House known as Maison Pagès, currently Saint John Perse Museum

Ownership of an association

Museums of France

All houses of famous French characters

Photo de House known as Maison Pagès, currently Saint John Perse Museum

Crédit photo : Aristoi - Sous licence Creative Commons

Timeline

XIXe siècle

Époque contemporaine

1900

2000

1880

Construction of house

17 août 1979

Partial classification

1987

Opening of the museum

septembre 2017

Demolition of the home

Aujourd'hui

Heritage classified

Street facade and roof of the building on street (cad. AI 11): registration by order of 1 August 1995

Key figures

Ernest Souques - Initial owner	Owner of the Darboussier sugar factory.
Saint-John Perse (Alexis Leger) - Poet and diplomat	Nobel Prize in Literature in 1960.
Henri Bangou - Senator Mayor of Pointe-à-Pitre	The museum was opened in 1987.
Maryse Condé - Writer	Put the house in La Vie scelerate.

Origin and history

The House Pagès, built in 1880, is a building with a metallic and brick frame, designed as a kit potentially by the Gustave Eiffel workshops. Originally intended for a Louisian planter, the vessel carrying the elements was shipwrecked in Guadeloupe. The recovered materials were auctioned and assembled to form this house, which has a twin building in Saint-François, the Zevallos dwelling.

Originally, this house belonged to Ernest Souques, owner of the Darboussier sugar factory. Called "Suques-Pages", it was abandoned in the 1970s before being bought by the town hall of Pointe-à-Pitre. Transformed into a museum, it was inaugurated in 1987 to celebrate the centenary of Saint John Perse's birth, although the poet never lived there.

The building, partially classified as a historical monument in 1979, is labeled "Musée de France" and "Maison des Illustres". It houses a permanent exhibition on Creole costumes and the life of Saint John Perse, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1960. The poet's home, more modest and abandoned, was demolished in 2017.

In literature, Maryse Condé evokes this place in a parodic manner in La Vie scelerate, mentioning the city hall's desire to acquire the "house Fouquier-Barrat" to honor a "martial of independence".