Every Tuesday, The duty offers a space to the creators of a periodical. This week, we offer you a text published in the history review Cap-aux-Diamantsissue 156 (winter 2024).
In the second half of the 19th centurye century, Beauce witnessed a new type of architecture which multiplied on the main streets of villages: Boomtown. Characterized by screen facades inspired by the “Western False Front” of mining towns in the western United States, Boomtown architecture is an example of the Americanization of buildings in the Beauceron region at the time when migratory exchanges with Maine and the logging industry was booming […]
At the end of the 19th centurye century, the comings and goings between the American East and Beauce allowed important cultural exchanges and had an economic impact favorable to the establishment of villages. This specific context may explain the significant presence of Boomtown examples in the region.
Boomtown buildings come from a tradition of vernacular architecture inherited from the United States. Built by a mostly anonymous workforce, their sawn timber frame symbolizes a new popular know-how in architecture. Using standardized boards and nails, it was now possible for anyone skilled with their hands to quickly construct a skeleton building and add the desired referential style.
During the conquest of the American West, mining villages were quickly established thanks to the new construction possibilities resulting from the industrialization of materials. The first commercial buildings in these mining villages adopted a commercial façade from the east of the country. Bay windows, ornaments and signs have been adapted to the arid and isolated context of the West. The “Western False Front”, characterized by rudimentary buildings in front of which large flat wooden facades were added, multiplied to make way for saloons and general stores.
Boomtown architecture is a direct influence of the Western False Front. Its formal and decorative characteristics, including the high parapet which extends beyond the roof of the building, the ornamental games on the cornice, the galleries with a turned wooden balustrade and the bull’s eye windows are inspired by this American model.
In Quebec, these western characteristics have been added to the repertoire of vernacular buildings. Let us add that the term itself is a reference to the context of the conquest of the West. Indeed, the terminology Boomtown, which is translated into French as “mushroom town”, symbolizes in the collective imagination these mining villages which spring up overnight like mushrooms near gold deposits. […].
The first examples of Boomtown architecture appeared around 1880 and continued to multiply in the following decades. At that time, Beauce was in a period conducive to cultural and economic exchanges with the Americans and was experiencing significant territorial growth due to railway deployment. […].
Simultaneously, the progression of the wood processing industry in Beauce provided construction materials such as sawn timber. […]. Boomtown architecture was therefore a coherent choice in the Beauceron region. Its light wooden frame and the use of industrial materials allowed rapid and inexpensive construction. Its rectangular volume responded to the narrowing of the lots which formed in the 19the century the new main streets of villages in the process of densification.
The commercial space on the ground floor and the clearance upstairs made it possible to both accommodate a business and accommodate one or more families. In short, Boomtown architecture corresponded to the need for densification and construction symbolizing the establishment of villages as well as the prosperity of newly established merchants.