James Blackhall was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, in 1792. In 1813, he arrived in Halifax, Canada, in search of a better future. A member of the Thorn Salter company’s labor force, he was sent to Newcastle (N.B.), then in 1819 to Miscou and the Dalhousie area, where he became self-employed. His business venture in Dalhousie was a failure, so in 1822 he moved to Caraquet.

That same year, James built a saltbox house in Caraquet, which, according to popular tradition, was the first of its kind in the region. In 1826, he married Mary Sennett, an Irish Catholic, and they had seven children.

Being educated and of British origin, it was easy for James to obtain important positions of authority in the village of Caraquet. From 1824 to 1857, James Blackhall served as justice of the peace, school trustee, harbormaster, customs officer, road commissioner, tax collector, fish and barrel inspector, member of the Board of Health, parish clerk and assessor.

When he died in 1857, his eldest son, James Georges Canning, inherited not only his father’s estate, but also all his father’s public functions. James married Eliza Doran, and from this marriage eight children were born. In 1861, he was appointed captain of the militia and put in charge of a militia camp in the region. In addition to all his other jobs, James Jr. also held the positions of coroner, tax collector and signal agent during his lifetime.

During the Caraquet riot of 1875, Blackhall was an interpreter at the preliminary hearings and a witness at the trial. He was biased and made no secret of his position. In another case, he was accused of fraud, on suspicion of not having remitted all the tax money he had collected.

On his death in 1910, the house became the property of his wife Eliza. She died in 1930, and the house was purchased by the Lacroix family, who had been renting the Blackhall farm for many years. It was in this house that Donat Lacroix, a well-known chansonnier in Acadia, was born. The house then passed into the hands of Julien Thériault, before finally being purchased by a company, the Rocca Group, which wanted to develop business in the region.

To preserve this heritage building, the Village Historique Acadien purchased it in 1975 for the symbolic sum of one dollar from the Rocca Group Ltd.

• Construction integrated into the slope of the land
• Rear and front dormers illuminating the staircase
• Two entrance doors on the main façade
• Two stone walls in the kitchen