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Published on : October 09 2015
Last modified on : July 16 2025
Alert submitted by: Guillaume St-Jean
A handwritten note, accompanying historical photographs of the building in the BAnQ archives, states that the residence is known as the Antonio Armand House. It was built in 1872 using cut and bush-hammered stone extracted from an open-air quarry located about a mile west of the house and roughly ten arpents from the river. The house contains approximately fifteen rooms.
Not far from this residence stands the home of François Armand, located at 12,930. François Armand was a major landowner in Rivière-des-Prairies, and his house, built in 1732, was occupied by several generations of the Armand family. The Antonio Armand residence was therefore most likely built by one of François Armand’s descendants. The building is currently owned by the Œuvre des Saints-Apôtres and serves as a missionary welcome house for the congregation. Although the residence has undergone some modifications over time, the original grey stone structure remains intact beneath the later additions and could potentially be restored and brought back into prominence.
antonio-armand
The house is mentioned in the Statement of Heritage Significance for the Collège Saint-Jean-Vianney site, prepared in 2019 at the request of the Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles borough. It is believed to have been acquired by the Société des Saints-Apôtres in 1953 when the future college site was purchased. According to the borough’s Urban Heritage Assessment, the house is generally not highlighted due to significant alterations to its original architectural layout over the years. However, it is likely that the house dates from the second half of the 19th century and was built on the foundations of an earlier structure.
Indeed, the remains of a stone masonry foundation were uncovered near the residence during a linear archaeological survey. It is believed that these remains may be associated with a dairy facility once located near the original house. All of these findings suggest that the site may hold archaeological interest, particularly due to the likelihood of uncovering remains linked to Fort Desroches nearby.
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