Pagé - Rinfret House / Beaudry House National Historic Site of Canada

Pagé - Rinfret House / Beaudry House was designated a national historic site of Canada in 1969 because:

• its very attractive steep roof and chimney arrangement reflect the architecture of the French Regime;
• its walls of horizontal planks morticed into a heavy timber frame, presumably boarded over from the beginning, are also in an old and important French Canadian building tradition.

The Pagé – Rinfret House / Beaudry House is an attractive example of the “French-inspired traditional house,” an early 19th-century architectural style that reflects the French roots of its Québecois builders. Having evolved from earlier architectural styles of the French Regime, the Pagé – Rinfret House / Beaudry House features a roof steeper and taller than those of earlier traditional Québec houses, as well as a second storey, illuminated by dormer windows, set within the high slope of the roof. Its second chimney reflects the increasing size of the traditional Québec house during the 18th century, and the use of tin to cover the steep roof points to the relatively wide availability of this material at the time. The house’s deep curved eave and the raised gallery, two of the most recognizable features of the “French-inspired traditional house,” began to appear around the beginning of the 19th century.

The construction technique used in the Pagé – Rinfret House / Beaudry House reflects a building method adapted from Europe to Canadian conditions, and used widely throughout Québec and across western Canada during the 18th and 19th centuries. Known by various names depending on the location and materials used, the technique begins with a frame of heavy squared timber, which is then infilled with squared logs, stones or thick planks. The Pagé - Rinfret House / Beaudry House employs plank infill.