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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The house at 14 David-d'Angers Street in Dunkirk is a bourgeois building built in the late 19th century between 1888 and 1891. It is one of the few buildings in this neighborhood to have survived the destructions of the Second World War. Made of Arques brick and Creil stone, with decorative elements in Soignies limestone and white stone, it illustrates the eclectic architecture of the era, mixing neo-renaissance and neo-classical influences. Its long-paned roof, covered with slate, and its facade adorned with columns, pilasters and vegetable sculptures make it a remarkable example of the Dunkerquois heritage.

The house was built in 1891 for Mr Morael, a confessor, under the direction of the Lille architect Achille Liagre. The works were carried out by the contractor Auguste Dufour for the work, while the sculptures were made by Gandre, a Lille craftsman. Published the same year in the magazine L-Architecture and Construction in the North, this mansion is distinguished by its decorative richness, both outdoors and indoors, where the second floor retains a well preserved neo-classical decor. It had five levels, including a basement, a ground floor with a cochère door, two square floors and an additional floor.

Classified as a Historic Monument in 1998 for its facades and roofs, this house is today a valuable testimony of the bourgeois habitat of the late 19th century in Dunkirk. Despite its current use as a commercial warehouse, it remains a major architectural vestige in a city where few buildings of that time survived. Its heritage interest lies as much in its conception as in its history, linked to local actors such as Liagre, Dufour and Gandre, who have marked regional architecture.

The location of the house at 14 David-d'Angers Street is documented in the Mérimée base, although geographical accuracy is considered poor (level 5/10). Owned by a private company, it embodies the contrast between its prestigious residential past and its contemporary use, while recalling the importance of preserving the latest examples of an urban heritage weakened by the conflicts of the twentieth century.

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