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Introduction
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Fort Kent Block House
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Fort Kent Railroad Station
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Acadian Landing
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Saint David Church
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Mont-Carmel
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Acadian Village
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Maison Héritage
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Michaud House

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Maison Héritage (Vital Violette House)

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The Vital Violette House at its original location in Van Buren, just prior to its being disassembled. The “Georgian massing” (proportionately substantial width and depth relative to height) is clearly visible. White lap weatherboard siding covers the vertical planks on the side of the house and cedar shingles cover the rear wall.The Vital Violette House, built during the mid-1850s in the town of Violette Brook (now Van Buren), shares many characteristics of form and construction with other Maine Acadian dwellings. At the time of its nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, it was owned by the local historical society, Notre HÈritage Vivant/Our Living Heritage, and stood on Lot 298 in Township M, Range 2. The Vital Violette House is currently stored in a dismantled state in the parish of Lille, in Grand Isle, Maine, by LíAssociation culturelle et historique du Mont-Carmel. Don Cyr, president of LíAssociation culturelle et historique du Mont-Carmel, has expressed interest in reassembling the house on the associationís property in Lille.

Interior of Vital Violette House, showing window frame placement using typical squared, horizontally stacked, hewn log construction (pièce-sur-pièce à tenons en coulisse). Note how the tenons or tongues on each end of the logs are inserted into vertical grooves (coulisses).The succession of ownership of the original lot illustrates Valley land use patterns and local history. The first recorded owner of Lot 298 was Thomas Didime Morin. He migrated from French Canada to the Van Buren area around 1837. In a 1872 census of St. Bruno parish, Morin is described as "rentier de Isaie Morin"óthat is, he was the pensioner of his son, Isaie Morin.

This corner angle close-up shows the “stacked and pegged” corner treatment applied to the hewn log exterior walls.At the beginning of the 20th century, considerable development occurred on Lot 298 in response to the opening of mills owned by the Van Buren Lumber Company, which were located nearby. In 1931, Vital Violette (b. 1893) acquired several parcels from the original Lot 298. On one of these parcels he began a meat business, and on another he established his residence.

Vital Violette was raised on a farm on Alexander Road in Van Buren. His father, Exeas Violette (b. 1858), served as a selectman of the town of Van Buren and also worked to create a school district for that section of town. Vital Violette represented Van Buren in the state legislature, as did his son Elmer. Elmer Violette also became a justice of the Maine Supreme Court.

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Ray Morin of St. David shows how a barrel is assembled. American Folklife Center photograph by David Whitman, 1991.


Interior of the attic (grenier) of Vital Violette House, showing two “ship’s knees,” each drifted into the hewn top plate and ceiling joist. Note the hand-squared rafters. Although the Vital Violette House has been taken apart, it is possible to describe its original form, style, and construction details. In fact, its disassembled condition allows for a level of analysis impossible with standing structures. The house was a two-and-a-half-story log house with clapboard exterior finish. Though it was larger than most others of its type, this simple, rectangular, gabled structure displayed roughly the same Georgian massing as other Maine Acadian houses of its day. A strong central bay extended from the ground to the eaves. This two-tiered bay consisted of a ground-level entrance and a double window at the second-story level. Each of these features was flanked by pilasters and crowned by a wide architrave and projecting cornice with dentil molding. These Greek Revival and Georgian features were characteristic of period trends popular throughout New England and New Brunswick during the mid-19th century. But the construction was distinctive.View from the outside of the Vital Violette House shows a layer of buckwheat chaff attached to squared logs; this layer of chaff was apparently an insulating filler between the logs (pièces) and the vertical plank covering (planches debout). Shipís-knee braces secured the top plate of the structure to the upper ceiling joists. The walls consisted of squared, hewn logs (piËce sur piËce), covered on the exterior by thick, vertical planks (planches debout) and finished with clapboards. The vertical planks were not only nailed to the log wall, but also secured edge-to-edge at regular intervals by diamond-shaped metal splines. The logs were "caulked" with buckwheat fibers that had been twisted into lengths resembling oakum (the material used to caulk boats and ships). The unusual "stacked and pegged" corner-joining technique used in the house, the same one employed in the Roy House at the Acadian Village, appears to be a uniquely Maine Acadian feature.

 
Ray Morin of St. David shows how a barrel is assembled. American Folklife Center photograph by David Whitman, 1991.
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