Ville-Marie is the oldest municipality in the Abitibi-Temiscamingue Region.

 

Its history is bound up with that Brother Joseph Moffet, an Oblate missionary, who arrived at the Saint-Claude Mission on the shores of Lake Timiskaming in 1872.In 1874, Brother Moffet secretly cleared and cultivated a plot of land located near the mission, at the present site of the town of Ville-Marie.

 

Faced with the success of his undertaking, his superiors granted him authorization a few years later to establish a farm there. A house was built in 1881 followed by a barn one year later. Shortly thereafter, families came to settle around the farm. And thus, Ville-Marie was founded. Today, Brother Moffet's home is one of the oldest houses still standing in the Abitibi-Temiscamingue Region. This modest dovetail-construction wooden house log cabin, 6 by 6 meters, is a unique testament to the earliest days of settlement in the area.

 

The Brother Moffet’s House (Maison du Frere-Moffet) is considered a historic monument, since 1978.

 

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