The lntendant's Palace, Quebec, Richard Short - engraved by William Elliott.
This substantial stone structure, completed in 1716, suggests how Quebec had climbed well up the heights by the later years of the French regime. As early as 1620, Champlain had replaced his original habitation with a new fort on the high ground which became Chateau Saint-Louis, the governor's headquarters. Upper Town had grown up beside it with a cathedral begun in 1647, a Bishop's Palace built in 1693, and other religious houses. The waterside area became Lower Town, a place of docks, crowded streets, and business quarters. The lntendant's Palace stood partway up the slope, befitting a high official who, nevertheless, was chiefly concerned with business affairs. On its site, a brewery built by Jean Talon had served as the intendant's offices and seat of the colony's Sovereign Council from the 1680s until 1713, when it was destroyed by fire. The building pictured here survived the British siege of Quebec in 1759 but was ruined during the American attack of 1775. Ironically, its heavily vaulted cellars, which still remain, were to be used once more by a brewery.
Courtesy: John Ross Robertson Collection, Metropolitan Toronto Library Board
