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Origin and history

The Hotel de la Marine, originally called Hotel Massion, is a private hotel built in 1874 in the Dervallières-Zola district of Nantes. It is part of a set of eight identical houses built around Place Général-Mellinet, according to the plans of architects Étienne Blon and Louis Amouroux (1828). This urban project, born from the extension of Nantes to the west, illustrates the architecture of the Restoration, with uniform granite and tuffeau facades, and private parks at the back. The last hotel, Massion, is distinguished by its mixed neo-classical style (side of the square) and neo-Louis XV (side of the garden), as well as its vast garden of 4,407 m2 planted with exotic essences between 1874 and 1890.

Gustave Massion, refiner and first owner, gives his name to the building. The residence then passed to the Sisters of Loynes, then to Georges Hailaust, a wooden merchant, who settled there in 1919. In the 20th century, the hotel houses the Regional Tax Directorate before being occupied by the company Akeneo since 2016. Its staircase, lounges (including a mahogany panelling of the Restoration) and garden are protected by two stops of inscription to historic monuments: the facade in 1988, and the interiors as well as the garden in 2011.

The hotel's architecture reflects the urban constraints of the time. On the square side, the facade respects the model imposed in 1828, with a recast ground floor, twin pilasters and a triglyphic entablement. On the garden side, Eugène Démangeat, architect of the project, frees his creativity with a wrought iron balcony and windows decorated with mascarons. The dardian roof and local materials (granit, tuffeau) highlight regional anchoring. The garden, designed as a vegetal setting, houses cedars, a redwood and a rose garden, reflecting the exotic tastes of the 19th century.

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