Gabrielle Roy House
375 Rue Deschambault
In this rambling frame house in the east quarter of old St.
Boniface, author Gabrielle Roy was born and raised. From her
prairie roots, Roy has become one of Canada's most prominent
authors whose several books have been translated and read
in all corners of the globe. Her writings span the country,
but as often as not, Roy's settings and characters are the
people and places she knew while growing up in Manitoba.
The construction of the new family home began in the spring
of 1905 and from the writings of Gabrielle and her sister
Marie-Anna, a reasonable description of the interior can be
pieced together. It was two storeys of wood frame and, with
a third storey containing an attic for storage. The main floor
contained the centre of the family life- a large comfortable
kitchen. As well, there was a living room with an upright
piano and furniture modestly covered to compliment the patterned
wallpaper. Ascending the carved staircase, there were five
bedrooms and a bathroom while the attic, lit with three dormer
windows, provided a play space for the children among the
stored boxes and old furniture. The basement also held a pantry
for the summer preserves.
An exterior layout of the house was a cross gable with the
front projection having a hipped roof. Across the entire front
and most of one side was a sweeping veranda, supported by
white columns, which Gabrielle considered to give "a
certain air of grandness" to the large house. The veranda
was the principal social spot of the house where children,
friends and family spent their summer months.
Clever in school, Gabrielle went on to take her teacher training
in Winnipeg and got a teaching position in L'ecole Provencher.
Gabrielle showed an early talent for writing but was discouraged
from this by her mother, who steered her toward the steady
and respectable profession of a teacher.
Gabrielle was able to vent her creativity in a dynamic amateur
theatre group that was formed in St. Boniface, Le Circle Moliere.
Roy's performances were given critical acclaim and she made
a wrenching decision to leave her home and job to study theatre.
During the depression, this seemed to be an act of madness
but it was the essential break of a creative young woman with
stifling circumstances.
Roy then settled in Montreal and launched a tentative career
as a free-lance writer. He articles landed her a good job
with an agricultural journal, allowing her to travel the country
and learn about Canada. From 1941 to 43, she wrote her most
famous novel entitled Bonheur d'Ocassion or The Tin Flute,
which tells the story of a poor family who are saved by the
gross inhumanity of World War II.
The Tin Flute was an immediate success, smashing as it did
the outdated view of the Quebec pastoral idyll. The book was
dedicated to Gabrielle's mother, but she died before it was
published in 1945. Its English translation of 1947 made it
the choice of the Literary Guild of America with a printing
of 750,000 and the book was awarded the Governor General's
Award for fiction and the Prix Femina in France. Fame had
found Gabrielle Roy.
In 1949, she wrote her second book, Where Nests the Water
Hen, based on her experiences teaching school in an isolated
site in northern Manitoba. It also received critical acclaim.
Alexandre Chenevert followed in 1954 and Rue Deschambault
in 1957. The later of the two telling the story of her life
in St. Boniface and her family's comfortable home. This book
also won the Governor General's Award, and in 1967, Roy was
appointed to the Order of Canada. She continued to write and
publish works that received literary success until her death.
Among the memorable contributions that St. Boniface has made
to Canada, Gabrielle Roy must surely be at the top of the
list.
*Historical Buildings Committee
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