Early 19th-Century Dwelling Uncovered in Montreal

QUÉBEC, CANADA—CBC News Canada reports that traces of a stone house with a wood floor were uncovered in the Faubourg Saint-Laurent section of downtown Montreal by a team of researchers led by archaeologist Martin Perron. The construction of the building has been dated to sometime between 1801 and 1825. Nineteenth-century artifacts including bottles, inkwells, chess pieces, decorated porcelain, and bones from the consumption of pork, mutton, and beef were found, in addition to items from the eighteenth century, when the site was inhabited by English colonists. Perron said that the quality of the items suggests that someone wealthy lived in the house, even though the area had been a working-class neighborhood that had developed outside the city’s fortification walls. As the population in the region grew, the house was likely subdivided, added team member Stéphanie Lavallée. Historical research could reveal who lived at the site and what sort of work they did, she said. The building was torn down by the end of the nineteenth century. For more on the archaeology of Montreal, go to "Off the Grid: Pointe-à-Callière, Montreal."