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On a steep hillside between Fort Kent and Frenchville sits a stone cottage straight out of a storybook. Time has weathered its cedar shake roof, and on a late fall morning, brilliant blossoms filled the boxes below each tall, mullioned window. In the backyard, mossy stone steps lead to an abundant orchard.
The home looks as old as the hills that surround it. But its owners, Roger and Roseanne Paradis, picked the stones themselves from local fields before construction started in 1975.
“I know the first stone that was laid, and I know the last,” Roger Paradis, 71, said. “The stones, most of them have a history.”
Given his background, that’s no surprise.
Roger, a history professor and Acadian folklorist at the University of Maine at Fort Kent, and Roseanne, 66, a nurse who has since retired, dreamed of buying a house along the St. Lawrence River during their visits to Canada. Instead, they decided to build their own interpretation of the style.
“My wife and I were very much attracted to the old Quebecois style of architecture,” Roger Paradis said. “We’re both Franco-American and my wife is Canadian, so we could relate, we could identify with it. Maybe that had something to do with it.”
Though the couple loved the 17th century aesthetic, authentic masonry methods weren’t practical in the 20th century. The original homes have an interior and exterior wall of stone and mortar, with plastered walls inside. Instead, Roger and Roseanne opted for a wood frame and a stone facade with walls that are slightly concave to prevent them from falling under their own weight. They enlisted Voisine Construction, a Fort Kent contractor with experience building traditional gabled homes.
“It’s not a replica, by any means,” Roger Paradis said. “In an old French-Canadian ‘manoir,’ the walls might be four feet deep.”
Even so, there is an air of authenticity to the home. The 24-pane windows open inward like cabinet doors. Rustic stone steps lead to an arched front door. The steeply pitched roof has curved eaves and split shakes, and the gables, or “lucarnes” as they’re called in French, are true to tradition. In the back yard, an orchard with heirloom apple trees, black currants, elderberries and hazelnuts has an old-fashioned feel.
“We tried to be as faithful as we could,” Roger said. “We had to make some concessions, but it’s pretty close.”
While construction was taking place, the family stayed in a summer cottage. But as summer turned to fall, and fall turned to the coldest winter Paradis could remember, they were grateful to move into their new home in January of 1976 – even if the interior wasn’t finished.
“At least we had central heat,” he recalled with a smile. “It was warm. We had electricity, a bath, basic stuff. But a lot of the painting and staining, and the closet doors we had to do ourselves. There was a basement full of boards to sand.”
Still, it was a real step up from a drafty cabin. The stone construction keeps the home cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Paradis says it is easy to heat, and it’s nearly impervious to wind.
Today, the interior is warm and inviting, with stained oak floors, rough-hewn beams, pale walls and large stone hearths on the north and south sides of the home. A recent visitor remarked that when she walked in, she felt like wrapping up in a blanket, picking up her favorite book and reading.
Though the home feels cozy, it is quite spacious. The kitchen doubles as a dining area, and the couple wanted a large living room for family gatherings – they have four children, six grandchildren, Roseanne comes from a family of 11 and they have a large, fluffy Russian sheepdog named Samuel.
“I’ve seen as many as 24 people in here at a time,” Roger said proudly.
Roseanne, who is a talented quilter, knitter and weaver, has her work on display throughout the house. Roger has a study where he researches and writes about the region’s history. A 1980 article about the St. John Valley in National Geographic called Roger a walking encyclopedia of folklore, and though he jokes that he’s running out of space, he’s not running out of steam. He’s in the process of writing a history of the Acadians with a focus on the deportation.
For a history lover who spent much of his career teaching the history of Canada, New France and Quebec, the house is an ideal fit.
“It was something that was kind of personal, cultural,” he said. “And it should be here for a while, we hope, anyway.”
The Paradis stone cottage
Owners: Roger and Roseanne Paradis
Location: Route 1, Fort Kent
Built: 1975-1976
Style: French-Canadian “manoir”
Interesting features: Curved, cedar shake roof, 24-pane windows, beautifully arranged window boxes, three gables, twin stone hearths on either end of the house
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