From Stadacona to the REM · Drawing 03 of 36
Building the Habitation
1608
In 1608, Samuel de Champlain had wooden buildings put up beside the St. Lawrence: the Habitation. This began the French settlement at Québec. Indigenous peoples had already been using this place for a very long time.
Look together
How many big pieces of wood are waiting on the ground?
An idea to try
Arrange some large blocks on a table to build an imaginary frame. Ask which pieces support the others and what else you would need to know to picture the finished building.
For the adult reading along
A little more to discover
After arriving at Québec on July 3, 1608, Samuel de Champlain began building the Habitation in what is now the Place Royale area. His account describes three two-storey wooden residential buildings and a storehouse. The name Québec comes from an Algonquian word related to the narrowing of the river. Many died during the first winter, notably from scurvy; published counts of the men and survivors differ.
Indigenous peoples used the site long before 1608. Excavations have yielded objects from different occupations and foundations of the second Habitation, begun in 1624. These should not be confused with a complete recovered plan of the 1608 building. With your child, distinguish what documents tell us, what remains show us and what the drawing imagines.
Sources and illustration notes (4)
An imagined construction scene with a fictional carpenter; the drawing does not reconstruct the completed Habitation.
These links lead to other websites. Explore them with an adult. References identify the institution and the related lesson; some linked pages are in French.
- Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec — Site de l’Habitation de Champlain (in French)Champlain arrived on July 3, 1608, and built a wooden habitation; Indigenous peoples used the site before then.
- Commission de toponymie — Québec (ville) (in French)The name has an Algonquian origin, linked to the narrowing of the river.
- Canadian Museum of History — The Quebec SettlementDescription of the living quarters and the storehouse according to Champlain; a hypothetical reconstruction of the first Habitation, of which no structure has been found in the excavated part of the site.
- Dictionary of Canadian Biography — Samuel de Champlain, excerptsDeaths and scurvy during the winter of 1608-1609. No exact total is given here, since the counts differ from one overview to another.
Page prepared on September 15, 2026. Illustrations simplify places and scenes; they are not historical documents.
This drawing is from the book Québec’s Great Moments to Colour
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