Maisons d'ici – Le Thour
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Description
1924. Le Thour inaugurates its complete reconstruction with three surviving houses…
Three prerequisites for this success! The municipality's unwavering faith in the cooperative system set up by the State, the residents' united desire to achieve rapid results, and the appointment of a talented young architect, Hippolyte Thomasson. He would be the sole designer of the project, and it is this uniformity of approach that still delights visitors today.
Your itinerary
Step 1: Ex – Town hall-schools
"A gentleman architect, Hippolyte Thomasson is nostalgic for the classical model that is the Palace of Versailles: a central body with pure lines magnified by two large wings. (…) The Hôtel de Ville du Thour comprises a central body with two galleries and pavilions on either side."
Introduction by Benoit Noël for the book Hippolyte Thomasson, Architect
Step 2: The Church
Hippolyte Thomasson came to architecture only after a long career in the decorative arts and sculpture. He illustrates this powerfully here. And for this house of God, he will use the same materials as for the most Reconstruction: chalk and brick.
Step 3: Two of the three survivors
No. 8 and 6, Rue du Levant – D35. The bullet holes bear witness to the atmosphere in the autumn of 1918! Was it thanks to the Phoenix, known for its power to rise again either from its own corpse or from the flames of its pyre? (See insurance plate at No. 8).
Step 4: The career
"We had on site an old and vast stone and chalk quarry which had been used for old buildings for several centuries. […] An old mason from the commune, himself a disaster victim, showed us some stone benches of remarkable hardness, which could be used for the manufacture of kitchen sinks. This stone was used in walls and gables, in courses or in opus, with red brick framing. It never gave rise to any problems, even after decades of existence." (Memoirs of H. Thomasson)
Step 5: A landmark vintage
At No. 5 R. de l'Allemagne, a house dated 1922 (1), two years after the inauguration of the first devastated town rebuilt (Le Thour 1924). Original "Swiss" crosses (2) punctuate the band marking the two levels of the building. The hips (3) reduce the height of the gables and shelter them. At No. 4, the entrance to the house is highlighted by an elegant straight hip (4) which punctuates the roof.
Step 6: Reconstruction in agriculture
At No. 2, the aesthetic animation of the residential building is happily entrusted to red brick in the horizontal bands, the corner chains and the window frames. Along the building by the road, the second courtyard entrance reveals another half of the buildings it distributes as well as a singular dovecote.
“Agriculture did not have the priority which remained the privilege of industry, due to the significant employment of labor and the needs of
the economy. Also, the program of work on the farm was only established in successive stages, subject to requests for advances under the control of the Rural Engineering department. This process required from the architect and the company a precise method of verification of the work and the exhausting submission of a host of supporting reports.” (Memoirs of H. Thomasson)
Step 7: The station construction site
"The loan having been secured and the contracts signed with the cooperative, the entrepreneurs immediately organized the development of the company camp, along the railway line. It included workshops, warehouses, hangars and barracks for the staff with dormitories, refectories and kitchen, as well as an infirmary, showers, changing rooms and water closets." (Memoirs of H. Thomasson)
Step 8: Grande Rue – Reconstruction process
"The mayor of Thour officially informed me of the creation of the cooperative of which he had been elected president. The board of directors had appointed me architect of the cooperative and asked me to carry out the surveys of the damages of the victims. (…) The mayor had summoned the victims and we were welcomed by a group of good people to whom the mayor introduced me. He had obtained from the prefecture the plans of the old land register of the commune, which allowed us to locate the locations of the owners and to arrange a meeting with them to establish the surveys of their damages. Hope seemed to be reborn among these devastated victims.
A type of masonry adopted for buildings was inspired by the old regional type used in the Ardennes: walls made of stone or rubble facing or opus, slopes made of bricks or hard stone. (Memoirs of H. Thomasson)
Two examples to note at numbers 26 and 34
Step 9: Reconstruction in agriculture
"Once the plans and sections were roughly assembled, we submitted them to the victims who provided their observations, to the mayor as well as to the neighbors to obtain additional information, especially regarding shared walls. This is how we obtained the maximum guarantees." (H. Thomasson)
Step 10: At the "Scorched Earth" War Memorial
"The entire region had been devastated by the Germans during their retreat. The trees were cut down, the roads barely passable. (…) The Thour was nothing but ruins. Everything was abandoned, no human being, life seemed to have disappeared, it was a Dantesque vision that gripped us and froze us in place. (…) The same disaster was spread everywhere — few victims because no one dared to enter among the ruins, nor to confront them, not even to seek the memory of happy days." (Memoirs of H. Thomasson)
Step 11: A suitable street
The Rue des Vanniers bears the mark of the renovation of its route by the Bridges and Roads Department in 1920. Its contacts with the Grande Rue and La Rue de Villers are no longer at a right angle, but by a more flexible route ( ). Also for carriages and the first heavy goods vehicles...
Step 12: A remarkable extension
attentive to the site, its history and its topography. It is at No. 1, Rue de Lor which can also be appreciated from Rue de Villers. (On Street View, the old captures 2009-11 are edifying)
Step 13: Reconstruction and public space
The reconstruction has recalibrated this old square, open to shops, artisan workshops and meetings on the water paths via Rue des Sources. At No. 3 Place des Marronniers, a house well protected by its largely overhanging roof resting on ornate consoles, and well lit by its bow windows ("arched windows" or projecting windows).
Step 14: Washhouse and spring levels
At No. 19 Rue des Sources, water appears in an exceptional setting… Opposite No. 6, the washhouse, fed directly by its spring. Accessible only by sight, it nevertheless reveals its water supply.
Step 15: Survived and still in service!
The enamelled plaque "Rue des Sources", the heart of Hippolyte Thomasson's public work; town hall-schools, church... Only the old presbytery, today the Town Hall, nestled near the choir escaped the planned destruction of the village. It is built of hard stone, carefully dressed and is also notable for its slatted lintels ( ) allowing light to enter.