay with a vegetable binder such as straw and (optionally) lime. (Edwards and Kariouk 33)
In comparison with the full timber house, half-timber dwellings made little sense in New France. (Moogk 28) In Europe, the colombage method evolved from entirely wood framed buildings due to rising costs of lumber whose supply was declining. The availability of timber, the belief that wood was a better insulator, and the extreme temperature changes that destroyed the bonding of the fill contributed to the reversal of trend back to completely wooden type of construction in New France. (Moogk 29) Also in some areas such as Montreal, stone was difficult to find and entire walls of vertical posts replaced the in-fill method. (Moogk 30)
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PRST 6610 - History of Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson December 3, 2008
Eventually the transition from vertical to horizontal timbers became popular. The pice-sur-pice construction method (Fig. 27) first utilized at Port Royal was considered superior to colombage and walls of vertical timbers. Moogk writes that vertical timbers provided good insulation and water would drain easily from a wall of upright posts. However, when the timbers were laid upon one another horizontally, the chinking of moss, cedar bark, clay or plaster was less likely to fall out and the building would remain weathertight. (32) The ultimate consideration [for the pice-sur-pice construction method] would be that a single man with a few portable tools could do most of the work of building himself. (Moogk 34)
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PRST 6610 - History of Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson December 3, 2008
In addition to the horizontal timber and vertical timber options for creating the walls of the house, there were two options for the placement of the timber frame, poteaux-en-
terre (posts in ground) and poteaux-sur-solle (posts on sill). The poteaux-en-terre method was often used in combination with vertical timbers (Fig. 28); the poteauxsur-solle method was often used in combination with horizontal timbers. However, these methods were not necessarily always found in these combinations. A surviving example of vertical timbers used with poteaux-sur-solle is the old courthouse in Cahokia, Illinois (Fig. 29).
French Colonial Canada Styles and Methods Transplanted to the Mississippi River Valley and Louisiana
Anthony DelRosario Masters of Preservation Studies - Tulane School of Architecture
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PRST 6610 - History of Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson December 3, 2008
These styles and methods of construction in French Colonial Canada were transplanted along the Mississippi River Valley and throughout Louisiana. In French America, only among the Mississippi and Great Lakes settlements did vertical construction long remain popular. In Canada it gave way generally to horizontal construction or stone. (Kniffen and Glassie 164) The earliest form of construction in French Canada was poteaux en terre, which was introduced into Louisiana by the Canadian Iberville. (165)
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PRST 6610 - History of Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson December 3, 2008
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PRST 6610 - History of Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson December 3, 2008
ways. First, with the frame raised off the ground, decomposition due to wet wood on wet ground would not occur. Second, a raised frame allowed air to circulate under the house to keep the house cooler. (Cazayoux 364)
The hot and humid climate of Louisiana had a great impact on the style of houses that the French built along the Mississippi River and in the bayous. To stay cool in the much warmer climate, the French added porches and verandas or galleries around the houses. In addition to creating shade to keep the house cool, the covered verandas also protected the walls of the structures from the abundant rainfall. (Cazayoux 365) By adding a gallery with a differently angled roof, the roof of the houses became double pitched. Two existing examples of a double pitched roof, galleried house in the upper Mississippi River valley are the Saucier House, also known as
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PRST 6610 - History of Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson December 3, 2008
the Old Courthouse, (Fig. 32) in Cahokia, Illinois (1737) and the Louis Buldoc House (Fig. 33) in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri (1770).
The Unique Outcome of French Colonial Types from Canada and the Climate of Louisiana
By raising these galleried houses an entire story above the ground and enclosing the newly created bottom floor to create a raised basement, a structure type unique to Louisiana was created, the Louisiana Raised Cottage. This type of building is also known by the following names: Louisiana Plantation House,
Anthony DelRosario Masters of Preservation Studies - Tulane School of Architecture
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PRST 6610 - History of Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson December 3, 2008
Louisiana Planter Raised Cottage, Louisiana Raised French Planter, Louisiana French Colonial, Creole Cottage, Colonial French Planter, and French Louisiana Planter. One reason that the combination of raised house and bousillage construction was so successful was that it created a natural air conditioning system. The walls soaked up moisture from the ground which was evaporated by breezes and thus became cooler. (Cazayoux 366) One of the finest examples this vernacular type is Destrehan Plantation (Fig. 34), built in 1787 outside of New Orleans. Although enlarged and renovated in the Greek Revival style around 1840, the core of the building retains its French Colonial qualities.
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PRST 6610 - History of Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson December 3, 2008
colonial period. The French empire stretched from the North Atlantic down the Mississippi River valley to the Gulf Coast and across to the Rocky Mountains. During these two hundred years, the evolution of a unique house style can be traced. A simple house plan from the northern part of France was brought to North America in the early seventeenth century where French Canadians slowly populated the new land and adapted building styles to the conditions. As the French expanded their territory south, the buildings continued to evolve as warmer climate conditions were encountered down the Mississippi River. After settling Louisianas wet and hot territory, the French builders out of necessity created the unique house style known as the raised creole cottage.
PRST 6610 - History of Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson December 3, 2008
Sources
Bowerman, Lon. "Canadian Time Line." 2006. <http://hawkshome.net/misc_items/events/canadian_time_line.htm>. Cazayoux, Edward J. The Climatic Adaptation of French Colonial Architecture into the Louisiana Raised Cottage. Proceedings of the 11th National Passive Solar Conference. Boulder, Co., June 7-11, 1986: 364-367. Edwards, Jay Dearborn, and Kariouk Pecquet du Bellay de Verton,Nicolas. A Creole Lexicon: Architecture, Landscape, People. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2004. Gowans, Alan. Looking at Architecture in Canada. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1958. ---. Styles and Types of North American Architecture: Social Function and Cultural Expression. New York, N.Y.: Icon Editions, 1991. Kalman, Harold D. A History of Canadian Architecture. Toronto; New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. Kniffen, Fred B., and Henry Glassie. Building in Wood in the Eastern United States: A Time-Place Perspective. Ed. Dell Upton and John Michael Vlach. Common Places: Readings in American Vernacular Architecture. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1986. 159-181. Marsh, James H. "The Canadian Encyclopedia." Historical Foundation of Canada. 2004. <http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com>. Moogk, Peter N. Building a House in New France: An Account of the Perplexities of Client and Craftsmen in Early Canada. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1977.
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Reps, John William. Town Planning in Frontier America. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1969. Rosinski, Maud. Architects of Nova Scotia: A Biographical Dictionary, 1605-1950. [Halifax, N.S.]: Dept. of Municipal Affairs, Heritage Section, 1994. Traquair, Ramsay. The Old Architecture of Quebec; a Study of the Buildings Erected in New France from the Earliest Explorers to the Middle of the Nineteenth Century. Toronto: Macmillan Co. of Canada, 1947.
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Images
Figure 1 Danielle Langlois, Wikimedia Commons, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Port-Royal_Nova-Scotia_1.jpg> Figure 2 Samuel de Champlain's drawing of the habitation of Port-Royal, from his Les Voyages, 1613, National Library of Canada, <http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/portroyal> Figure 3 Samuel de Champlain, reproduced in Town Planning in Frontier America. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1969. Figure 4 After W. Dcary, National Archives of Canada, C-7885, <http://www.canadianheritage.org/reproductions/10074.htm> Figure 5 Historical Narratives of Early Canada, <http://www.uppercanadahistory.ca/finna/finna5a.html> Figure 6 Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:France_colonial_Empire3.png> Figure 7 Thomas Jefferys, A Plan of the City of Quebec, The Natural and Civil History of the French Dominions in North and South America, reproduced in Town Planning in Frontier America. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1969. Pg. 55 Figure 8 Thomas Jefferys, A Plan of the City and Fortifications of Louisiburg, The Natural and Civil History of the French Dominions in North and South America, reproduced in Town Planning in Frontier America. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1969. Pg. 54 Figure 9 Thomas Jefferys, A Plan of the Town and Fortifications of Montreal or Ville Marie, The Natural and Civil History of the French Dominions in North and South America, reproduced in Town Planning in Frontier America. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1969. Pg. 52
Anthony DelRosario Masters of Preservation Studies - Tulane School of Architecture
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PRST 6610 - History of Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson December 3, 2008
Figure 10 Jean-Baptiste Franquelin, 1683, Library and Archives Canada, H4/350, <http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/lhnnhs/qc/saintlouisforts/natcul/natcul3.aspx#Toc159418865> Figure 11 Margaret Marcil-Lafontaine, <http://www.migrations.fr/bellesdautrefois.htm> Figure 12 Louisiana Studies in Historic Preservation, Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation, <http://www.crt.state.la.us/hp/laheritage/CreoleHeritage/SlideShow/pages/Cr eole31a.htm> Figure 13 Anonymous, 1700, Library and Archives Canada, C-4696, <http://www.pc.gc.ca/fra/lhnnhs/qc/saintlouisforts/natcul/natcul3.aspx#Toc158436459> Figure 14 Mauvide-Genest Manor, <http://www.manoirmauvidegenest.com/en/history/> Figure 15 Friends of the Cabildo. New Orleans Architecture Volume IV: The Creole Faubourgs. Gretna, La.: Pelican Publishing, 1974. Pg. 96 Figure 16 Richard Short, watercolour, circa 1761, Library and Archives Canada/C354, <http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/> Figure 17 Livemois, Ltd., A History of Canadian Architecture. Toronto; New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. Pg. 69 Figure 18 Lewis Parker, Expulsion of the Acadians, <http://www.uppercanadahistory.ca/finna/finna6a.html> Figure 19 M. O. Hammond, Archives of Ontario, <http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/english/on-lineexhibits/hammond/big/big_36_louisburg.aspx>
PRST 6610 - History of Architecture in the Americas I Professor Ann Masson December 3, 2008
Figure 20 Dennis MacDonald, <http://www.canadastockphotos.net/search.php?m=kw&kp=Interest&cu=TAE 1865&p=3> Figure 21 Louisiana101, <http://www.louisiana101.com/1770_louisiana_territory_map.jpg> Figure 22 Building a House in New France: An Account of the Perplexities of Client and Craftsmen in Early Canada. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1977. Pg. 67 Figure 23 Styles and Types of North American Architecture: Social Function and Cultural Expression. New York, N.Y.: Icon Editions, 1991. Pg. 32 Figure 24 Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Latour_and_Laclottes_Atelier.jpg> Figure 25 Louisiana Studies in Historic Preservation, Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation, <http://www.crt.state.la.us/hp/laheritage/CreoleHeritage/SlideShow/pages/Cr eole16.htm> Figure 26 Jean Blanger, <http://www.civilization.ca/virtual-museum-of-newfrance/daily-life/vernacular-architecture-in-new-france/> Figure 27 Denis Angers, <http://flic.kr/p/8sb4hD> Figure 28 JMZ2007, <http://www.panoramio.com/photo/54023335> Figure 29 Kevin Stewart, <http://flic.kr/p/2VsCM4> Figure 30 Mark Scott Abeln, <http://flic.kr/p/4cM1PD> Figure 31 Alex, <http://flic.kr/p/DUNSf>
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Figure 32 French Colonies in America, <http://www.southalabama.edu/archaeology/french-colonies-inamerica_cahokia-courthouse.html> Figure 33 - Waymarking.com, <http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM3Y62_Louis_Bolduc_House_St e_Genevieve_Missouri> Figure 34 - Louisiana Studies in Historic Preservation, Louisiana Division of Historic Preservation, <http://www.crt.state.la.us/hp/laheritage/CreoleHeritage/SlideShow/pages/Cr eole25.htm>