Walking in the Steps of my Ancestors - Part Two (Maison Alexis Parent)

The Alexis Parent House is not as magnificent as the Marguerite Marie Parent house but it is not any less interesting. For the Marguerite Marie Parent house there was a lot of information that was not that difficult to find with a little work. For the Alexis Parent house all I had was a name, an address and an old picture from 1920 of the house. Using the information that we had, my wife and I found the house. I took pictures of the house and the historical plaque above that was attached to the outside wall of the house.

Alexis Parent was born on July 17, 1840. He was the eleventh of thirteen children of Joseph Parent (1807) and Marguerite Belanger (1797). It is interesting to note that Marguerite was ten years older than Joseph, there is another story here to be explored. Alexis married Adele Paquet (1852) on August 2, 1869. Alex was twenty - nine years old and Adele was only seventeen years which was not all that unusual in those days. Alexis and Adele had five children Ledia, Villemont, Onesime, Victorien and Lora. Their youngest daughter, Lora married Ernest Bedard (another connection to the Bedard family) and her second husband was Raymond Plamondon, from another prominent family in Beauport.

I was curious to know how Francois Parent, the father of Marguerite Marie Parent, and Alexis Parent were related. I went back through all the generations of 'Parent' and found that they were both descended from Jacques Parent (1657 - 1744). There is another piece to this bit of genealogy, Francois Parent was descended from Francois Parent (born 1697) and Alexis was descended from Jacques - Joseph Parent (born 1707). Francois Parent was the son of Jacques Parent and his first wife Genevieve Louise Chevalier and Jacques - Joseph Parent was the son of Jacques Parent and Marie Belanger. I am descended from Jacques Parent and Marie Belanger so I am more closely related to Alexis Parent than Francois Parent. The least that you can say is that Alexis Parent and Francois Parent were distant cousins. That does not mean to say that they did not have a close relationship. When Alexis Parent died in 1896, Francois Parent attended his funeral along with Alfred Lortie, and Jean - Baptiste Juchereau .

According to the Alexis' marriage record and the Census of Canada records, Alexis was a stonemason and an entrepreneur. In the 1891 Census for Canada it was documented that Alexis Parent was an employer and that he employed twenty - five people that year. I would imagine that most of those employees were engaged in stone work of some description. His father, Joseph Parent, was also a stonemason as was his father before him. In fact, all of the men in Alexis Parent's family were stonemasons as far back as Jacques - Joseph Parent in 1657. They had stone dust in their veins.

In the 1881 assessment roll the house at 3525 - 3527 chemin Royal, "Cote des Peres" was the property of the stonemason Alexis Parent. The house had been built shortly before the 1881 assessment roll was taken. In 1881 there were seven people in the Alexis Parent family including Alexis and Adele. Having this wonderful stone house to live in would have been a welcome gift in 1881 for Adele Parent.

The house is an excellent example of the Second Empire style of architecture. The Second Empire period (1852 - 1870) was the period during which George E. Haussman redesigned Paris. One of the most distinguishing features of the Second Empire style was the mansard roof, the convex curving roof that allowed maximum usage of the attic without adding additional stone or masonry. An example of a building in the Second Empire style is the Montreal city hall or the old Paris opera house. All four sides of the Alexis Parent house were in the mansard style. Keeping in the Second Empire style, the house has a sculptured stone exterior, six large framed windows with bracketed window arches.

If you look at the picture on the historical plaque attached to the outside of the front of the house, there is an elegant, curving staircase that leads to the second storey of the house. It gives a certain sense of prestige and symmetry to the house. The raised front lawn is bordered by a stone wall.

As I mentioned above, Alexis Parent passed away in 1896 but his wife lived on in the house until her demise  in 1920. After she passed away and the house was sold and the elegant, curved staircase was removed, a covered awning was added to the gallery that is supported by steel posts. The second storey of the house is now accessed by a curved steel staircase on the right hand side of the house. Removing the original staircase was unfortunate because it completely changed the look of the facade of the house from something that was quite special to a house that now looks quite pedestrian. I believe the reason that the staircase was removed was because the house was converted from a single family dwelling for the Parent family to two separate dwellings; one upstairs and the other downstairs. That is why there are two addresses for the Alexis Parent house; 3525 and 3527 chemin Royal.

I was a little saddened by the condition of the exterior. The roof and the stone work of the house seem to be in good condition, but the lawn was overgrown with weeds, various items are littered across the front of the house and worst of all the stone wall at the front of the lawn is in serious need of repair. I realize that the house is over two hundred years old, but if we are going to conserve these historic homes then we should maintain them in as good condition as possible.

The next house will be something a little different; a schoolhouse.